I’m Eve, I love naples-yellow and ultramarine, not to mention all the colours hiding in the black and white pages of a good children’s book. I write, and when I’m not writing, I’m painting. And when I’m not doing either, I’m a fire-spitting dragon hissing at myself to just start somewhere.
My love for painting was kick-started at a young age when I won a prize in the Texaco Art Competition (go, little me!). I attended the National College of Art and Design before embarking on a career in graphic design. It didn’t take me long to see the similarities between a blank canvas, a blank screen and a blank page so, when a fortune-teller shrieked write! write! write! at me, I listened* and began writing for children that very day.
Winning the Wells Festival of Literature Book for Children Award (see here for interview) and long-listing in the Bath Children’s Novel Award (go, bigger me!) was my point of no return. And thank goodness I did ‘start somewhere’ as my debut children’s book, ELSETIME, is now on the bookshelves (read more about it here).
I guess I’m in this writing game for the long run and can’t wait to see where it takes me. I could just ask that fortune-teller, but nah!
Onward!
*and who’d blame me? She’d also predicted twins and, soon after, bingo!
~WINNER, CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD (pre publication) WELLS FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE 2017 ~
~ BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020: HALFWAY UP BOOKS ~
~ CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020: BRIDGE STREET BOOKS ~
~ SHORTLISTED FOR THE SPELLBINDING BOOK AWARD 2021 ~
~ SHORTLISTED FOR THE AWESOME BOOK AWARD 2022 ~
Read more about Elsetime here. Cover art & internal illustrations by Holly Ovenden
View a sample of my paintings in my gallery here.
Eve McDonnell 