The Very Grand Launch of "Once Upon A Place"

It has been a busy few days leading up to the publication of "Once Upon A Place" compiled by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer.

The anthology was well and truly launched on Monday night in the very grand setting of Dublin's Iveagh House. 

At one point our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, kindly joined Eoin and me for a chat about the book.

It was a lovely occasion, and it was so great to meet with so many of the writers who contributed to the anthology. 

Many thanks to everyone at Children's Books Ireland, Gráinne and Siobhán at Little Island, Nessa and all at the office of Laureate na nOg, and of course my buddy Eoin for inviting me to be a part of this amazing project, and for making the night such a success.

Earlier in the day Eoin and I had a lot of fun at Archbishop Marsh's Library with young people from North Dublin Muslim School, and we also put in an appearance on Swipe TV with Clare and Simon.

Once Upon A Place

Artists often borrow from or pay homage to the work of other artists. 
Some artists also steal other people's ideas simply because they haven't the skill or imagination to originate their own.
I hope it is always clear when I make a visual quote from another person's work that it is done with the utmost respect for the original artist, and for valid artistic reasons. 
Here, for example, is the cover of  Once Upon A Place, edited by Laureate na nÓg, Eoin Colfer and illustrated by me.
Most of you will have noticed that the figure on the rocky foreground, is a visual quotation from the best known painting by Caspar David Friedrich, "The Wanderer Above the Mists".
The stories in the anthology, Once Upon A Place, are set not only in different places, but also in different periods. I hoped to hint at that variety by showing a boy wearing modern dress but posed as in Friedrich’s two hundred year old iconic image. It was also my way of my way of saluting one of my favourite paintings.