Rainham Lane – stage two
27 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in myself
Yesterday, Liana organised a truck to pick up all the waste we ripped out of Rainham Lane. The truck just fitted into the lane! The two men who came with the truck pretty much picked up all the rubble, sand and weed piles while me, Dittany and Liana did our bit to help. I did not get any good photographs of the guys, but they did a fantastic job.
In little over an hour the lane was cleared of most of the rubbish. The next stage to gather the loose soil and sand left behind into containers for plants. Here is the lane as it looks now:
And this is what it looked like before we started. Part of me prefers the forest of weeds rather than the bare concrete, but under those weeds were heaps of garbage and builders rubble.
Casing the joint at the museum
24 May 2012 Leave a Comment
I spent the morning at the Natural History Museum in town doing research for my new book. It’s a strange place. Part of it is brand spanking new: glossy displays with beautifully lit objects, enhanced by multi-media sound and video shows . And part of it is a sort of time warp, with the stuffed animals crammed together into huge glass cases backed with hessian. I was relieved because this is just what I needed for the scene that is supposed to play out here:
Also happy to see that there are no security cameras in this older area, and the locks on the display cases look very pick-able. No, I dont intend to break into the museum, but one of my characters might need to!
Some of the older parts are lovely, though. Particularly the bird displays and the dioramas.
Cleaning Rainham Lane – work in progress
06 May 2012 8 Comments
in myself Tags: urban renewal, woodstock
Yesterday a small team of us, residents of Chamberlain and Salisbury street, started cleaning up the servitude that runs along the back of our houses: Rainham Lane. It was pretty bad. Some areas of the lane were completely choked with weeds.
We could hardly open the door leading from our backyard into the lane, and everyone got covered in burs. Did not stop the dogs from having a total ball though:
The weeds by themselves were not so bad – home to praying mantises, crickets, snails, spiders and earthworms. But there was also a lot of garbage woven in among the plants. Plastic packets, chunks of concrete dumped after renovations, condom wrappers and so on and on:
There were also some pleasant surprises, like this gooseberry bush :
We ripped weeds out all along the lane, cleared doorways and the gutter all along the lane, and caused a slow-motion panic among the snail population.
We soon saw that there was far more rubbish than we could dump with our single bakkie. The plan is to get a truck in next weekend to get rid of the worst of it. In the end we managed to take out the entire weed forest and sort the rubbish into piles. It does not look pretty at the moment, but this is just the beginning:
Sorting Scraps with some help from Pippin
04 May 2012 Leave a Comment
Pippin helped me sort my fabric scraps today 
That was pretty much all the progress I made on the Mermaid doll today though.
Bought some Mermaid hair
02 May 2012 1 Comment
in work in progress Tags: doll, mermaid
I forgot my camera at home today, so was reduced to taking low quality pictures with my phone. Today I bought some hair for my Mermaid (braiding hair from a Chinese shop) and chose some more fabrics. Furry blue stuff, crushed velvet, maybe? I also started blocking out what shape her body might be.
Baked Mermaid
01 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in work in progress Tags: doll, mermaid, silk, super sculpey
I fired the Mermaid head and hands today – super sculpey can be fired in a normal oven at 130 degrees Celsius so no special equipment needed, except an oven thermometer. Here’s the Mermaid hot out of the oven. Her eyes look a bit different, I think foil on the back of the beads has wrinkled a little, but it actually looks quite nice:
Then I had fun setting out all my silks and gauzed to choose what colours I should use when making the rest of her:
My final selection. The colours don’t show up well in this photograph – a range of greens, greys, blues and purples with some orange or yellow for accents.
Mermaid hands
30 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in inspiration, work in progress
Further work on the mermaid doll. Hands. Hands are quite difficult, as they tend to get flatter and flatter the more you work on them. And the left and right hands have to be more or less the same size.
He’s called “The Hidden Paw”…
18 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
The Hidden Paw strikes again.
OK so I know that poem is about a cat, but this is pretty impressive. Yesterday I baited the rat trap in the cellar with some cheese. Today I find it – cheese gone and trap sprung onto the garden fork 
We already caught a young rat with this trap. Seems we are dealing with an older and wiser customer now.
“The Story Trap” is launched!
29 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in stories Tags: contemporary fantasy, magic realism, The Story Trap
I pushed the final button and my book, The Story Trap, is published at last. What a rush! This is the e-book version. The print version should be ready some time in late May, if all goes according to plan.
What is this book about? Here is the low down:
The Story Trap is an illustrated contemporary fantasy novel set in Cape Town, South Africa.
- It is available from Amazon here.
- You can read the first few chapters online here.
Book description
Rebecca stared out of the train window. How could it be dark already? She had been on the train home, reading in the familiar crush of the rush hour commute. Now the carriage was empty and outside impossibly tall buildings stretched up towards the night sky.
She was alone in a strange world.–Somewhere close by, an old woman watched, and waited. The trap had worked and her quarry was caught. Now all she had to do was keep Rebecca dreaming.
Now all I have to do is write the sequel…
If you are not already on my e-mail list and want to be notified when the print version is published, please sign up using this form. I will not share your information with anyone. You won’t receive many mails from me – I only send a notification when a new book is launched, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.
The Story Trap cover finally finished
10 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in books, stories, work in progress Tags: writing
I’ve finally finished the cover for my book “The Story Trap”. I changed her eyebrows and ears, added more chains and leaves, and changed the background to the lettering as well as some changes to the colours used. I’m done now. What a process!
There is going to be a print edition this time so I had to do the spine and back cover as well
If you would like to be notified when this book is launched, you can join my “new release” mailing list at this link.
I will not share your information with anyone. You won’t receive many mails from me – I only send a notification when a new book is launched, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like
Preparing my book for print – a whole new world of pain!
28 Feb 2012 2 Comments
in work in progress Tags: createspace
I’ve been setting up my book for the print edition – I’m planning to make it available on Createspace, which is Amazon’s “print on demand” service.
Creating the print edition is a lot trickier than the e-book version. Here is the print version of my book, open in Indesign, the program I’m using to do the layout:
I have to learn about trim sizes, font families, font sizes, line-spacing, layout problems like widows and orphans, how exactly to do page numbering and headers…the list goes on. Funny how I can spend most of my life reading print books and never notice the layout conventions. Should a new chapter always start on an odd page number, for example? Where exactly does the acknowledgement, dedication, copyright information and so on go?
Then there are print specific problems like “show through” , colour conversions, ”rich black” and so on, and on. Luckily the people on the Createspace forum have been very helpful. It’s all a bit stressful, but if it works out, it will be worth the trouble.
Grey roses, shadows and chains
23 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in all my drawings, stories, work in progress Tags: e-book, illustration, urban fantasy
This might be it: the cover for my new book The Story Trap. Is it finished? Not sure. I’ve been working on it all day and can no longer see it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll look at it and start changing things again…
The big change from previous version is the pattern in the mirror, the roses are completely redone and no longer pink, and I’ve inserted more shadows.
The Story Trap will be available as a print – as well as e-book. If you would like a notification when it gets launched, please leave me your name and e-mail address in the form below. Would love to hear from you!
To be notified when I release a new book please sign up using this form.
I will not share your information with anyone. You won’t receive many mails from me – I only send a notification when a new book is launched, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.
Another step closer
21 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in all my drawings, work in progress Tags: tombs of atuan, ursula le guin
I did some more work on the cover image for my book. Not finished yet. But closer. The plan was to put an open eye in the mirror she’s holding but it just did not look right. Much better empty.
I was listening to Ursula le Guin’s “The Tombs of Atuan” while I drew this. Quite appropriate :)
Cover image: Attempt number one
20 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in all my drawings, work in progress
Severely unfinished! First attempt at a cover image for my book “The Story Trap”
Pippa gets a digital haircut
12 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in all my drawings, stories, work in progress Tags: illustration
I trimmed Pippa’s hair.
She used to look like this:
In the story, this is the moment when she’s just climbed over a gate into somebody’s backyard and is about to try and break into their house. She’s wondering why they have no burglar bars…
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