Author: James Foley

James Foley makes children’s books for children who read books. If you’re a child and you’re eating his books, you’re doing it wrong. His books include the multi-award winning Stellarphant, Brobot, Chickensaurus, Bigfoot vs Yeti, Happy Barry Capybara and Oh No! James lives in Perth with his wife Renae Hayward (also an author), 2 kids (wannabe authors), and a labrador (not an author). He is a massive Marvel movie nerd and comes from a long line of queuing enthusiasts. Follow him on socials ( @jamesfoleybooks ) or at www.jamesfoley.com.au .

Competition for July – Win 10 books from Fremantle Press!

Hi everyone, welcome to the first of our monthly competitions.

About the competitions

There’ll be a new prize every month from now until April 2011, leading up to the launch of The Last Viking in May 2011. Competitions will open on the first Tuesday of every month, and close by the end of the month.

We’ll set a different challenge each time- you might have to write, or draw, or research. And for the extra big final challenge, you might like to do all three.

The final competition will run throughout Term 1, 2011. We’ll ask you to put together a Viking-related project- and in return you could win a class visit from Norman and I*. But more on that later. What’s this month’s competition?

This month’s competition

You could win ten children’s books from Fremantle Press!

We’re making the first challenge easy on you – to enter, all you have to do is:

a) leave a comment on one of the posts published between now and the 29th of July,(see Guidelines for adding comments)

or

b) subscribe to the blog at the link on the top-right.

The winner will be drawn from a Viking helmet, and announced on July 30!

The fine print: this competition runs from 1 July to 29 July. Winners will be drawn on 30 July at 2 pm WST and announced on the blog. To be eligible, students or teachers must either subscribe to the blog, or leave a comment. Employees of Fremantle Press or their families are ineligible to win.

*class visit will be offered if the school is in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia- otherwise an online session will be offered.

Sketchy Vikings

While Norman was in the Shetlands researching, I was at home in Perth, doing some research for the pictures.

I made a few initial sketches of Viking things- costumes, houses, the bows of ships,  rune stones, helmets… Norman has a huge collection of books on Vikings, so I wasn’t short of material. These sketches gave me lots of ideas for how the pictures and characters might look. (I haven’t shown all the sketches here, because  don’t want to give away too much of the story).

In all the kid's reference books about Vikings, they show these cool little carved chess pieces. There's two in this sketch- the king up the top, holding the sword on his lap - and the warrior down the bottom, biting his shield

Continue reading “Sketchy Vikings”

Quokka- Cow Parade

The Margaret River Cow Parade is finishing up- we got this cover illustration in just in time.

The cows are being auctioned on July 10. Get down to the South West and see them while you still can.

In the back right, I’ve included a cow painted by myself and other members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, WA chapter. Check out this post for more info.

Quokka, issue 24, June 24 2010- Margaret River Cow Parade

Quokka- End of Financial Year special

To make things different, edition 723 had two versions of the cover- an extra large wrap-around, set in daylight, and the usual cover, set at nighttime.

Quokka, issue 723, June 17 2010- End of Financial Year (cover 1)
Quokka, issue 723, June 17 2010- End of Financial Year (cover 2)

SCBWI- Scribblers Cover a Bovine With Illustrations

Earlier this year, myself and other local members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) painted a fibreglass cow.

me painting a cow's bum
me painting a cow’s bum

It was an art project for the Cow Parade, which came to Margaret River in March.

The cow features paintings by SCBWI illustrators Matt Ottley, Frane Lessac, Shannon Melville, Sam Hughes, Karen Blair, Briony Stewart and Wendy Binks. The cow also features cover images from books by SCBWI authors.

The finished cow was on display at McLeod Creek Wines during the Parade…

 SCBWI cow at McLeod's Winery

…but is now at the State Library in the children’s Mezzanine section. Stop by and say moo sometime.

the SCBWI cow

Have a squiz at Frane Lessac’s blog for more pictures of our group at work.