I thought it would be fun to share a little bit about bringing Megara to life for Megara’s Magic School: Bedtime Spell for Dragon Realms. Writing a story is one thing but honestly collaborating and seeing someone so talented as Kateryna, the illustrator, make the characters and places magically come to life was such an incredible experience, joy and privilege and a surprise bonus of writing for younger children!

Believe it or not, I didn’t have an exact vision of how Megara needed to look, as I suppose my focus was on the reader as the main character immersed in the story, and taking this magical imaginative journey.

When Kateryna and I began collaborating I had to really think about how to bring Megara to life on the page.

We chatted about her character a lot, and I knew I didn’t want her to be a cliché witch – old, hooked nose, warts… she felt young(er) in appearance to me, and I also wanted a more modern look, suggesting jeans, and avoiding shabby old witches’ robes. I envisaged dark hair and Kateryna considered blonde so we tried out lots of different colours.

Kateryna did an incredible job making a modern Megara, and played with lots of different colour palettes for us to choose from. I loved the purple and turquoise/teal versions best. Kateryna also added a light shawl in a modern take on a witch’s cloak and made it wispy and ethereal around Megara’s shoulders.

Originally Kateryna drew Megara with a star clip in her hair but I wanted to be clear she was a witch so we discussed adding a small witches hat, like an accessory on a headband – a modern day twist on the more traditional crooked big black hats of witches!

I also asked to avoid big wild witchy hair and sent Kateryna several ideas of braids she could have, partly inspired by adventurous female characters from films like Wonder Woman and Tomb Raider, and also I love a braid!

We also added glasses, and after the original drawings where we settled on dark hair I suggested a silver streak.

While choosing her nighttime wardrobe, my husband suggested swapping her witches’ headband/hat for a witchy night cap and I have to admit he was right!

I agonised over Megara’s pyjama choices but in the end we nailed it. I also asked Kateryna to add some constellation patterns to Megara’s dressing gown.

Another fun fact – Moondance’s look was partly inspired by a favourite cat of my daughter’s, Minou, in this episode of Petit Ours Brun [Petit Ours Brun s’amuse avec le chat], a big hit in our household!

I had so much fun at every step of this process, I only wish I could draw! Kateryna is brilliant and working with her was absolute magic.

We hope you love the book!

Briony x