Children's Picture Book Lovers' Book Club

I had an idea quite a few years ago to start a book club just for Children’s Picture Book lovers and In July 2016, I finally got it together and we had our first meeting.

So it works like this: once a month or so, we meet at my place, have drinks and nibbles and discuss Picture Books on a given theme. Everyone can bring in as many books as they like and we take it in turns to talk about them.

The theme for our first meeting was WINTER, seeing we were right in the middle of it. It was lots of fun and Jude Rossell made the most gorgeous (and delicious) winter themed biscuits.

And we actually looked at some Winter themed books too. There were some old, well loved treasures as well as much newer ones. It was a great success and we talked about a theme and date for our next meeting.

So now it’s 2020 and COVID lockdowns have meant that we can’t gather at my place, so our last two meetings have been online. There are definite pros and cons - Pros being more people can join us and I don’t have to clean my house, but, there’s nothing like meeting face to face and being able to pick up a book, turn the pages and have a good look at the details. Not to mention, having a glass of wine together and some of Jude’s yummy biscuits.

A Dog a Day

In my last (and ahem... first) blog, I may have mentioned, that I was thinking about creating a book about my dog Remy. Well, I’ve actually been thinking about it a lot and have got a loose idea for a story.

There’s going to be a lot of dogs in this book and I’ve been doing some research while at the dog park. I love seeing all the different shapes and sizes and different personalities. Of the dogs too. Haha. 

There are so many varieties. There’s the two big, black dogs that look like humans dressed up in dog outfits, walking on all fours. There’s the ones that are totally fixated on balls. There’s snobby dogs, friendly dogs, grumpy dogs and happy dogs. There’s precious dogs, butch dogs, fast dogs and and slow dogs. There are the bully dogs and the loners. And there’s the one that belongs to the unicyclist.

So, knowing how sidetracked I can get with other projects that I know I have to do, (but wish I didn’t) I’ve decided to set myself a challenge and draw a dog a day for 60 days. This should give me a good body of dogs for my book and hopefully help me extend myself to draw different types of dogs. Although, having said that, there may be more than one or two of Remy. 

To create some sort of accountability for myself, I’m going to post one a day on my Instagram page, lorettesbooks if you'd like to have a look.

Remy, my muse

I've never been good at doing nothing.

I've always thought, that in the time I'm not at my teaching jobs, I had to be working on my books. Otherwise, I wouldn't be using my time wisely.

But sometimes when I thought I was doing something, I was actually doing nothing.

If the ideas weren't coming I’d force myself to sit at my desk, or beat myself up if I didn't.       Then along came Remy. That’s him to the left.

Here's another picture of him.

One day when I was manically flitting from one thing to the next, Remy looked at me and sighed. I think he was saying, “Relax, there's more to life than work alone. How about we go for a walk. It’ll be fun.” Anyway, whatever he said, it worked. I grabbed the leash and off we went.

He was right. It was fun. And totally liberating. Instead of begrudgingly taking him for a walk, thinking I was wasting time, I found myself, pardon the cliche, living in the moment.

And even though, I wasn't thinking about the book I was working on, I somehow solved a problem I was having with it.

Not only, did Remy remind me that I should stop, and smell the roses, (and pick up the dog poo) but also, removing myself from the project I was working on, gave me the space I needed.

Remy reminds me constantly that I can make too many demands on myself. Sometimes it's better to take some time out and just see what happens.

Also, he may just be the main character for my next book.