Recap - December 2024

and recap of the year

Festive jingles are jingling and fairy lights are twinkling. Yes, it’s the time of the year - time to reminiscent. Let me start with my last illustration event of the year…

Illustrators’ Fair

I’ve been advocating for Shop Small movement (to support local and independent businesses) in my own small ways for years, and the resolution became stronger when I watched Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy on Netflix, a documentary exposing the world’s top brands’ hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying.

Shop Small is great in many ways but the best bit for me is the opportunity for real human interactions. I enjoy my weekly chit-chats with sellers at my local farmers market and I love chatting with booksellers at independent bookshops. That’s why I love doing the Illustrators’ Fair.

I’ve been doing this fair for past seven years but this one was probably the most challenging one, thanks to Storm Darragh. To my surprise, the fair was busy throughout the day, but of course it was quieter than previous years and I made a lot less than I usually do at the winter fair. But what made up for it was each interaction with those who braved the weather.

This year, a young woman told me she had given up drawing but meeting all the artists at the fair had inspired her to take up drawing again. I chatted about life drawing with a friend who recently had rekindled her passion for it. And a lady ended up showing me pictures of her cats!

Big thanks to those who came* and shopped at my stall and the hardworking organisers. If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, please shop small!
*Special thanks to Fiona and Zehra for being my tea ladies!

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適量 (tekiryo) is a Japanese term often used in recipes. It means “to taste” (as in “season to taste”) or “to your liking”, but a direct translation would be “right amount”. In one of my favourite books of 2024, Butter by Asako Yuzuki, the protagonist embarks on a personal journey to find her tekiryo not just in cooking but also in her life.

I’m still figuring out my tekiryo when it comes to work-life balance. I often feel like an imposter and I have a tendency to take on more than I can chew just to prove I’m as legit as full-time illustrators. Having said that, I think I was pretty closed to finding my tekiryo.

Here is my 2024 in numbers:

• 1 book published

• 2 books completed (it’s more like 1 and 1/4 as I did most of the first book last year)

• 1 ongoing book (about 80% is done)

• 2 windows painted

• 8 school and bookshop events

• 2 festivals and 1 talk engagement

• 4 interviews

• 2 markets

And here are some of the things I learned this year…

Good things come to those who wait

In May I hosted my first book launch party for my 10th picture book, Pearl and Her Bunch (Orchard Books). I cursed when I had to cancel parties for my first and second authored books due to the pandemic. But, looking back, I can see it had a sliver lining. Back in 2020 I hardly knew anyone. There wouldn’t have been many people to celebrate with. The past four years gave me time to meet and get to know more wonderful people in children’s books. Their friendship and supports over the years mean a lot to me and my book career, so I was glad that I had waited. They made my first launch party extra special!

Talking of waiting, book business is usually a waiting game. It often takes a long time for a book to gain a traction. More often than not, once you publish a book, it feels like it just vanishes into the vast sea of books. So, it was a joy to see The Blue Umbrella (Andersen Press) written by Emily Ann Davison and illustrated by me on the Toppasta 100 Must-read Children’s Books of 2024 list.

Similarly, The Pet Potato (Andersen Press) by Josh Lacey and me was published in 2022 and it finally earned out my advance this year and I received the first royalty payment*! Once someone told me that about 60% of books published wouldn’t earn out their advances. So you could imagine how happy I was to receive the good news after two years.
*Here in his newsletter author Simon Philip explains advances and royalties in depth.

When you wait, unexpected things could happen too. I illustrated Little People, Big Dreams: Yoko Ono (Quarto Publishing) written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara back in 2021. Three years later, Tate Modern put on a huge Yoko Ono retrospective, and they sold the book in their shops. Seeing my book in Tate Modern was definitely one of the highlights of my year!

Say yes now and panic later

The above has been my motto for years but this manifested a lot this year. I’m NOT comfortable with public speeches. Not to mention I get tongue tied, I get physically sick or shaking in those situations. But I said yes to quite a few things this year.

I remember my shaking hands at the Picnic Festival when I drew on demand in front of the public, my fidgeting feet and sweaty palms at the panel talk at Newark Book Festival, the sick feeling in my stomach on the way to my Power of Reading guest talk at CLPE and my uncontrollable waffling during some video interviews. But all ended with some sort of euphoria and a sense of achievement. Kelly Clarkson sings “What doesn’t kill you makes stronger”, doesn’t she?

Actually I already said yes to a thing that could be interesting but I may (or may not) regret next year… Here’s to more panicking in 2025 😂

When we wake up it'll be spring

I used to go to life drawing a lot but I struggled to get back to it after the pandemic. It took me about two years to finally get back in the saddle but I’m glad I finally did it this summer. Of course I was very rusty at first but it didn’t take a moment to remember how much I had loved life drawing.

Similarly, this year I finally finished a personal project called Emma which I had started eight years ago. I turned it into a zine and sold at the Illustrators’ Fair. Sometimes you need an hiatus, and when the time is right, you will wake up recharged.

“Pain” is hidden in the word “paint”

I don’t quite know why but my “Comparitis” flared up again this year and it led me to unreasonable self-doubt over both work and personal matters. I don’t want to sound ungrateful as so many people supported me this year and I had many fantastic times. But sometimes you can’t help it - any little throwaway comments or even silence (no reply, no comment, no reaction) sent me to paranoia or mentally damp place.

But, I recently stumbled across this beautiful poem about being an artist by Vidyan Ravinthiran. Being an artist is a constant battle with comparison, criticism and self-doubt. The question is, as the podcast host and poet Pádraig Ó Tuama says, “how can they attend to their art through the aperture of that pain and perhaps allow the aperture of that pain to be part of their art?” I don’t have the answer but you keep on coming back and you keep on creating. That’s what being an artist is. I hope I’ll take better care of myself and keep my Comaritis under control next year.

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I’m going to wrap up my last newsletter of the year with…

Something to look forward to in 2025

500 Words: I’ll be illustrating one of the winning stories from this UK's largest children's writing competition in the new year and we are going to find out all the winners at the grand final. The final will be on BBC on the World Book Day!

WORDfest Crawley: I’ll be doing a storytime & craft event on Saturday 1st March. Keep an eye on their website/social media accounts for the ticket info.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair (31st March - 3rd April): I’m going! If you’re going too and this is your first time, check out my BCBF guide posts part 1, part 2 and part 3.

My fourth authored book, Dotty Doughnut (Orchard Books) - out on Thursday 27th March

It’s Behind You! by Jeanne Willis and me (Andersen Press) - out on Thursday 3rd April

Keith’s Big Leap by Mike Barfield and me (Andersen Press) - out on Thursday 4th September

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That’s all from me! I hope 2024 was a good year for you too. Thank you very much for subscribing Momo’s Doodle Den and reading my waffling this year. I would love to make this more useful and/or interesting for you next year, so please let me know if you have any requests or questions.

But for now, wishing you a wonderful holiday season full of joy, laughter, art and books! Write to you in the new year!

Momo xxx