I picked a manuscript

The Big Book Walk - Part 3

Jan 09, 2026

Happy New Year friends!

I hope 2026 is kind and brings you buckets of creative inspiration.

For those of you playing along, last year I was fortunate enough to receive a grant to develop a new picture book story and immersive exhibition from my local council. When I last wrote here, I was still torn between two story options. But …

I picked a manuscript!

After much deliberation, I chose Oh, Esme!
It’s a story that has been close to my heart since I wrote the first draft well over a year ago.

(For those of you who voted for ‘The D.A.M’, I still plan to bring that to life. I love the story, but there was just something about ‘Oh, Esme!’ that kept calling me back.)

For the longest time, the ending of Oh Esme! was unresolved. But, I finally had a brainwave a few weeks ago that brought it all together. It’s so satisfying when you find the key to connecting all the parts of a story. So, here is the new blurb:

Esme’s mind is full of stories she’s too afraid to share … and sometimes she falls in. But when she uses her imagination to help someone else feel brave, Esme discovers that her stories are where her courage has been hiding all along.

For anyone learning to be brave in their own way.

Making sure it’s ready

Because I’m self-publishing this story as part of my Northern Beaches Council Arts & Creativity Grant, I wanted to make sure the story was truely ready for publication. So, just before the end of the year I had a manuscript assessment with the incredible Zanni Louise Arnot.

I’ve had Zanni review my work before and really value her advice. I was grateful to discover she only had a handful of small notes and lovely things to say! In the end we spent the second half of the call talking about the craft of writing, which was wonderful. This gave me a lovely sense of confidence to dive into illustration.

Diving In

I’ve officially started storyboarding and working on character sketches. Here are some loose initial ideas. I think one of my biggest challenges is going to be finding a way to differentiate Esme’s reality from her imaginary world.

Here is a more fleshed out character concept for Esme. I want to keep more texture and ‘hand-drawn’ elements in this book. As such, I’ve been experimenting with a slightly looser approach. What do you think?

Next up

In March I’ll be starting a 3-month illustration mentorship with Giuseppe Castellano from The Illustration Department. This has been a long-time goal of mine, and was actually one of the core reasons I developed the idea for the grant. So, I want to make the most of it! My target is to have a full set of roughs/storyboard for feedback so we can get right into it.

I’ll update you on my progress in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you want to catch up on part 1 and 2 of this ongoing series: