Christmas Yetis

• Before I forget, a hefty shout out to comics veteran Terry Hooper for the mention on his excellent site Comic Bits Online, and a big HELLO! to those of you who may have found your way here via his gracious words.

The furry devils above are from my Big Project For The New Year: a kids' tale spun by Mrs Evergreen and me, from the story suggested by this illustration. It was initially supposed to be a one-off, inspired by the gorgeous colours and shapes the sunset was casting on the rooftops that evening (with some monsters thrown in, obviously), but quickly began to look suspiciously like the visual equivalent of a one line synopsis for a whole book...

Of course, everybody wants to write a novel, or a childrens' book, but most of us quickly realise it's easier said than written. I'd like to think I'm not too bad at coming up with interesting ideas, and possess just about enough creative writing clout to be able to pen individual scenes with some success, but previous attempts at stringing these elements together into an actual narrative have tended to crash quickly into direction-free chaos.

Things might actually be clicking into place this time around, touch wood. I've got a fantastic writing partner who's a dab hand at filling in the blanks, and the two of us are feeling a lot more focussed on the job at hand having made plenty of useful mistakes, big and small, while working on our pitch for The DFC. You can never be too adept at spotting the fact that you've accidentally tied your story's shoelaces together. And Roz Morris's Nail Your Novel (discovered via her husband Dave's excellent blog) has been a huge help - full of inspiring, practical advice that's worked wonders in making my stupid brain feel almost organised.

Anyway, there's a terrifying possibility that this blog will get hijacked over the coming months to document the process. At worst, I hope it'll be of vague interest to other writers/illustrators. At best, assuming Roof Monsters miraculously turns out to be the modern classic our evil little minds desperately imagine it to be, then maybe these posts will one day be hailed as SEMINAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS HA HA HA HAHAHAHA or maybe not.

By the way: as it's Christmas, the aforementioned Dave Morris has unleashed a rather creepy ghostly comic by the name of 'A Wrong Turning'; it's illustrated by Martin McKenna, and is well worth checking out.

Happy Christmas!