Recap - July 2024

Fair, Festival and Pad Thai in bed

The last month, I wrote about my creative life mottos. This month the mottos (“networking” and “say yes now and panic later”) took me to the Midlands. But first, let me start with my day at the Illustrators’ Fair on Saturday 13th.

The Illustrator’s Fair is the UK’s largest free illustration fair. Over 120 illustrators participate, selling a range of illustration and illustrated products. Photo: @illustratorsfair

I’ve been taking part in the Illustrators’ Fair every summer and winter since 2017, but I opted it out last winter. I didn’t realised how much I had missed it until I went back to for this year’s summer fair. I’m introvert so the solitary aspect of being an illustrator usually suits me fine, but I miss human interactions now and then. The fair is a perfect opportunity to scratch the itch.

Me and my friend, Rachel Bone. The Illustrators’ Fair is open to all kinds of illustration styles and I think it’s great!

Putting yourself out there at a market could boost or break your confidence. The first two years at the Illustrators’ Fair, I hardly made any sales. It was hard not to take it personally. But equally a nice little comment from a random stranger could make your day. And it’s hard to predict what sells because the trend seems to be different each time. This time my books and postcards did very well but my prints hardly sold unlike the last year. So, over the years, I’ve learned to focus on just enjoying the day as it comes. Who knows if one of these random encounters might lead me to somewhere interesting?

If you had a stall at the fair, let me know how your experience was!

Newark Book Festival

Then, at 5pm when the Illustrators’ Fair was closed, I packed up my stuff at a lightening speed, carried my big suitcase and a print rack all way back to my flat, dumped them there, fed my cat, grabbed my small suitcase and jumped back out, went back to King’s Cross station and caught a train to Newark-on-Trent in a nick of time to attend an event in the following morning.

I failed to grab dinner to eat on the train so I ended up ordering a takeaway and eating in the hotel room at 10pm. Pad Thai in bed - actually I quite enjoyed that.

The partner of an illustrator I met years ago turned out to be an event organiser, and back in March she asked me if I was interested in taking part in this year’s Newark Book Festival. When she suggested a panel event with other authors and children, my first instinct was NO. Being grilled by children on a stage in front of audience? It sounded like an introverts’ nightmare. But I reminded myself of my motto #2 and I said yes.

A spoiler alert - my very first panel event went well. I went onto the stage with crime novelist Sarah Hilary, children’s author and Patron of Reading Gareth Baker, children’s fiction author James Nicol and fantasy and sci-fi author Wilf Morgan. I was lucky to share the stage with these experienced authors. They were so friendly and, together with the chairperson, they set a relaxing tone. We were questioned by five young volunteers. The kids had a lot of good questions for us but no trick question (phew!). We also had lovely audience. They gave us wonderful reactions - a lot of laughs and some oohs and ahhs and gasps. At the beginning I was worried if someone would notice my shaking legs, but as soon as I made the audience laugh, my nerves calmed down and I just enjoyed talking about my inspirations, creative journey and process. The hour just flew away.

After the event, I had a chance to explore the town and the festival. It was such a lovely festival for all kinds of books for all ages. I could feel the whole town was involved. I particularly liked the way young volunteers (aka Young Ambassadors), aged 7+ years, played a vital role in running the festival. I’ve been in the UK for over 20 years now but there are so many places I haven’t been. I wouldn’t have known this small but lovely town if I hadn’t been invited to this festival. I’m glad I said yes to the invitation.

Absolutely Education Magazine

To promote my latest book, Pear and Her Bunch (Orchard Books), I did an interview with Absolutely Education Magazine. It became a 3-page feature on their summer issue! I really enjoyed looking back my school days and see how it made me who I am today. Did you know at Japanese schools, students (aged 6-18 years) clean their classrooms and communal areas including toilets and they take turn to serve lunch meals to their classmates everyday? If you’re an educator and subscribe to the magazine and read this issue, let me know what you think.

The finishing line in sight

Between events big and small, I was slowly but surely working on a picture book. Do you remember that I went to the Natural History Museum to sketch the T-rex back in February? I finally finished the interior artwork for the book! I still need to do the cover but the main part of the project is done! I can’t tell you much about the book yet but it’s going to be a colourful, quirky and very funny one!

Here’s a tiny, tiny sneak peek.

I’m going to wrap up this post with some recommendations.

Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells (Viking Books)

I found this book in my local library. This has the classic/old fashion look but I was surprised it’s not THAT old (published in 1997). In my opinion, this is a picture book master class. The story is simple. The siblings, Ruby and Max, try to make cakes for their grandma’s birthday but Max accidentally keeps sabotaging Ruby’s cake and she keeps sending Max to a shop to get replacement ingredients. It has repetitions and escalations that children would enjoy reading and has a great text-illustration relationship.

Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking at Dulwich Picture Gallery

I love ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) so I enormously enjoyed this exhibition. I was only familiar with ukiyo-e from the 17-19th centuries so it was fascinating to see the “modern” ukiyo-e. This exhibition shines a spotlight on three generations of Yoshida dynasty of woodblock print artists, tracing the evolution of Japanese printmaking across two centuries. Highly recommended. Open till November.

Enzo Mari at The Design Museum

I finally went to see this retrospective of one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century and I LOVED it! His simple and graphic designs are playful, mesmerising and philosophical. I visited on an hot day. I was feeling hot and bothered, but as soon as I stepped into the cool and quiet exhibition room full of inspiring objects, I was in my happy place. For an obvious reason, my favourite was the display of the picture books he designed with his wife and all the sketches. Highly recommended. Open till September.

That’s all for this month. Speak to you soon!

Momoko x

My new book, Pearl and Her Bunch will be out in paperback on 29th August, but you can pre-order it now. Pre-orders are brilliant way to support authors and illustrators because they give booksellers confidence to order a big stock.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Shop Event at The Book Nook (Friday 23rd August) - I’ll be reading from my new book, Pearl and her Bunch, and running craft activities at 10.30am. Have a go at creating your very own fruit and veg family portraits! Age 4 plus.

Window painting at Kew Bookshop (Thursday 29th August) - To celebrate the paperback publication of Pearl and her Bunch, I’ll be painting the Kew Bookshop window. Drop by and say hi!

Shop Event at The Alligator’s Mouth (Friday 30th August) - I’ll be reading from my new book, Pearl and her Bunch, and running craft activities in the afternoon.

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