April, 2020 | K.C. Sivils - USA Today Bestselling Author of The Thomas Sullivan Chronicles and Other Stories

Miss du Vigneaud was the illustrator for the interior illustrations of The Girl Who Wasn’t There, Episode IV in the Capital City Character Series.

When did it begin to become obvious you had a talent for drawing?

I have always had an interest in art and design. I think I really began improving on my skill in middle school. I dedicated a lot of my time to drawing and painting. My art teacher noticed my interest and really helped me find new ways to create.

What made you decide to become an illustrator and graphic artist?

I have always loved storytelling and art, which is what attracted me to be an illustrator. I do not like limiting myself to one thing and I felt as if I could pursue many different paths in illustration.

In bringing the three main characters in The Girl Who Wasn’t There to life, what were the biggest challenges for you?

My biggest challenge was understanding the characters and how they would react. The three are identical clones, who often have different or limited emotional responses. Understanding how they present themselves to the world in different ways was a challenge.

If you could start over again and create all new illustrations for the story, what would you do differently?

With many artists, they find that they improve as they create. Small things like shading and positioning are what I learned through this process. If I were to go back a recreate, I would add more detail to the background settings. I have always focused on characters in my work, but I have recently found an interest in backgrounds and settings.

Can you explain the process you used to visually bring to life characters that previously had only existed in written form?

My process is fairly simple. First, I sketch out many different ideas I have. Next, I would narrow down the sketches and pick out my favorites. Most importantly, I would pose myself or friends for reference so I can better understand a scene, movement, and proportions. Understanding the scene in my own eyes is what helped me visualize it best. Finally, I bring my ideas into digital form.

In the course of creating the illustrations for The Girl Who Wasn’t There, what did you learn about being an illustrator that you previously didn’t know?

I think something I learned is working with someone else. I have worked on group projects and assigned work, but those tend to be open-ended. Working with a writer to make their story come to life is different. You have to fully understand their vision for the illustrations.

For anyone who is interested in a career in graphic design or being an illustrator, what advice can you offer?

My advice would be to experiment. Never limit yourself to one style or medium.

To check out Miss du Vigneaud’s illustrations in The Girl Who Wasn’t There, pick up a copy! Available from Amazon in Kindle or paperback editions on May 19th, 2020.

The latest author interview is that of British Author Michelle Medhat .

1) What is it about writing and telling stories that drew you into becoming an author?

I’ve always been drawn to writing. Capturing something that floats in my mind and making it real and tangible. Writing I always say is the result of ‘sparking synaptic moments’. I first wrote something worth reading when I was four and a half, when I dreamt of my Grandfather, not realizing he’d passed away that very night. I got up the next morning and wrote my poem ‘Sleep’

When I sleep my beautiful sleep

I see and hear things in my dreams

Of faces I no longer see

And voices I no longer hear

In my sweet beautiful sleep

I woke saying, “Grandad says bye bye” and handed them the poem. My parents were gob smacked when they read it. They’d already received the call from the hospital that Grandad had died early hours that morning.

From that moment on I’ve never really stopped writing. I may have changed style and content, but the thrill of writing – that putting down on paper of words inside me – has not left me. It’s the burst of enjoyment, knowing something has been created, that ignites me to write more.

I love telling stories that are mind blowing. I enjoy taking readers on a journey of excitement, horror and wonder. My writing style has been described as ‘fire and ice’. It’s even been said that ‘I’m a writer with ADHD but everything still comes together’. I know as a reader myself, I adore characters, good or bad, but I only invest in a character’s path in a book, if they are relatable to me. You need to feel that whatever they’re going through, whether it’s on a far flung planet, in an ancient medieval world, or down the halls in Capitol Hill, that they are still accessible to you as a reader. That’s what touches the emotions and makes a story outstanding and memorable. Without that real emotive connection, stories wash over you, and you’re unaffected by them.

Good storytelling enables a sense of escapism. A wonderful feeling that you can fall into a book get lost there. Reading the words, your mind can visualize scenes, you can have your own private movie running in your mind, and the outside world can almost vanish completely. It’s knowing I’m generating those scenes in the minds of my readers, making them gasp, or even shudder, that keeps me up writing at night, and at any opportunity I can during the day.

2) What writers have influenced you as an author? (why and how)

As a child I loved the classics: Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen. Growing up, I moved more toward espionage, mystery thrillers and science fiction. Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsyth, Tom Clancy, John Le Carré, Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, James Patterson and Alfred Hitchcock. More recently, JK Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, Richard K Morgan, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Dan Browne and Sam Bourne.

Perhaps, the one common denominator in all of these writers that I love and have been heavily influenced is their ability to enthrall. That fundamental ability in good storytelling to hold the reader captivated, not knowing quite what to expect, and reading forward that bit more than they had intended to. That style of ‘unexpected, mysterious, unputdownable’ is what I’ve attempted to capture in my own writing, albeit with my own quirky signature style included in the mix.

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