Thursday 7 May 2015

Alan Gilliland’s illustration portfolio samples

As my illustration website was hijacked by spammers and taken down, I thought I would share these sample pages of my portfolios, cover a range of subjects, styles and media.
Oh, and I have joined the AOI today (Association of Illustrators).












Wednesday 29 April 2015

Work in progress: The Thirteenth Floor

In progress (I am really very keen to get this one off the ground):
The Thirteenth Floor. Teen murder thriller / spacetime travel. First and last chapters and synopsis. Loved by children’s TV/film maker, Maddie Darrell of Darrell MacQueen (I hope you don’t mind me quoting, Maddie): “I have now read the Thirteenth Floor – a great, epic adventure, wow. Why is it not for me?  It is too epic/big budget – indies do not get these sort of drama opportunities (I wish we did)! The in-house drama team at CBBC might be a better bet – they are fully-funded so the opportunity to visualize time travel, Vienna locations is much greater.  What I love (of course) is the time travel theme – nicely weaved and a huge surprise.  I love the scene where Hannah is in the lift but the reader only gradually realizes that all is not what it seems – your mix of the real with magical realism is wonderful.  I worry that some of the brutal truths will be too much for CBBC but it might all be in the execution. 
This feels less serial and more of a one-off.  A feature film? There is something really engaging about your ideas and I am genuinely sorry to not offer more positivity in regard to the move to the TV screen via Darrall Macqueen.”

“It’s a remarkable piece of imagination... but not quite suitable for our list... not quite children’s, not quite adult,” Barry Cunningham.

Any takers?


Thursday 16 April 2015

Curd the Lion in porcelain or is it China?

First results from China simplified Chinese edition show 7,654 copies sold!
(Bringing my worldwide total to around 18,000 sold)
A big “thank you” to all those in China kind enough to buy my book! Tell your friends, please?

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Ukraine reader

How nice that someone from war-torn Ukraine has found time read my blog. Thank you. If you come again, I hope you found something of interest there? If so, please let me know.