Little Mook - is real.
In early January my finished book, The Adventures of Little Mook: Little, Blue and Lost, arrived by the box load from TJBooks, my wonderful printers in Padstow. On opening the boxes with my wife Ana and our son Jude, I was overjoyed to see Jude expressing the excitement I was feeling. Ana was telling me how proud and excited she was for me, knowing that this was a real passion project. Jude was hyper - bouncing about waiting to see what was in the box. And when he saw it was his book, he squealed in excitement - it was a joy to behold.
I have wanted to write a children’s books since I was in primary school, when a substitute teacher took our class for a lesson and we all made our own version of a Mr Man book. I still remember the feeling of joy that I felt on creating something like the books I enjoyed reading at the time. Fast forward many years later and I was always thinking about and often jotting down ideas for stories. The Mook, (as this website shows) is a wider story across its own multiverse! But Little Mook has for a long time seemed like a great name for a little blue penguin. The story took some different paths over the years - with me even trying out different names for the penguin - but I always circled back around to Little Mook. And when my son was born I knew I wanted to make him a book and that it would include this penguin. The hard part was knowing where to begin!
I was inspired from a book my parents had given me when I was young. It was a story that involved me and 2 of my friends at the time - Callum and Ricky. And this book came from the makers of tea - P.G.Tips! This particular brand of tea often advertised with chimps, and this book was no different. The book was a generic story about getting a Piano of the foot of one of the chimps, but included the names of my friends and I printed within the pages of the adventure. I loved this part of it - so I knew my book would have to include real world people and places - and so my son was to be made part of the adventure, (this will come in during book 2). I also thought of how amazing it must have been for Sofie Dahl to be the Sofie from the B.F.G. What an interesting time and place it must have been to grow up with Roald Dahl as a grandfather.
Being a photographer by trade, but always loving to draw when I was growing up, I thought about doing the artwork myself - but I didn’t think I was up to the task, not having drawn much since I was about 15! So, as I started mapping out a story, I came across a wonderful artist on social media. This was after the artist, Ellise, had a watercolour picture of a French Bulldog posted on a Frenchie loving Facebook page by her proud mum. It looked so good that I contacted the lady and asked if I could speak to her daughter as I would like to commission her for an idea I had. Ellise was wonderful and amazingly helpful and loved my idea of a book for my son, (as that was my only objective at the time - I wanted it for Jude and if it went any further then this would be a bonus.) We talked about some ideas and I ran through how I would like the art to look, showing her my own sketches, my penguin silhouettes and the styles of drawings I liked, which I thought went hand in hand with her own work, (being the reason I contacted her.) A big influence on the final design was Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbs and his gorgeous watercolours. Ellise set straight to work and did a great job with Little Mook and even a young version of my son Jude. But that is as far as it went - I got caught up in fatherhood and sleepless nights and Ellise was busy with her studies, being at university. So even though I continued to develop the adventures Little Mook was having, by telling them to my son as he grew, the page remained blank!
Some years later I contacted Ellise again to see if we could get the project off and running once more, but sadly she could not commit the time needed. She gave her blessing for me to continue using the work we had started if I found a new illustrator, (as I still wanted to use Little Mook as we had him,) and she wished me good luck. I did not know what do to - would I be able to find someone that could breath life into the penguin from my initial concept design and ideas as she had done! I worried I might run into the same issues again and the book would never become a reality, and I was sure I could not hope to draw like Ellise but if I had any hope of ever getting this story started let alone finished, I feared it might have to be me that did it - even if it was limited in scope. So I threw caution to the wind and started drawing again after over 20 years - and things just started to flow. It was a very different look to what Ellise produced, but it still had the feeling I wanted in the end product - and even more exciting was that I was doing it and had full control over the results, (not always a harmonious thing.) Eventually I went back to Little Mook himself - daunted by the prospect. I needed to take what me and Ellise had conjured up before and make him something I could draw myself and more importantly be happy with - but by keeping the same energy that Ellise has injected into the Little Penguins features. It was quite a task, as I was only now rediscovering my artistic abilities when it came to illustrations. As previously mentioned I loved drawing as a kid - but when I ever talked about making it the thing I might do with my life, I was dismissed by the adults around me. And maybe they had a point I thought. So I picked up a camera and channelled my creativity through that avenue - and never really drew much again - till now. I was finding my own flow and style. Inspired by all the art I had enjoyed over the years but while also putting my spin on things. The new version of Little Mook was alive and well and the rest of the story was moving along at a good pace. Inspired by our new home of Launceston, Cornwall and with my son now approaching his 5th birthday, we would talk together about the Adventures of Little Mook and other characters I was breathing life in to - such as the Gromlings. And this time it was even better as I had Jude for inspiration, watching what I was up to and suggesting things as I went. We would walk in the local countryside - searching for where gromings could be found and adding to the adventures Little Mook might be taking part in.
Having started to draw again around March of 2021 - in preparations to get some prints for my sons birthday in April - it then took around 10 more months to the stage of being ready to print. Not only did I have to rediscover my drawing mojo, but I had to learn book design, (with one of my closest friends teaching me some Indesign/publishing principles.) and so I managed to take the same pictures and words and combine them into a story that flowed better than I could ever have expected. I had the story I wanted for my son - but now it looked like I might be able to take it further and see if other children would like to be part of this little penguins adventure. It is still early stages but I have self published a limited run of 200 and already have interest and orders from friends and family. I have the book in some local stores - which is mind-blowing to see. And when I learned that one had been sold at The Byre, and saw a lovely post from the lady that brought it for her grandson - well, I was overjoyed. It is always quite nerve-racking to put your work out into the word, (as it is also putting yourself out and on the line).
It’s been a battle - I do struggle because of dyslexia and an eye condition called Keratoeonus, which among other things causes haloing, especially from light sources - so these have both been a barrier to overcome. Couple that with my inability to switch off as I obsess over the smallest detail when I create, and it can be a frustrating struggle. Just imagine the conditions dyslexia brings with sentence structures and my mind just not seeing missing words or misspelt words vs my internal battle with being happy that something I am creating is finished - all the time know that I might have missing something and going back and back again! Here I was lucky as I had many people check through and proof read but no doubt there will be an error or 2 that I will come across eventually and it will eat me up inside. This is something I am working on - a good friend of mine, Dave, advised me that having something finished is better than that something being perfect, (or words to that affect). And knowing my friend, this does not mean being happy with something that is shoddy or incomplete. It is just a way of protecting your own mental state and allowing art into the word, even with imperfections. Any arriving issues can always be learnt from, corrected or amended down the line. I know this is true - but it is still a battle I face when putting something out into the world, especially with words and now my art that is a process that I am once again learning to share.
It is still early days and I have quite a few boxes of my book in my office - but this limited run is so far going well. I am working on the second book and we will see how it goes. But it is truly exciting to see something I have had flowing in and out of my mind for so long become a finished, printed reality. Little Mook is well and truly real and now part of our every day life - and what’s even better, is that we can share him and his adventures. You never know - maybe there well be a second run in the future! Only time will tell.
