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Author of Chinglish

The Blossom Awards

I'm an EmpathyLab trained author!

Hello

I'm Sue Pickford Cheung, a multi-award winning author and illustrator of books for young people of all ages

Mug and pens

I’m now a mentor for homeless people. While I w

I’m now a mentor for homeless people.

While I was writing my latest book, (based on the time I was homeless), it got me thinking - I’d never forgotten the help I got from the authorities: a flat, furniture, curtains, bedding, bags of baby clothes…lifesavers!

At the time, I didn’t stop to wonder who these people were. I was in survival mode. To the point where I was looking for loose change in phone boxes and gutters. But once my name was in the system, it gave me the leg up I needed to get back to college, find a job and keep a roof over my head.

Fast forward, now I’m that support. And after training I can tell you the amount of resources out here is unreal - so no one should ever feel left out.

Thanks to BCP council, my amazing volunteer pals @creativesojung @callieobie and @rhianwilkinson who had to sleep in a drawer for the first weeks of his life (it’s alright he can’t remember!).

#homelessnessprevention #mentor #bournemouth #christchurch #poole

✏️Where do I get ideas from? It’s not so m

✏️Where do I get ideas from?

It’s not so much the source material I’ve got, but the discipline it takes to sit, focus and piece it together. We’ve all got an infinite well of ideas, but it’s knowing how to build on them that creates magic.

They say there’s a book in all of us (true), and I come across people all the time saying they should write one, but they don’t have a Scooby where to start. Firstly, we need fodder. Personally, I like to get myself out and about, mixing, chatting, being curious, asking questions, taking mental notes – having direct experience with people and situations.

Yeah, phone content can be inspiring, but regurgitating it defeats the excitement and awe of the creative process. I do use AI, for brainstorming, helping with technical stuff etc. but ideas? I want them to be my own. I want to deep dive and express myself in my own way. That’s art.

So keeping a mental scrapbook is the first step - easy. The second, actually formulating ideas is hard and for some, the scariest. For me, it means solitude, focusing and crafting for hours at a time. This is a skill I learned from years as an art director, so I appreciate not everyone works like this. Some do it in spurts. And I think this will be more norm as we get wired for bite-sized attention spans.

How this changes the landscape of creativity in future I’m not sure, but I see shifts towards binning AI and going back to old-school thinking again. Which, I believe is where the best ideas come from.

#creativelife #writer #illustrator #ideageneration

Got my sister this piece of art for her birthday…then absolutely annihilated it.

@bakesbytyla #experience

Never seen a black swan swimming from sea to beach

Never seen a black swan swimming from sea to beach before - my mind continues to be blown…

#aussie #wildlifeperfection

For lunch I had Baby, Grandaddy and Gangsta piggy

For lunch I had Baby, Grandaddy and Gangsta piggy pineapple custard bao buns- just cos.

#Aussie #dimsum

Feel evil boiling these. #aussie #eggs

Feel evil boiling these.

#aussie #eggs

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