Read on Twitter
Five years ago today, SUPER HAPPY MAGIC FOREST was released 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥳" title="Partying face" aria-label="Emoji: Partying face"> It was my first published book and it sounds dramatic and corny to say but it changed my life https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙈" title="Nichts sehen-Affe" aria-label="Emoji: Nichts sehen-Affe"> So here& #39;s a kind of retrospective on SHMF and how it came to be https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">
It was my first published book and it sounds dramatic and corny to say but it changed my life https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙈" title="Nichts sehen-Affe" aria-label="Emoji: Nichts sehen-Affe"> So here& #39;s a kind of retrospective on SHMF and how it came to be https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">" title="Five years ago today, SUPER HAPPY MAGIC FOREST was released https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥳" title="Partying face" aria-label="Emoji: Partying face"> It was my first published book and it sounds dramatic and corny to say but it changed my life https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙈" title="Nichts sehen-Affe" aria-label="Emoji: Nichts sehen-Affe"> So here& #39;s a kind of retrospective on SHMF and how it came to be https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
The idea for SHMF emerged while I was trying to figure out a picturebook about a tree.
I didn& #39;t have much confidence in the tree idea and instead started doodling stuff that would eventually become SHMF. This is the double page where the idea was born and I always like to show it to kids on school visits https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👀" title="Augen" aria-label="Emoji: Augen">
" title="I didn& #39;t have much confidence in the tree idea and instead started doodling stuff that would eventually become SHMF. This is the double page where the idea was born and I always like to show it to kids on school visits https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👀" title="Augen" aria-label="Emoji: Augen">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
Some more development pages. At one point I explored the idea that Old Oak had transformed the SHMF into a theme park while the heroes were away. That& #39;s why the pixies are working at burger stalls.
I had the Bologna Children& #39;s Book Fair & #39;14 as my goal for presenting the book. I& #39;d probably still be tinkering with the idea if I didn& #39;t https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht"> I made a dummy book to take with me.
I made a dummy book to take with me." title="I had the Bologna Children& #39;s Book Fair & #39;14 as my goal for presenting the book. I& #39;d probably still be tinkering with the idea if I didn& #39;t https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht"> I made a dummy book to take with me.">
I made a dummy book to take with me." title="I had the Bologna Children& #39;s Book Fair & #39;14 as my goal for presenting the book. I& #39;d probably still be tinkering with the idea if I didn& #39;t https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht"> I made a dummy book to take with me.">
The dummy was fully illustrated and was designed to give publishers a clear idea of how the book could be.
Four of the dummy spreads were full-colour and later had to be completely recreated to work in a larger format https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😭" title="Laut schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Laut schreiendes Gesicht">
" title="Four of the dummy spreads were full-colour and later had to be completely recreated to work in a larger format https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😭" title="Laut schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Laut schreiendes Gesicht">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
I took it to the 2014 Bologna Children& #39;s Book Fair in Italy. I had arranged meetings with publishers in the months before. Or in the case of @OUPChildrens , the week before. I almost didn& #39;t bother emailing the editor @Peter_Marley_ because it felt embarrassingly late to do so https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht">
So I met with Pete, my last meeting on one of the last days of the fair, when the stalls were emptying out. I remember being very hungover for the meeting but don& #39;t tell him that.
There and then he made an offer for two picturebooks, including SHMF! Unknown to me, he had gotten everything prepared before the fair, after I had sent him a pdf of the book. What a guy https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👏" title="Applaus-Zeichen" aria-label="Emoji: Applaus-Zeichen">
I had a blast working on the book in the summer of 2014. I remember my macbook on my lap colouring while watching the World Cup in Brazil with a beer in one hand and pen in the other. Not great for photoshop hot keys but I was living the dream, damn it.
The final book was a much larger format to the dummy, and had an extra page that showed Old Oak getting displaced, just to help the pacing at the end. Maybe this *was* the tree idea all along.
Just as an aside, I don& #39;t think I& #39;ve put an image in a speech bubble since https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß">
" title="Just as an aside, I don& #39;t think I& #39;ve put an image in a speech bubble since https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß" aria-label="Emoji: Lächelndes Gesicht mit offenem Mund und Angstschweiß">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
SUPER HAPPY MAGIC FOREST was published in a few different places, including the USA and South Korea!
It was also shortlisted for the Waterstones Children& #39;s Book Prize in 2015 but lost to a piano playing bear https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😭" title="Laut schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Laut schreiendes Gesicht">
Five years later there are two more SHMF picturebooks and a young fiction title - Humongous Fungus - with a second book due for release next month. And I& #39;m currently writing a third!
You always remember the first, though. Thanks to everyone who joined the questhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="♥️" title="Herz" aria-label="Emoji: Herz">
You always remember the first, though. Thanks to everyone who joined the quest
Big thanks also to @Peter_Marley_ for commissioning and editing the book and @harrididit for handling the design https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👏" title="Applaus-Zeichen" aria-label="Emoji: Applaus-Zeichen">
