Biscuit Jurassic Park by Matthew Robins

I thought you might like to watch Jurassic Park remade entirely in biscuits.
By Matthew Robins

Hepp! Greenaway, Take Two

The Cats are making a second attempt to take the Cilip Greenaway award, after missing it two years ago. Here's the full list of nominated books.
And here is a video interview with me about it. If you only watch one part, watch the one about how I drew the postcard in the book.

Photo!

Just to say that now I have a new author's photo, see, it's over there on the right.
The excellent Laura Kidd took it behind my studio space.

Otherwise, I am learning Adobe InDesign now, which isn't as hard as I feared - but it made me realise that the MAIN thing I need to learn about laying out a book is the design part, not the software part. Normally designers and art directors help me, but I want to be able to do it myself if I need to. I fully understand that design is a proper degree subject that one studies for years... Ah well, I'll learn what I can.

Treats

Right! It's sunny!

I am working on the dummy for my third book about cats, featuring Tiny, André and Moonpie in another anarchic adventure with baffling levels of interactive paper reality. It's almost worked out, just one more page to fix up - one of those that tricks the reader into involvement - once it's working, that is.
I felt kind of gloomy and tired, so I went out to buy myself some treats: fennel and cottage cheese and parmesan and sourdough bread. Now I am cheered.
I also realised that I owe the people I love no less than FIVE birthday presents now, rather more actually probably. I have been rubbish at birthdays this year. I'll have to pretend it's Christmas soon and simply buy something nice for everybody I know and hope it works out somehow.

Here's a dog.

Back to work now!

Aliens and Minotaurs

I bought loads of books, here they are, all in a stack on my bedside table in the B&B where I'm staying this weekend. I went to the old bookshop I used to work at almost ten years ago, and instantly remembered it all, the same old sections, some of them ones I am quite sure I made up myself. I picked up a few books that had gone awry and re-shelved them. A travel book was hiding with the Science Fiction (probably because it included psychedelic drug trips), a couple of UFO books were in science and technology... when I looked at those, I suddenly felt like I wanted to keep them and read them and draw spaceships and aliens and maybe write a science fiction story. So I bought them. - It felt like visiting an old friend.

I also bought a book about the Easter Islands, and one about Earthquakes and Volcanoes.

I filled many sketchbook pages while I was at the illustration forum, mostly with scribbled sketches of a boy and his dog. I'm thinking about a book featuring them. I'm very fond of them already, although people said the dog looks like a strange minotaur. Wouldn't you like a strange minotaur dog for a friend, though?

AWOOOOOOOO

I just got a photo from the very first game I made up for FireHazard: THE HOWLING!

Photo By Emilie Giles

It was brilliant fun. Everyone had to make and bring a reversible hat. Main rule: Every time a wold howls, all the others must stop and join in, and all the infected humans must turn into wolves and howl along.
Next time we'll add a priest who can bless nerf bullets.
This might well be the most exercise I ever had by accident.

The next game I'm making up is called Eggs of the Alien Queen and should run sometime near Easter, if enough people feel like playing.

I Love Hotels

I'm in a hotel in Falmouth - the lovely Falmouth Town House.

This is the sofa I am sitting on.

I love hotels. I really do. I was booked into this particular one to take part in the 10th Illustration Forum here - I was a speaker at an early one myself, this time I just said hello at a panel talk.

Now that's done and I could be out there having dinner and networking. I shall do that tomorrow night - today I am staying in. I bought some tasty raw vegetables which I ate up while having a hot bath, I scrubbed off that stage-makeup, washed my hair with cherry shampoo and wrapped up in a huge soft towel, and now I'm eating a cup-a-soup followed by some fine chocolate.

Once I posted this I will do some novel writing. With more soup. And tea.

Life doesn't get that much better than this, I guarantee you. This is GREAT.

I've been running a game with FireHazard Games, making a tiny dummy book, rewriting a short story and plotting out a new graphic novel, finishing a picture book and something else, can't remember right now. Now I'm packing for a few days in Cornwall and Devon where I shall do some teaching and otherwise hide out and write.
All is well!
Laters!