School Wars Blog Tour - St Grizzle's vs Beaky Malone + Karen McCombie and Becka Moor

St Grizzle's School For Girls, Goats and Random Boys Blog Tour

I am delighted to welcome you to the penultimate Stripes School Wars Blog Tour. As part of Team Grizzle, I have a tempting post from the illustrator, Becka Moor about producing the final character illustrtaions for the book.

To find out more about the illustrator and the author look at their website and follow them on #StGrizzles. You can join in with the rest of the #SchoolWars blog tour for more fantastic guest posts.

How you developed your character illustrations

I was first given some character descriptions from Karen, the author. I did a few sample doodles of a couple of the characters and tweaked them until they were just right and everyone was happy with them. I then drew a whole cast line up of the main characters next to each other to see how they might work together. St Grizzles is a really fun concept and story so I just tried my best to make the characters as exciting and interesting as possible.

 

Becka has very kindly sent a range of bookcover concepts in the lead up to the final draft and edition that was published.

Many thanks to Becka Moor for sending the above illustrations and information about her work for this book. 

Becka Moor is an Illustrator & Storyteller from Manchester. 

She studied Illustration for Children's Publishing at Glyndwr university, graduating in 2012. She has since gone on to work on a lot of really fun projects including her first fiction book, Violet and the Pearl of the Orient (Harriet Whitehorn, Simon & Schuster) which was shortlisted for the Waterstones book awards in 2015.

Other projects include The Royal Babysitters (Clementine Beauvais, Bloomsbury) which was shortisted in 2014 for the first Sainsburys book awards, The Wigglesbottom Primary series (Pamela Butchart, Nosy Crow) and her first UK picture book as illustrator, The Three Ninja Pigs (David Bedford, Simon & Schuster.)

Michelle Harrison - The Other Alice - Blog Tour (Five Characters I'd Wish Into Real Life . . . and Five Villains I Wouldn't)

It's a great pleasure to be kicking off the blog tour for Michelle Harrison's latest book, The Other Alice. It was recently published by Simon & Schuster on the 28th July. This is a fantastically magical book which is very spooky and absolutely thrilling to read. To find out more please check out my book review HERE.  

This blog tour will stop by some of the best book bloggers, so please check the list above and pop along to each of these. I would like to thank Michelle for this brilliant post about Characters and Villains. I wonder . . . . what would yours be? 

Finally, please check my book give away on twitter @Enchantedbooks which is starting today. All you have to do is RT and Follow. I'm afraid that this competition is open to the UK only. 

Five Characters I'd Wish Into Real Life 
. . . and Five Villains I Wouldn't  By Michelle Harrison 

My latest novel, The Other Alice, is about a writer whose characters come to life if she is unable to finish their stories. I've often wished I could bring some of my own characters into the real world, and I've definitely created a few that I'd never want to meet. Here are my top five in each category, from my own books and those by other authors. 

1. The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen 
In the original version this 'poor unfortunate soul' ends up as sea foam after she fails to win the prince's love. If she came to life, I'd use her three days as a human to show her a good time. On day one I'd deck her out with some party feet for her painful tootsies, then take her out for a girly night of cocktails. Day two, we'd recover with a fry up and watch DVDs in our PJs (probably Bridget Jones rather than Splash). Day three we'd go through all my folklore and spell books and find a way to outwit the sea witch. Girl power! 

2. Turpin – One Wish by Michelle Harrison 
Of all the fairies I've created, Turpin is probably my favourite. She's artful, cheeky and a kleptomaniac, but also fiercely loyal and brave. Life would be a lot of fun with her around, provided you don't mind handling stolen goods. 

3. Gobbolino the Witch's Cat – Ursula Moray Williams 
As a child I was enchanted by stories of the little black cat, Gobbolino and his wicked sister, Sootica. Born with one white paw (and so not deemed a 'proper' witch's cat) Gobbolino is cast out by the witch and goes in search of his forever home. As a mad cat lady with a penchant for black cats, there'd always be a place by my fire and a bowl of GoCat for him (and probably Sootica, too) although they'd have to get past my top cat, Pepper, first . . . 

4. Sara Crewe – A little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
One of my all time book heroines. Going from riches to rags she manages to stay positive and enrich the lives of all around her with the power of her imagination and love of stories. Not only that but she'd never interrupt you when you're reading, because it's one of her pet hates. Top girl. 

5. Jon Snow – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin 
No, really. I wouldn't choose the bad guys like Jaime Lannister, or Mr Willoughby. Or James Bond. Nope, no dashing literary ratbags for me. Honestly. WHAT? 


And now for the baddies . . . 

1. Kevin Katchadourian – We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 
One seriously messed up little creep who is the perpetrator of a high school massacre. In addition he steals a dead person's glass eye, and wears nappies until the age of six just to make his mother's life difficult. A horribly compelling character in one of the best but most disturbing books I've read. But being a monster isn't the only reason I'd never want Kevin to be real. He knows he's unwanted by his mother, and he's so joyless I'd just never wish a human like him into existence. 

2. Jennet Humfrye – The Woman in Black by Susan Hill 
One of the most malevolent and threatening characters I've ever encountered, the ghost of Jennet Humfrye with her wasted face haunts the town of Crythin Gifford. Having pined away after the death of her son, sightings of her result in the inevitable death of a child. The book, stage play and film have each played on my mind when the lights are out. *Shudder* 

3. Asinastra – Poison by Chris Wooding 
If you're not a fan of spiders, you really won't like Asinastra, the Lady of Cobwebs. A pregnant half-woman, half-spider, she peers up through her tangle of hair and speaks to your mind telepathically. I've never hoovered up a spider but I'd make an exception for this one if there was a Dyson big enough. 

4. Cruella de Vil – The Hundred and One Dalmations by Dodie Smith 
'If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will . . .' Not much else to say about this would-be puppy killer except that I'd love to have thought her up myself. If I was ever unlucky enough to meet her I like to think I'd be brave enough to chuck a box of Nice 'n' Easy her way before scarpering. 

5. Annie Wilkes – Misery by Stephen King 
Every writer's nightmare: 'Your number one fan!' A deranged devotee of Stephen King's author Paul Sheldon, Annie is enraged that he killed off her favourite character, Misery Chastain. Not content with imprisoning and torturing him, she forces him to write a new book bringing Misery back from the dead. I can't help but grimace whenever I get an email from someone claiming to be my 'number one fan' . . .