Author and illustrator Katie Stewart has come up with something I can only describe as genius. Merging famous people with animals, she has come up with a delightful book that appeals to young and old alike. Here, I chat with Katie and ask her some fiendishly difficult questions!

Katie, you obviously have a passion for animals. What's your favourite animal noise?

Well, I can honestly say I haven’t ever had to answer that question before! I hope you’re not expecting a humorous answer, because I’m actually going to wax lyrical. There’s a little bird here in Australia called a rufous songlark. He’s plump and quite drab in his colouring, but he turns up every year at the beginning of spring and sings the sunshine in. It’s not a tune you could repeat, it’s a bit like a two-year-old singing to himself, but it’s so full of joy that I listen for it at the beginning of September every year and get a thrill every time I hear it. 

You're clearly a talented writer and illustrator. But if you had to choose just one of those to continue with, which would that be and why? (I never said this would be an easy interview.) 

Thank you for the compliment, Jonathan, but not for this question! It’s a bit like that one, ‘If you had to be blind or deaf, which would you choose?’ I think I’d choose to be an illustrator, mainly because I’m a visual thinker, so the process of illustrating, for me, has one less step involved. People tell me (some happily, some complaining) that I write visually, but that’s how I see my stories – like movies working themselves out in my head. To write them down, I then have to find the words to translate the pictures. It’s harder – and I’m lazy. Illustrating is just a matter of copying what’s in my head, no translation involved. So it’s the easier choice.

I’d miss writing, though!

I bet you would. And apologies for the evil question! Now, if you could be an animal for the day, what would you be and why?

I think I’d be a cat. We have three cats at our house, two who live outside and chase mice in the barn and one who lives inside and chases mice in the kitchen. At least, that’s the theory. In reality, they all spend all day dozing wherever they find a comfortable spot and only wake up when they want their bowls filled. I think I could live with that arrangement. 

And if you could be a famous person, alive or dead, for the day, who would you choose? 

Another difficult one, but maybe it would be good to come back as Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon. If I were him for a day, I would spend the whole day telling everyone in the company about this Australian writer/illustrator I knew called Katie Stewart who is so brilliant and deserves to be given every opportunity to sell millions of books. I’d arrange world-wide advertising, contracts (giving Katie Stewart a huge percentage for royalties), I’d speak of nothing but Katie Stewart for the whole day. Then the next day, as me, I (as myself again) would humbly answer the email from Amazon asking if I’ll publish under their imprint at 90% royalty (to me) with a ‘Oh, you’re so kind’ and rake in the money for as long as the bubble lasts. 

Unfortunately, all the time I was writing that, there was a little character sitting on my shoulder, shoving blunt sticks into my ear. So here’s the more boring answer my conscience wants to give – and my conscience always wins. If I could be someone famous for a day, I’d be Rupert Murdoch. I would insist that every news story for the day was a positive one, that no one would be hassled, bullied or hounded for a story, that people would be treated with compassion and seen as real people, not just another story. Then I’d give away all my money and assets and retire to a small cottage somewhere unremarkable.

Neat answer! And who could argue with the first part? I mean, you've merged famous people with animals... it's genius!

What's your favourite famous animal creation so far?

In Famous Animals Volume 1, I think it would have to be Felix Mendelsswan. That’s why I used him on the cover. But now that I’ve done over three quarters of the illustrations for Volume 2, I think my favourite overall is Fred Astairedale. He has a certain class about him, I think.  That’s not to say I won’t paint another overall favourite next week or next month. I’ve really enjoyed painting them all.

Excellent! And it's great to hear that a second volume is well on the way. Thanks for sharing this image of Fred too. Isn't he good?

Author Rosen Trevithick is widely known for her humorous and psychological fiction books for adults and her delightful smelly troll books for children. But now she tackles something completely different but no less appetising! Rosen has written a guest post for my blog on the challenges she has faced to get a chocolate-making book to market and how the process differed from that involved in publishing fiction.

I’ve just released a cookbook called ‘Chocolate Making Adventures’, which is full of recipes and tips about making and working with chocolate. This is very different from the books I usually publish, which are predominantly fiction published in black and white. So in what way does self-publishing a recipe book differ from publishing more mainstream books?
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When I first decided to write a cookbook, I thought it would be a case of simply writing down all my recipes, commissioning half-a-dozen photos and then converting a Word document. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Writing

My first mistake was thinking that writing down a recipe would be as easy as writing fiction. It isn’t. With fiction, there is an infinite number of ways to say what you want to say and you can make your writing as concise or descriptive as you like. You don’t need every reader to understand your exact meaning of every single sentence for him or her to experience what you set out to achieve. In fact, very few readers intend to take in every single clause, as they hurry through desperate to find out what happens next. With recipe books, every line has to be spot on. If your sentence is ambiguous or you miss an adjective, your reader can waste an hour of his or her life, and the cost of ingredients, trying to follow your method. My inner fiction writer would have happily taken three of my 8x10 inch pages to explain every recipe, but too much detail would have been daunting for the reader.

Layout

Recipe books are very difficult to develop in a way that looks good both in print and as an eBook. For example, the Kindle format is not designed for images that are aligned to the side of text. You need inline images. However, people following recipes don’t want to have to keep scrolling through images to get to the next step. Eventually, I decided to use alternating text-only pages and full-screen images. This also looked great in print, with most recipes sitting opposite a gorgeous photo of its results.

Photography
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The next obstacle was the photographs. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a superb photographer, but what I didn’t realise was that we would also benefit from a food stylist. The aforementioned stylist is somebody who prepares and arranges food so that it’s perfect for photographing. Instead, I made all the chocolate myself and gave it to Claire, who then had to adapt/accessorise it for the photographs. The chocolate took about ten times as long to prepare as I had envisaged, pushing what I hoped would be an early October launch, back into November.

I am pleased to announce the release of my new book, The Anniversary. It's something of a departure from my other published books. I describe the story as a chilling thriller and the non-linear narrative adds a decidedly nightmarish quality. I can't wait to see what you make of it. Enjoy!

Well, it's been a pleasure to participate in the week-long celebration of the drabble. Firstly, I'd like to thank Michael Brookes for all the hard work he has put into the events. And secondly, thanks to all those who participated in some way. I'm sure you'll agree it has been a success in highlighting the popularity of this flash fiction form.

I was delighted to discover late last night that my entry for the drabble competition was picked as the winner. I genuinely never thought mine would stand a chance! The winning drabble is shown below.

I've a couple of further things up my sleeve as the festival closes. Firstly, I have a pair of signed drabble books up for grabs. To be in with a chance of winning, simply post a comment below this article. Entries close 10pm Monday 16th November 2015.

And, finally, it seems fitting to close the week with... a drabble. Here's my latest, never before published. Enjoy! And happy drabbling/drabble-reading!

The Experiment

The candle’s flame is wondrous. A ball of golden warmth. It stands tall, proud, astonishingly still under the glass dome. And I’m inside with it. The flame is my sun. It’s my god. Or I am its god! It is sheer beauty.

Time passes.

I no longer flutter and fly.

Instead, I crawl around intermittently.

The flame is still bright. But shorter. Weaker.

It too is fading.

And then I realise we are competing. I’m desperate to outlive the flame but at the same time cannot bear to go before it dies.
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Outside the glass, large human eyes watch wickedly.

I certainly don't write as many drabbles as I once did but it's hard to break the habit. Here's one of my latest, never before published.

Guy

“It’s like a mummy,” Tom said. “It’s like a mummy, Mummy!”

“Yes, darling. But stop bouncing about and hold the legs still.”

Tom giggled again while his mother wound tape round the legs.

“Mummy, can’t we give him a proper face?” Tom asked, reaching for the bin sack around the head. His hand was slapped away.

“Open the door for me, darling, and help me carry him.”

Outside, Tom swore that the guy twitched.

“It’s the flames playing tricks. Don’t be silly.”

“Okay,” Tom replied. “I wish Daddy could be here.”

The guy burned and mother and son watched in silence.

If you're on Facebook, you can join the week-long Festival of Drabbles HERE.
There's still time to download your free copy of 100 One Hundred Word Tales.

No introduction needed for this - what it says up there!

Drabbles benefit both readers and writers. The world moves so fast and it’s not always easy to fit in reading time. Reading and digesting a 100-word story, though, is doable - on the train, bus, toilet… but wash your hands afterwards.

This flash fiction is much trickier than it looks, its author having to encapsulate a tale in such a short space. You are forced to make every word count, phrase things so that you wring the maximum amount of emotion and surprise from as few words as possible. Put simply, it gets to the bone of what good writing is.   

If you're on Facebook, you can join the week-long Festival of Drabbles HERE.
There's still time to download your free copy of 100 One Hundred Word Tales.

Tomorrow: a never-before-seen drabble from me.

Over recent years, the popularity of the drabble - a story told in precisely 100 words - has soared. Ideal for writers to hone their skills and perfect for readers to digest in a minute, the drabble is one of the most popular forms of flash fiction around. 

Author Michael Brookes has championed the drabble from the beginning and has set up an entire week to celebrate it. Over the next few days, there will be a wealth of articles, competitions and, of course, drabbles across a range of blogs and websites. I will be posting something new each day on this blog.

I have written several hundred drabbles over the last few years and published two books of my very best, one of which has contributions from my author friend, Kath Middleton. For the next few days, you can pick up a copy of 100 One Hundred Word Tales FREE for the very first time. And Beyond 100 Drabbles is half-price at only 99p/99c.

For full details of both books and an award-winning drabble, click HERE. Alternatively, click the book covers to go to their respective Amazon pages.

And if you're on Facebook, you can join in the festivities HERE.

Tomorrow - a post in 100 words on why I drabble.

The Anniversary
by 
Jonathan Hill

It’s the office Christmas party. Cheap booze is flowing, the lights are dimmed and tinny music blasts out of a rubbish stereo. Chris’s hair is gelled around reindeer antlers. Amy’s foot is caught in some photocopier cable. Martin is waving about an inflatable penis decorated with tinsel. And Janet is dancing alone, her husband dead, presumed murdered… by her.

When Janet offers to spend Christmas Day, the anniversary of my own partner’s death, with me, I find myself wondering what she wants. 

And why do I accept?

The chilling new novella from Jonathan Hill.

Coming soon to Kindle and in paperback.

It's precisely a year since I released my debut novel, FAG. It's been delightful and moving to read readers' reviews and feedback and I've been overwhelmed to find that this book, that has affected my life so much, has also touched others more than I ever hoped.

FAG, set in an all boys boarding school in the 1930s, sees both teachers and pupils struggling to survive in the aftermath of a tragedy which the headmaster will go to terrible lengths to cover up. The novel has just been long-listed for Best Psychological Fiction in Book Hippo's SpaSpa Book Awards.

To celebrate this anniversary, FAG's price has been temporarily slashed on both amazon.co.uk and amazon.com. There's no better time to get your copy.

Finally, before this blog post starts to sound like some dire awards ceremony speech, I'd like to thank everyone who has read the book. Your messages and feedback continue to bring brilliant light into my life.

It's been a while since I wrote any drabbles (100-word fiction) and they behaved rather like buses this week. Three on the trot appeared in the Book Hippo newsletter. Book Hippo is the new name of Indie Book Bargains and features the same quality indie authors alongside mainstream fiction. The line is thus blurred between indie and mainstream and the focus is on quality fiction in general, which is just as it should be. You can sign up for the free daily newsletter here and my author profile and published drabbles are available here. My latest featured drabbles follow.

Nutter's Pharmacy

How Mr Nutter the pharmacist stayed in business was anyone's guess, for he hardly dispensed any prescriptions or sold any medicines.

"Have you anything for my sore throat?" an old lady asked.

"Certainly! That hat of yours suits you perfectly," replied Mr Nutter.

"I keep getting indigestion," complained another.

"You're looking particularly well-groomed today," replied Mr Nutter. "Next!"

Mr Pumphrey, a regular, staggered in clutching his chest. "My heart..."

Mr Nutter knew what to do. "Morning! Oh you've shined those shoes a treat, Mr Pumphrey!"

Moments before Mr Pumphrey collapsed, he’d passed a large banner outside that read ‘Complimentary Medicine’.

A Mother's Loss

It’s the anniversary of the bombings and she is sitting on the edge of her bed clutching a photograph: her son. She’s rocking back and forth, back and forth, in silent agony. All year round’s painful but this day’s the worst. Her face is the picture of someone crying yet no tears flow. She cried herself dry long ago. 

In the photograph her son is smiling. She’s not smiled since that terrible day. She wonders now where her son would be if he’d lived. She wonders where it all went wrong. Could she have stopped him killing all those people?

The Anniversary Gift

Agatha and Robert were due to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary this April. Their daughter, Natasha, wanted to treat them. They deserved some happiness at this late stage in life. Who knew how much longer they’d be around? And they’d never been abroad, so this gift was very special indeed.

Agatha had tears of joy in her eyes after she’d opened the envelope. She showed the tickets to Robert, who emitted an impressed whistle. 

“Titanic,” Agatha gasped. 

Natasha could have sworn the whispered word was accompanied by a small mist of condensed breath. As if the room were ice cold.