James Foley

I’m running workshops at the 2023 Awesome Arts Festival

The Awesome Arts Festival is almost here again!

It’s a fantastic kids’ art festival right here in my hometown of Perth, featuring theatre, dance, visual arts and more. It’s a brilliant way to keep the kids occupied in the September/October school holidays.

As always, I’m presenting some cartooning and comics workshops for young’uns.

Details below!

SEPT 23, 26 – Super Secret Short Story Comic Strips (for kids)

Join me for hands-on writing and drawing workshops making comic strip stories. Your subject – secret agents!

I’ll show you how to draw Max Mole and other characters from my new graphic novel series Secret Agent Mole, and guide you in creating your own short story comics. Invent villains, devise gadgets, and draw dramatic battles. Who will win in your comic? You decide.

There will be three workshops in two different locations – details below.

KELMSCOTT WORKSHOPS (ARMADALE HUB)

DATE: Saturday 23 September
WHEN: 10am-10:45am OR 2pm-2:45pm
WHERE: Kelmscott Hall, Bilya (River Room), 60 River Road Kelmscott
AGES: 6yo +
TICKETS: On sale now!

STATE LIBRARY WORKSHOP (PERTH)

DATE: Tuesday 26 September
WHEN: 11:30am-12:30pm
WHERE: The Education Room, State Library of Western Australia
AGES: 8-12yo
TICKETS: On sale now!

Help me launch Secret Agent Mole, book 2!

It’s only four weeks until the release of Secret Agent Mole book 2: The Boar Identity – it’s out September 1st!

I’ve got events coming up in Sydney, Fremantle and online – details below.

Littlescribe Mini Writing Festival

It’s a writing program and a writers festival all-in-one, and it’s back for another year!

The 2023 Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival features Australian Children’s Laureate Gabrielle Wang, past laureate Jackie French, CBCA picture book of the year winner Claire Saxby, best-sellers Jacqueline Harvey and Louise Park, and festival favourites Deb Abela and Oliver Phommavanh. Oh, and me too.

It’s on from Monday 31st July to Friday 4th August and is fully online, so no matter where your school is (or whether you’re homeschooling), you can join in. There’s sessions for students aged 5-14, covering everything from poetry to picture books, and sports writing to slam poetry.

I’ll be chatting with Tim Harris (we made Toffle Towers together!) about creating and illustrating unique characters, plus joining all the other sessions as an illustrator-in-residence.

Program below. Full details on the LittleScribe website.

Declassified: Secret Agent Mole, Book 2!

I can finally reveal the next instalment in my graphic novel series, Secret Agent Mole! Book 2: The Boar Identity, is scheduled for release September 1st, 2023.

When Star Division discovers a magical meteorite with anti-gravity powers, Dr Nude will stop at nothing to get his naked little hands on it – including brainwashing a Star employee! This important mission features a secret mountain base, an exploding rocket and a flying pig with no clothes on. Can Max Mole, Helena Hippo and June Bug stop Dr Nude’s evil plans? I hope so, otherwise we’re all doomed! It’s time to Rock and Mole!

Pre-order your copy today!

Written & illustrated by James Foley

🇦🇺🇳🇿 Australia/NZ edition:
Published by Scholastic Australia, 1st Sept 2023
ISBN: 9781761200168 (paperback)

🌏 *SIGNED COPIES* – PAPER BIRD

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS

Casa Del Libro (Catalan)

Psst… There are Book Launches coming up too!

Aug 19: Sydney
Aug 26: online
Sept 2: Freo

For more details on these events, head to the blog.

It’s (nearly) time to rock and mole! Make sure you dive into Secret Agent Mole, Book 1: Goldfish-Finger before the release!

Supanova Comic Con Perth

I’ve just finished up an awesome weekend at Perth Supanova Comic Con!

I got to see some incredible cosplay, chat with Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the Ninja Turtles!!), catch up with my bud Brenton McKenna, get a hand-delivered fan letter from Super Mario and hang out with the wonderful authors Meg Caddy and Renae Hayward (my gorgeous wife)!

Sydney Writers (and Secret Agents) Festival

I recently spent a packed couple of days at the Sydney Writers Festival Family Day! Here’s a couple of highlights.

A spy infiltrates the Festival…

As part of a panel on Junior Fiction, Adrian Beck and I had a spy-off. The objective? Blend in and make your way to the stage without being seen, using any means necessary.

This here hombre was served humble pie as his last meal, with bullets for dessert, as I went up against Serena Geddes, Heath McKenzie and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis in an Illustrator Battle. Congrats to Charmaine (AKA Lead-Pencil Lewis) for being the quickest draw in the inner-west. Special thanks to our excellent MC (and chief cat wrangler) Adrian Beck.

James’ Big Bookshop Tour – the sequel

I managed to spend some free time on my recent Sydney trip visiting bookshops with my friend (& carpool bud), author Cristy Burne. We managed to get to 12 bookshops in one day, and I visited 21 in total.

School holiday cartooning workshop (online)

Join me for an online cartooning workshop this school holidays!⁠
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Learn how to draw characters from my new graphic novel series, SECRET AGENT MOLE. (NB: if you did the workshop last holidays, you’ll be learning how to draw all-new characters!).
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PLUS go in the draw to WIN signed sketches from the session! ⁠

Tickets are only $5 per family, and half of all proceeds go to Room to Read – a wonderful international charity that builds libraries and creates books for children in the developing world.
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This is an online workshop and will be held via Zoom. You’ll get the zoom link via email once you register. ⁠
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Suitable for kids aged 7-10. ⁠
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DATE: ⁠Sat July 15th⁠
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TIME: ⁠
9am – 10am (WA) ⁠
10:30am – 11:30am (NT, SA) ⁠
11am – 12pm (AEST)⁠
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WHERE: ⁠online (zoom)⁠
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TICKETS: ⁠$5 per family. ⁠Register here.

Upcoming events, June-Sept

I’ve got some fantastic events coming up:

the Perth Supanova Comic Con;
the Littlescribe Mini-Writing Festival;
storytime workshops at The Lane Bookshop;
an online cartooning workshop; and
three launches for Secret Agent Mole, book 2!

Details below.

June 24-25: Supanova Comic Con, Perth

In a surreal and welcome turn of events, I’ll be a guest author at this year’s Supanova Perth!

Stellarphant on the REAL shortlist

Great news! Stellarphant has been shortlisted in Australia’s biggest children’s choice book awards – the REAL awards.

It stands for Reading and Enjoying Australian Literature, and is a partnership between the YABBAs (Young Australia Best Book Awards) in Victoria, the KOALAs (Kids’ Own Australian Literature Awards) in New South Wales and the KROC (Kids’ Reading Oz Choice) awards in the Northern Territory. So really, it’s like three shortlistings in one!

Big big thanks to the organising teams behind the awards, to all the teachers and librarians who collect the votes, and to all the kids who voted around Australia. And congrats to everyone with books on the shortlist!