A Mixed Bag of Lollies and a Book Full of Splats!

It is wonderful to have Johanna Bell returning to the blog (see previous post here) to share insights into her latest book What is a Splat? and how its development aligns with her life and passion for writing. The spontaneity between Johanna's words and Amelia's illustrations is delightful and full of joy.

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of university visits with creative writing students and they often ask about my career into writing. I wish I had a neat  answer but my pathway looks more like this illustration by Amelia Luscombe our recent book What is a Dot? (which was a 2025 CBCA Honour Book 😊 )

What is a Dot? - inside spread (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

My first career was in social research and program evaluation but when I was in my early thirties I decided I’d had enough of research and I quit my job to start a community arts studio called StoryProjects. For the next decade, I spent most of my time working on projects that elevated new voices and stories from the Northern Territory. Because I believe the form should fit the story and not the other way around, I ended up producing all kinds of works – live performances, short animations, podcasts, audio installations, public art projects, poetry collections and picture books. Alongside the community cultural development work, I was writing picture books and working on a novel called Department of the Vanishing which came out in March this year. Shortly after, my newest picture book, What’s that Splat? illustrated by the wonderful Amelia Luscombe was released. 

What is a Dot? - What’s that Splat? - cover images

It’s the first time I’ve had a book for adults and a picture book released in the same period and it’s got me thinking about multiplicity and how separate the children’s publishing industry is from the world of adult fiction.

What’s that Splat? - inside spread (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

When Walt Whitman wrote I am large, I contain multitudes I’m pretty sure he wasn’t referring to a 21^st century ‘portfolio career’ (AKA a professional mixed bag of lollies AKA ‘a multipotentialite’ AKA someone who still can’t decide what they want to be when they grow up). It used to make me nervous, having so many fingers in so many creative pies, but since moving to Tasmania, I’ve become more comfortable with the idea that I’m never going to stick to one lane. Even though I’ve narrowed my practice down to writing, I’m still working across poetry, short fiction, children’s picture books and novels. And I still have hopes of strengthening my visual arts muscle and one day illustrating my own words. 

There’s something about regional cities that supports multiplicity. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have the population size to allow for specialisation (and perhaps that’s true of Australia more broadly when compared with larger literary markets like Britain and the United States). Or perhaps it’s because ‘isolation breeds innovation’ and there’s no shortage of opportunities to isolate in Tasmania. 

Some would say that to survive as a writer, it helps to be a polymath. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m skilled in many areas but I am a dabbler (or some might say a dilettante). I get bored easily. I thrive on novelty and I seek out new things. I’m that person who wants to order the weirdest thing on the menu even though the wait staff give raise their eyebrows and ask ‘are you sure?’  But I’m also good at sticking with something until it’s done. That’s not to say that I pursue everything. I’ve stacks of notebooks with half-drafted children’s books which will never be published. Most of them won’t even be finished. I’d say that 90% of my written work ends up on the cutting room floor. That’s something I’ve been talking about with the uni students at UTS where I’m the 2026 writer-in-residence – the realities of writing. I get annoyed by writers who say that an idea just comes to them and they sit down and write it fluidly in one go. I know it does happen but for most of us it’s much slower and less linear. For example, What’s that Splat? which has less than 150 words was revised so many times I lost count. Amelia and I both love playful mark making and we wanted to create a sister book for What is a Dot?. I can’t remember how the idea for our second book came to us but we were both pretty excited about creating a Rorschach-like book for kids. Amelia and I are the kind of people who are constantly seeing creatures in the clouds or animals in the knots of tree trunks. I was found a piece of bark that looked like a Doberman and a Bulldog having a perplexing conversation. 😊  

Piece of bark (image credit Johanna Bell)

But I digress. The first version of the What’s that Splat? manuscript was scores of rhyming couplets. Most of them were pretty awful but the ones I liked I sent to Amelia (who lives in Rubibi/Broome) and she started on the illustrations. This is my favourite part of the picture book making process because it inevitably leads to surprises and playful conversations. I should say here that Amelia and I co-created the book. This is quite different to the traditional picture book publishing approach where an author submits a manuscript and once it’s complete it’s then sent to the illustrator. In the latter, the author often doesn’t see the illustrations until they’re complete. With co-creation you back and forth a lot informing each other’s work. 

It’s always a privilege to work closely with an illustrator and I find the process improves my writing as I get to see how my words are working (and not working!) with the images. During the development of What’s that splat? some of my favourite rhyming couplets didn’t work because the concepts were too abstract or the difference in visual scale was too great. Amelia and I worked out that even though the couplets described antonyms, the illustrations had to be part of the same world for the spreads to cohere. For example, the below spreads worked because while they were opposites, they were also of the same world.

Spreads from What’s that Splat? (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

And then there were couplets that I wasn’t that excited about until Amelia brought them to life through her illustrations. Like this spread 

Spread from What’s that Splat? (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

And this one!

Spread from What’s that Splat? (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

But we both knew this one was always going to be lots of fun.

Spread from What’s that Splat? (illustrations © Amelia Luscombe)

Like its sister book What is a dot? this book ends with a provocation for the young reader to create their own artwork. 

And now, what will

this next splat be?

It’s up to you.

What can you see?

 

We hope it will spur children and grownups to enjoy some splatty silliness because ‘sometimes a splat is just a splat but sometimes a splat is much more than that!’

 

Find out more about What’s that Splat?

Find out more about the illustrator on Instagram

Download teachers notes

Download activity sheets

Johanna Bell

Tasmanian author

W: https://www.johannabell.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/JohannaBellCreative/

I: https://www.instagram.com/johannabell__/

Back in the World of Children’s Books

Local Tasmanian author and illustrator, Dani Colvin provides insights into how past connections to children’s books has now culminated in the publication of her first picture book, I Believe in You.

 

My return to the world of children’s books is proving to be a fascinating one.

 

For 16 years, until 2014, I wrote a children’s literature review column in The Sunday Tasmanian. For 12 years, I was a teacher aide (for two of those years, I ran a primary school library), and for 15 years, I was mum to two school-aged boys who were voracious readers. 

 

Over these years, I was immersed in the world of children’s books, and it was wonderful. But the column ended, I changed jobs, the boys grew up, and life moved in another direction.

 

However, many years later, as a debut author and illustrator of a picture book, here I stand again, two feet planted in the children’s literature landscape, and I’m scanning the terrain to try to understand how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.

 

I must confess that, only 92 days in, (today I celebrate my book’s 3-month birthday), I don’t have a definitive answer, but I’m very much enjoying the journey of (re)discovery. 

Some quick thoughts:

1. Over these last three months, I have visited several dozen bookshops, and found them to be busy, vibrant places full of passionate people - both the staff and the customers. Many bookstores put in a lot of effort to remain engaged and engaging in different ways, from including cafes or running craft classes, to hosting special events and participating in campaigns like Love Your Bookstore Day. This makes them feel more like community hubs than ever before. They are physically gorgeous spaces with a kind of buzz about them that is appealing and infectious. I do hope they’re doing ok.

2. Obviously a lot has happened in the tech world in recent years, and I’m reading articles like a recent Courier Mail piece pondering the impact of smart phones on children’s reading, comprehension, writing and deductive ability, with one in three students across the country still falling short of the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks.

I’m pretty sure the reasons for our educational woes are a lot more nuanced and complex than ‘kids don’t even text using words, they just use emojis and acronyms.’ Economic disadvantage, parents who didn’t complete high school, and numerous other social and systemic factors are surely at play here. But I do wonder about the impact of screen time on children’s concentration; fast-moving images, bite-sized chunks of information, and lots of bells and whistles probably make the silent practice of reading and absorbing written words on a page seem rather dull for children already struggling. I’ve been told about the rise in the popularity of graphic novels; is this because kids need the images to keep them engaged in text, or is it nothing more than kids of my generation loving Richie Rich and Archie comics - as well as books? 

3. Still on the subject of tech, I loved watching Anna Funder and Sally Rippin speaking recently to the Senate Select Committee on adopting AI, about the impact of data mining on the book industry, and on authors who are having their life’s work stolen and stripped for parts. 

I am not sure how any of this will work out, but I do know how happy I am to return to this world of writers and creators, and passionate people who still believe in the power of books to change lives.

Dani Colvin

Author/illustrator

Instagram: @danicolvinbooks

FB: https://www.facebook.com/people/Dani-Colvin-author-illustrator/61578470721165/

Editor's note: I Believe in You is a heart-warming and uplifting picture book. Read a review here. 

Discovering Digger Digs Down

This week we welcome author Johanna Bell and illustrator Huni Melissa Bollinger to talk about their publication, Digger Digs Down published by University of Queensland Press. Recently settling in Tasmania, this dynamic duo have produced a delightful and exuberant story about how a dog, left alone for the day, entertains himself by … digging!

 

 

“Digger digs deep, deep into the ground. Down, down, down goes Digger until …”

(Digger Digs Down)

Jennie Bales speaks with Johanna Bell and Huni Bolliger

 

Johanna, how did the idea for this book come about?

 

When my daughter, Amara, was little, we used to make up stories and poems to pass the time. One morning she said ‘Digger digs’ and when I asked ‘Where does Digger digs?’ she said ‘Digger digs Down. Digger digs deep, deep into the ground.’ I loved the alliteration and the rhyming so I wrote it down on the back of a receipt and stuck it to the fridge. It was quickly covered by bills and school newsletters and forgotten. It was only when the fridge broke, five years later, that I rediscovered her words. I remember thinking ‘This would make a great picture book’ and not long after, I was at the computer finishing off the story. In short, this book wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t imagined the first lines. 

 

How has place influenced this book and how has your time in Tassie shaped the story? 

 

We both lived on Larrakia country (Darwin) before moving to Tasmania. Darwin is built on porcelanite, a sedimentary stone that has layers of pinks, purples, oranges and whites. Living somewhere where the rocks are so multicoloured certainly made it easier to dream up a colourful underground world. And Darwin, like other places, has a lot of bored dogs who are left in backyards while they’re owners are at school or work so there was no shortage of real life scenes to draw on. 

 

Some of the illustrations were done after moving to nipaluna / Hobart and this is where the inspiration for the rainbow came from. There’s so many rainbows in Hobart! 

 

Can you tell us about the relationship between Digger and his human?

 

The bond between a child and their dog is incomparable and we wanted to be able to show this early in the book. Together with our publisher, Cathy Vallance, we made a decision to use the title page to show Digger’s sadness at the departure of his human. We both have dogs and we know this moment when you head off to work and leave the dog in the backyard. The sad puppy eyes! Later in the book, when Digger hears his owner calling him from the surface, we see his entire disposition change. Even though he’s in the middle of an adventure, he lifts his ear and turns towards his owner’s voice. It’s almost as if he’s smiling. From that moment on, Digger is unstoppable. He’s set on finding his way back up to where he knows his human is waiting for him. He’s in such a rush he almost looks like a little orange whirlwind barrelling up and down, round and round. And when they’re reunited there’s such energy and joy and of course, a mutual love of digging. 

 

Johanna, how do you you’re your work? And were you influenced or inspired by other authors?

 

When I first started writing picture books, I made the mistake that lots of new writers make: I tried to tell the reader everything that was happening. I hadn’t yet realised that the illustrations would do most of the showing and telling. Now I trust the illustrator and their work which means I don’t need to use so many words. Digger Digs Down was a longer manuscript initially but when we laid it out with the illustrations we agreed that some of the lines could go. It felt as if we were telling the reader what to think rather than allowing them to come to their own conclusions. That’s a classic red flag for me. If you get any whiff that you’re being didactic, it’s got to go! 

 

I read a lot of poetry and I tend to gravitate towards poets and authors that use language sparingly. A couple who spring to mind (although they’re not children’s authors) are Max Porter, Ilya Kaminsky and Ellen van Neerven. Their writing inspires me in lots of ways. My greatest picture book hero is Margaret Wild because she writes across such a broad range of styles and forms. Her quiet, contemplative stories are just as engaging as her funny, playful work. When I grow up, I want to be just like her :) 

 

Huni, how would you describe your illustrative style in Digger Digs Down? What media and process have you used?

 

I think I would describe my illustrative style as ‘painterly’. I have used an Apple pencil with Procreate software on my iPad Pro to create all the illustrations. Because I come from more of a traditional art practice of painting and drawing, I tend to use digital tools in the same way that I would use real paint and pencils. Firstly, in Procreate I sketch the image with a digital led pencil, and then I use the various digital paint brushes and smudge tools to layer paints on top of each other to create the colours and textures. One of the delights of using digital tools instead of traditional materials, is the ability to create different lighting effects. I’m a big fan of using blend modes in Procreate to layer up different coloured lights to reflect the mood of the story.

 

One of the remarkable things about this book is the sense of motion. Huni, how have you created movement in the illustrations?

 

Animation is all about creating movement through incremental changes in images from one frame to the next, so I suppose I’ve spent many years studying the way things move in order to learn how to animate them. My own dog, Rufus, is quite a frantic digger, and a joyful playful dog with lots of golden fluffy hair. I watch him everyday as he gambols his way through life and at first I tried to break down his movements in my sketches to create the character of Digger. I found this very difficult and through the process I came to realise that a puppy is mostly a blur of flying hair and swinging ears and floppy tongue. When I stopped trying to be accurate in my drawings and just focus on the feeling and energy of a puppy, I was able to channel Rufus’s movement through frantic line work and messy paint.

 

Huni, the book is set largely underground but it’s actually very bright. How have you used light to achieve this? 

 

Light and colour are very important themes throughout the book, especially because Digger is following a rainbow. I wanted the illustrations to reflect the sort of luminescence and magical feeling that a rainbow emits. One challenge of illustrating a book that is predominantly set underground, is how to make it colourful and light. The idea that Digger is following a rainbow really helped me with this. It gave me the freedom to use my imagination and think about how the light and colours of the rainbow would look if they were funneled into a tunnel and mixed up underground. Suddenly the rocks don’t have to be brown, they can be multicoloured like a rainbow. I was also able to use the natural daylight streaming through a fissure in the rock to allude to the idea that Digger’s owner has come home and is calling him back to the surface. 

 

Huni, this is your first picture book. How did you arrive here?

 

I was always a mad keen artist as a child, constantly drawing and painting after school and on the weekends. What started as a hobby, then grew into a profession as I went on to study Fine Arts at university and then become a secondary school art teacher. I then went on to study multimedia and eventually complete a Masters of Film Television and Animation. 

 

I wrote and animated my own short films for many years. A highlight for me was having one of my films selected for the Hiroshima International Animation Festival which is one of the top animation festivals in the world. I couldn’t believe it! I met so many of my animation heroes in Hiroshima and I was completely thrilled to win the Special Jury Prize. 

 

One of my career ambitions had always been to work on a cinema released feature film, so I was very excited by having the opportunity to make the artwork and 2D animation for an Australian/New Zealand feature anthology called We Are Still Here. This film opened the Sydney Film Festival in 2022. On opening night, I snuck onto the red carpet and did a little happy dance - another career highlight.

 

I’ve been working my way down the career bucket list and next thing was to illustrate a children’s book. I couldn’t think of anyone better to do this with than the very talented Johanna Bell!

 

Johanna, which of Huni’s illustrations best captures the essence of Digger for you?  Why? 

 

Oh gosh, that’s a really hard question to answer because I love all the Diggers! I’d have to say the spread that reads ‘Up, down, up, down, round and round until …’ because in it Huni has captured Digger’s goofy enthusiasm and dig-before-he-thinks personality. I love the big Digger on the right-hand side; the way his ears are flapping and his fair looks like it’s moving. I still have no idea how Huni managed to make Digger look as if he’s actually digging. It’s rare in picture books to have such a strong sense of motion. That’s one of my favourite things about the book - the feeling that Digger is actually moving! 

 

Spread from Digger Digs Down by Johanna Bell & Huni Melissa Bolliger © 

The text in your book is laid out all over the place and really helps to emphasise a sense of movement. Was that intentional?

 

We’re pleased to hear you say this because there was a LOT of to-ing and fro-ing when it came to text placement. It’s incredible how moving a word even a few millimeters can make a big difference. We wanted to create a sense of Digger digging deep, deep down and because this wasn’t possible using landscape spreads we decided to flip the book every now and again to create a skinny vertical panel. It was really important to both of us that the text be placed in a way so as to emphasise the actions in the book. One example of this is the spread where Digger runs into the wombat. In this illustration the words are stacked and descending to create a sense of descent. On the spread where the Octopus helps Digger reach the surface the text goes up, emphasising the lifting motion. It’s always a risk to interrupt the conventions of text but in this case, the meaning in the story helps the reader navigate the sometimes unusual text placement. 

 

One of my favourite spreads is the one with the Octopus. It’s such a surprise to end up in an aquatic space. How did you get there?

 

The first draft of the story featured an underwater lake. Digger accidentally dug through the wall of the lake creating a water spout that shot him back to the surface. Clair Hume, (who was the publisher at UQP when the book was signed), wasn’t sure about this and challenged us to think about other things that might draw Digger back to the surface. We did a lot of brainstorming and at some stage we thought an underground whale might swallow Digger and then eject him through his spout. Yes, things got silly. But through all the weird ideas, we kept coming back to water; the idea of an underground aquifer. It’s not unfeasible but also open to lots of imaginative play. Originally the Octopus was a danger that Digger only narrowly escaped but then our new publisher, Cathy Vallance, encouraged us to think about a friendlier creature who could help Digger return to the surface. And so Huni’s gorgeous Octopus was born. There’s something about the large bodies of water that’s similar to underground worlds. They’re both vast and home to hidden worlds and creatures. Perhaps that’s why we couldn’t let go of the idea of an underground body of water. 

 

Huni, you dedicated the book to your husband. Can you tell us about that?

 

My dedication is actually a little ironic and a bit of a gentle stir towards my husband. I have always been a huge ‘dog person’ but when I finally met my life partner, to my horror, he didn’t like dogs! He sort of hated them actually. When we got married, I had accepted that I would probably never own a dog again but as a joke I would often say to him “when we get a dog …” He would just roll his eyes at me and look uncomfortable. Then one Christmas, to my absolute surprise, he gave me a card with a tiny Cavoodle puppy on the front and inside it said “I love you darling, let’s get a dog”. Of course he fell instantly and deeply in love with our little puppy. He’s a changed man and now he loves dogs! 

 

Do you two have another project in the pipeline?

 

We do! It’s set somewhere very, very cold but that’s all we can say at the moment. 

Johanna, Huni and Digger (image © Karen Harvey)

 

Digger Digs Down can be ordered online or from your local bookshop.

Johanna Bell’s website

https://www.johannabell.com/

 

Johanna Bell on insta 

https://www.instagram.com/johannabell__/

 

Huni Melissa Bolliger’s website 

www.hunib.com