The next Captain Sillyvoice book is on its way soon. Just to give you a taste of what’s to come, let me introduce Captain Scaryscar.

And a quick reminder that 3 copies of the first book in this series,  Captain Sillyvoice and his Pirate Band, are being given away in the Goodreads Giveaway. The closing date for entries is 12 February 2014.

I have the opportunity to update the cover of my book, My Crazy Purple Pen (originally released in 2012).To help me decide on the new cover,  I put out a Facebook post featuring the original cover together with  6 alternative options.  I also sought feedback from other friends and family. Thank you to everyone who gave me their feedback. 

It has to be said that there was no clear front runner, but it does seem that the addition of the stars and ink spots is preferable to the characters. The designs without any additional features were least popular. The addition of the purple/pink border was preferred by quite a few of you but I am concerned that this colour scheme may make the book less appealing to boys. The cover with the blue border creates a more gender neutral design overall and is very eye-catching but perhaps too much so!

So, I have made a decision. The new cover can be seen below and should be available within the next few days.

Freddie Fiddler is, as the name suggests, rather good at playing the fiddle. He is also very good at puzzles. Any type of puzzle: crosswords, jigsaws and card tricks. He can nearly always find the solution.

The fifth member of Captain Silyvoice’s pirate six-man crew is Gappy Gunther. Please take a look!

Gappy Gunther only has three teeth. This doesn’t bother him at all. He is always smiling and fortunately his favourite food is soup, octopus flavour in particular. Gappy Gunther is an extraordinary whistler. He can whistle any tune you can name.

My new pirate book (the first in a series of 3 adventures) is progressing well and I have been using my blog to give a taste of what's to come. The illustrations for Lyrical Len (complete with his nose job), Bob Bob and Big-bellied Ben have already been unveiled. The latest addition is Lofty Lightfoot, illustrated by Emma K.L Hunt.

Lofty Lightfoot
The tallest of all the crew, Lofty is surprisingly light on his feet. He can trip the light fantastic with the best of them (that’s dance to me and you) and is always cart wheeling and back flipping his way around the deck.

A few years ago I wrote a story about the pirate, Captain Sillyvoice. It wasn’t a picture book. It was longer than that and it also involved a family who were able to magically travel to new and adventure filled lands. My friend Carol had read this story at the time and remembered it. She suggested that I should bring back the Captain to feature in my picture books. We were discussing possible crew names and she came up with the idea of ‘Bob Bob’ because his head is always bobbing up and down. I liked it then, and I like it now! Thanks Carol!

So, here is Emma’s brilliant illustration of Bob Bob.

This is the second character from the Captain Sillyvoice books; Lyrical Len can be found in a previous post, and there are some more coming soon!

P.S. Thank you to everyone for the comments in response to the Lyrical Len post - please keep them coming! 

Any feedback is always appreciated.