I've Been Away.
I’ve been away, far away. I’ve quite happily been living in my own land (see map below.) and it is full of wonderful things. I’ve been working with the great people at Simon and Schuster, creating ‘The Kingdom of Wrenly’ book series. These are chapter books for the very young reader who is ready to step out on their own and read for themselves, maybe with some help here and there.
With this in mind we have come up with a fantasy land from top to bottom. Wrenly is a very visual place with half the content of each story being the pictures. Almost every page has a detailed drawing on it, illustrating the adventures of Clara, Lucas and Ruskin the dragon. There are hundreds of pictures over the course of the series. So, I guess you could say I’ve been daydreaming for a living, drawing dragons, trolls, wizards and gnomes whilst I really should have been doing a proper job!
We have done 8 books to date (6 published so far.) and there are plans for books 9,10 and beyond exploring the different areas of this expanding world. There are not many fully realised fantasy worlds for very young readers (5-9) and I hope it becomes a gateway for them to enjoy other worlds that can only be found in books. I have fond, nostalgic memories of books and the pictures inside them that I had when I was very young. Little things like that at an early age can spark off the imagination and as Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Imagination is boundless but knowledge will always have a limit. Imagination can be the key to many a locked problem too.
I hope to share sketches, doodles and other bits and bobs along the way through Wrenly.
I hope you come back to take a peek!
All the best,
U.S.
