The Journal in England with Shoo.

The MeetingLife Journal hits a new country. After traveling across Germany and Spain, it has now made its way North to the United Kingdom. It is currently staying in England, country of folklore, great music, sports and traditions.

Unlike all the previous stops, this time the notebook didn’t stay in the place it landed in. Thanks to Shoo Rayner, who welcomed the notebook in his pretty hometown in the Forest of Dean (Gloucestershire, southwest England)), the notebook was driven all around the place, and was introduced to Shoo’s friends and daughter and stopping off at several different locations along the way.

So who exactly is Shoo Rayner? If you like drawing or you are desperately trying to learn how, his name must have shown up at least once in your Google search results.

Shoo is an international children’s author and illustrator. He believes that drawing is just as important as writing and thinks that everyone can do it. It just takes some practice, a sketchbook and a pencil.

On his YouTube channel, with his charisma and charming voice, he shows people little tricks on how to draw, making everything appear extremely simple and doable.

ML. What are you working on?

S. At the moment I am in the mood for romance, as I am working hard on my Valentine’s Day video, which I think will be great fun and I hope will become very popular beyond my usual YouTube audience. I’m also working to republish many of my children’s books that are not available in print anymore. It’s a lot of hard work.

ML. The travel destination of your dreams.

S. The travel destination of my dreams is Japan and maybe China while I’m there!

I spent 2 days in Tokyo a couple of years ago and feel I need to spend more time there. I’d really like to study Japanese art – both old and modern manga and anime. I would love to be able to explain it on my drawing channel. Japan seemed very alien in many ways and yet I felt very happy there, even on my own. Being so different, with different writing makes it very much an adventure.

I would also love to see the Northern Lights – maybe in Iceland and see all the volcanoes and hot springs too.

ML. What is something you’ve never done and that you’d be happy to try?

S. That’s difficult. I’m really lucky with what I do. If I think of some new thing I would like to try or learn, I generally do it. I’m very lucky to have achieved  most of the things I set out to do. I have my lovely wife and children, who I am very proud of. This is such a fast changing world, I keep myself open to all the new opportunities that come along every day and make new dreams and ambitions as I go along. At the moment I am standing on the edge of becoming my own publisher on Kindle and iPad. This is a whole new world opening up to me. I wish someone could help, but it’s so new, no one has really been there before!

ML. What do you think you’d be able to share and teach?

S. I know a lot about writing and illustrating and ebooks and the internet. I will soon be starting a course teaching how to use YouTube for business people. I also have an idea to teach people how to “write the story of their lives”  and show them how to make themselves the hero of their own story and finish with a happy ending. I have learned a lot from all the mistakes I’ve made in my life – I could teach others not to make the same mistakes, but mostly people don’t or won’t listen! They have to make the same mistakes to really learn the lessons

Ever since the Journal was handed down by Shoo, its cover is no longer the way it used to be. “I felt the book needed an identity, so I put a sticker on the front – I hope others will feel free to add other stickers and decoration too, now that it is not just a small black notebook any more ”