books – Page 7 – James Foley

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.

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!

How to draw JUNE BUG from Secret Agent Mole

Want to learn how to draw June Bug from my new series, SECRET AGENT MOLE?

Here’s a free tutorial to show you how.

Youl’ll need:

plain white paper
lead pencil
eraser
sharpener
coloured pencils (dark green, light green)
black felt-tipped pen or black texta

Watch the youtube tutorial here.

How to draw HELENA HIPPO from Secret Agent Mole

Want to learn how to draw Helena Hippo from my new series, SECRET AGENT MOLE?

Here’s a free tutorial to show you how.

Youl’ll need:

plain white paper
lead pencil
eraser
sharpener
coloured pencils (pink, red or dark red)
black felt-tipped pen or black texta

The reviews are in for Secret Agent Mole, book 1!

Secret Agent Mole has been out for a month and a half, and I’ve had wonderful feedback from booksellers, colleagues and readers!

Huge thanks to everyone who has grabbed a copy so far, and to all the booksellers who have championed it. It means a lot!

Here are some of the glowing reviews I’ve seen so far.

🌏 *SIGNED COPIES* – PAPER BIRD

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS

Casa Del Libro (Catalan)

How to draw MAX from Secret Agent Mole

Want to learn how to draw Max Mole from my new graphic novel series, Secret Agent Mole?

Here’s your chance!

Click below to watch my free tutorial.

You’ll need:

plain white paper
lead pencil
eraser
sharpener
coloured pencils (dark blue, light blue, red, black)
black felt-tipped pen or black texta

James’ Big Bookshop Tour

I just got back from an interstate bookshop tour to promote my new graphic novel series, Secret Agent Mole.

I visited 66 bookshops in 3 states in 8 days.

It was ridiculous and busy and a total blast!

After sleeping for three days straight (I wish) I put together this video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by James Foley author/illustrator (@jamesfoleybooks)

Thanks to all the bookshops that welcomed me and let me sign their copies of Secret Agent Mole. You are all champions! Support local and grab a signed copy from these awesome stores:

Perth, WA

Secret Agent Mole, book 1 is declassified as of today!

My new graphic novel series Secret Agent Mole is finally out in the world as of today! Book 1: Goldfish-Finger is available wherever you get your books, (including the latest Scholastic Australia book club catalogue).

We had the WA launch last weekend at the Perth Festival family day, in the beautiful grounds of the Fremantle Arts Centre. Somehow our venue reached capacity, and we sold a massive stack of signed books! Thanks to everyone who came along. Here’s some pics from the morning.

My wife launched her new book at the festival, too; it’s called Say Hooray and it’s illustrated by Rebecca Mills. Renae and Rebecca and I were gifted with the most incredible hand-painted gingerbread biscuits made by local bookseller Kristy Diffey. Check these out:

They were almost too good to eat … almost. Thanks so much, Kristy!

A huge thanks to the team at Scholastic for making this book with me – thanks Andrew, Sharon, my editor Laura Sieveking and our brilliant designer Hannah Janzen. It’s turned out so great. Now, on to book 2!