Let’s Talk about Belly Button Fluff with Dave Atze

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Dave Atze is back with some more fluff-filled goodness to share! Like, how his character, Scarlett Von Scruff, was developed; what he, himself, collects; and what hidden gems can be found in his newest picture book, Belly Button Fluff! It’s fluff time! 🙂

Congratulations on the release of your adorably icky picture book, Belly Button Fluff! As both the author and illustrator, which came first – the words or the pictures?

The pictures. And a long time before any words at all.

When did you discover your talent for illustrating? Have you always wanted to be in the children’s book industry?

I have been drawing for longer than I can remember, but it took me 30 years to work out it could be my career. Once I knew that, it was kids’ books, for sure. But really, anything like teaching kids to draw and be creative is super fun to me.

Can you describe your work space? Do you work with a range of art materials or mostly digitally?

I have a home office that I work at. Professionally, I work digitally – the advantages of speed and easy file transfer make work a breeze. But with my personal or “hobby” art I use water colours, markers and coloured pencils and I like to dabble in many other mediums.

Now that you’re an ‘authorstrator’, can you honestly tell us which role is harder – author or illustrator?!

Writing is waaaay harder, for me anyways. I have been drawing for so many years now and I love it so much. The words were the tricky part and I still have a lot of learning and improvement to do.

What do you like most about your curious character, Scarlett Von Scruff? Is she based on anyone you know?

She is loosely based on my daughter Ella, or what I think she might be like. I love her adventurous nature, her curiosity and her want to help others.

Do you have your own ‘weird’ collection of anything?

Maybe not too weird, but I collect 1980’s Ninja Turtle and Transformers toys.

I have Raph and Optimus Prime tattoos too.

Can you share with us the secret message in the book, or do we have to read it carefully to find out?! What made you think of adding this in?

I always knew I wanted to hide easter eggs in the book and little thank you’s to some people in my life.

You’ll have to search for the message, but I can tell you there is a letter on every page to find. The first letter is an ‘I’ and the last letter is a ‘D’.

There is also a dust bunny to find on every page.

There’s a pencil for me.

A pair of boxing gloves for my wife.

A sloth for my sister-in-law.

And the Mum and Dad are once again loosely based on me and my wife.

What do you hope readers get out of this book, besides a hankering for belly button fluff?

A laugh and that warm fuzzy feeling inside. I hope everyone enjoys searching for the hidden message and bunnies, too.

What has been the most rewarding part of creating this book?

Ultimately seeing it come to life. It spent waaay too long in my head and now I get to share it with everyone.

What other fun, funny, gross or silly ventures will we see from Dave Atze in the near future? Spill…

There is a sequel coming out next year and a few other ideas that are making their way from brain to paper. Stay tuned.

That’s awesome! Thanks heaps, Dave! 😊

Thank you!

Please follow Dave Atze at his website: https://daveatze.com/

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Belly Button Fluff is available for purchase through: Big Sky Publishing | Booktopia

Want to Collect Belly Button Fluff? It’s your Chance to WIN!

Click here or on the image to enter to WIN a copy of the adorably icky Belly Button Fluff!

Join us on a fun- and fluff-filled adventure with Dave Atze and adorably icky picture book, Belly Button Fluff, across the blogosphere and at the following media sources…

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