We chat with author-illustrator Alexander Slater about Celeste Express: The War of the Wurms, which is Peanut Jones meets Amelia Fang and marks the start of a fully illustrated lower middle grade fantasy series.
Hi, Alexander! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m an author, illustrator and animator from Hertfordshire, England. My favourite colour is mint green, I have an unhealthy obsession with Lego (my collection is large and ridiculous) and when I’m not writing, illustrating or building Lego, I can usually be found walking my cockapoo, Bailey.
When did you first discover your love for writing and illustrating?
I discovered it quite early. When I was a kid I used to think there were only a handful of jobs you could grow up to be (police officer, firefighter etc.) But I loved books and comics and when I learnt there were people whose job it was to write and draw them, that’s all I wanted to be.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The Railway Series: James the Red Engine by Rev. W. Awdry
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Your debut novel, Celeste Express: The War of The Wurms, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Child runs cosmic post office.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect creative stories with inventive ideas, funny characters and art that absolutely leaps off the page! Oh, and they can expect A LOT of art as well!
Where did the inspiration for Celeste Express: The War of The Wurms come from?
Celeste Express was inspired by an online art competition. The brief was something along the lines of “The Cutest Character in the Galaxy”. Most of the entries I saw looked a little generic and I fancied designing a character with a purpose or a job. I settled on a character who was a cosmic postmaster because I thought it’d be a charming job role for a character to have in space. Celeste came out almost fully formed (only big difference was her hair was pink). But I took one look at her and thought ‘there’s a story in this character’ so I never entered the competition and wrote a book instead!
I was also inspired to make the kind of book I would be a super huge fan of if I was kid. Celeste Express is totally the sort of book I’d not only read over and over again but stare at the art on the pages for hours.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I work in the creative industry by day so one of my favourite parts of the process is exploring the core ideas before even typing a word into my manuscript. It’s incredibly exciting to develop a good idea and thinking of all the ways you can juice it, where else the story could go and explore what it means for the characters.
The Stardust bunnies were perhaps my favourite characters to write. They don’t say much beyond just ‘Squeak!’ but they’re incredibly expressive and a tiny bit silly. As I write them, I’m always thinking of how they’ll look when I illustrate their antics and they never fail to put a smile on my face.
Can you tell us a bit about your process when it came to illustrating?
I’m a very visual person, I like to daydream and play the story out in my head like a film. I can see a lot of it before I’ve even started the manuscript and I’ll quickly sketch things like character designs and key moments just to get them down on paper.
Then I’ll tackle the manuscript, during which there’ll be several moments when I can confidently see EXACTLY what the illustration on that page would look like, like THAT’S the moment I have to capture. After the manuscript’s done, I’ll do thumbnails detailing the rest of the art and how they should sit on the spreads and away I go. Cue several months of being tied to my drawing tablets.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
All of this was entirely new for me so figuring it all out was the biggest challenge. This was my first time making a book at all let alone on my own. I’m still surprised my publisher trusted me enough to do it! No one ever taught me the right way to make a book so I had to work the rules out for myself; the best way to compose scenes or interesting page layouts, how to approach colouring, etc.
But I’ve got over 15 years of professional design experience and I’m a fast learner. Now I do know what I’m doing and I’m pretty good at pushing myself to improve.
What’s next for you?
Right now I’m deep into illustrating Celeste Express book 2 which is an utter rollercoaster of a story! It’s got heists, high jinks, a duel across the stars and the cosmic god of cats at the end of the galaxy!
I’m also currently writing book 3 in the Celeste Express series but you’re getting NOTHING out of me about that one!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I’m hoping to pick up some more copies of Dr Slump by Akira Toriyama which I’ve started reading this year and it’s been recently brought to my attention that Square Enix have produced some Final Fantasy children’s picture books so Chocobo and the Airship is a must for me right now!
