Remember when I turned you all onto building a website using a blog? Well, this may be the next wave: Wix.com. I have no idea how well it works - but it looks promising. I will say, even the demo video ran very slowly on my ancient computer, which may be a bad sign - but if most of your users will be on newer machines, this might be an option. And I love the gallery set-up. That could be especially useful for illustrators. So, if you try it, will you report back and share your link? I'd love to see one of these applied to our world of children's books!
More research for the picture book I'm illustrating, "The 12 Days of Christmas in Georgia." Did you know that Springer Mountain is the beginning of the Appalachian Trail? Well, it's in Georgia and makes for a lovely bimble. This past weekend, we headed up to North Georgia and stopped at R&A Orchards for lunch and peaches! And then we headed for the mountain. About 20 minutes in on a National Forest road and we were there! Well, sort of. We parked the car and then hiked a mile uphill. THEN we were there! And boy was it worth the trip - it was gorgeous. There are two plaques when you get to the official start of the AT - you can see one of them in front of Stan (the hubsmeister) embedded in the rock and the other in this second shot. There's also a mailbox of sorts built into the back of the rock to hold notebooks for geocachers and notes/postcards people want to leave for whoever is there next. Pretty cool. We also checked out the camping set-ups nearby, and dang. It's like five-star camping up there! And if it wasn't for the bears (which have been problematic of late according to a posted sign) I'd be all over it. It's going to be tricky to illustrate this one. If any of you are hikers, you know that the view surrounding you most of the time is pretty limited in scope (rocks, trees, the uphill climb). Every now and then you come to an open vista like the pic above, however, it can be hard to relate that information to surrounding context. So, it will be challenging to draw. But now that I've been there, I have a much better idea of how to tackle it!
He's done it again. Harold Underdown has once again proven why so many people turn to him for sound advice and a true gauge on the state of the industry. He's written a thorough article he's sharing for free on his website, which I highly recommend you read: "Working in Children's Books and the Recession of 2008-09".
I'm starting something new on dulemba.com. I finally found a program that allows me to record an mp3 which I can then embed on my blog. It's called Audioboo and it's a cool new app for your iPhone.
So here's the reason why I wanted it - to share the wacky ideas I get sometimes that just don't fit into anything else and may have no purpose at all other than being wacky ideas.
It's techno-geek-out Sunday at dulemba.com. I'm messin' around, trying new things. Here's a new app for iphone that should let me upload audio to my blog. Let's see if this works:
Did you even know about this? In honor of all the fabulous music and musicians that have come out of Georgia (it's an impressive list), the Georgia Music Hall of Fame was created in Macon, Georgia. And while it may seem like an odd idea going in, I challenge you to leave without a tear in your eye or a new sense of pride in the state of Georgia. We dropped by on our way back from Tybee Island - again for research. My main characters in "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgia" visit the kids section of the museum and I could find nothing online to help me figure out what it really looked like. It was a quiet Sunady and Hubbie and I walk in a little wary of what to expect. The main display is filled with era-replicas of cafes, diners, churches and other typical music hang-outs. In each are displays of guitars donated by their famous owners: Actual outfits they wore onstage... (my fave was the B-52s - dang she pulled off something I never could!) And old band posters. Stan even found one from his fave band in college - Dreams So Real! But what we really went to see was the Music Factory! This is where the kids can go wild and really experience music. There are booths where you can make and record your own music, become your own percussion/rhythm section, and play piano with your feet. There's a stage where kids can grab all kinds of instruments and become rock-stars (apparently adults like this too...) Stan really enjoyed the "Slap Organ" - an instrument made from PVC pipes and operated with flip-flops! It was AWESOME!! Best of all was the video the museum put together on the incredible music scene in Georgia over the last hundred years. I was blown away by its scope, and the pride of the musicians over being Georgians and Southern and being connected to all those ghosts and spirits that seem to weep their way into the music. But what really got me was listening to people passionate about what they do. It doesn't matter if it's hang-gliding, motorcycle riding, or creating picture books. A life given over to a passion is an awe-inspiring and incredible thing to see and/or experience. I think the hardest part for most people is figuring out what their passion is. But once that's down - the adventure is ON. They say success comes from one part talent plus ten thousand hours of practice (Stan worked that out to be about ten years) and the passion to stick with it for that long (I'm at year 8 with kids books). And there we were surrounded by the sights and sounds of people who were living proof of that theory being true. The chill bumps stuck with me throughout the museum - we were completely sucked in by its energy and ended up staying MUCH longer than we intended. If you can make the trip - even if you're not a crazy music junkie - I highly recommend it!
No really. We went for research. It had nothing to do with the view (click to see it bigger): Or the sunset: Or having dinner with fellow illustrator/SCBWIer Daniel Powers and his wife Silke at A.J.s where Stan and I saw an enormous Manta Ray jump out of the water several times. (All you have to do at the coast is say, "Look!" and point and everybody within a 100 yard radius will stop and watch with you.) And it had nothing to do with the pretty little light house at the north end of the island, or the shrimp salad and raw oysters at The Crab Shack:
No. I was there for research... for that new picture book I'm illustrating for Sterling Children's Books - "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgia" (Christmas 2010) written by my friend, Susan Rosson Spain. (Sterling is doing one of these for each state and I'm honored to be the illustrator for Georgia!) I'm supposed to draw my main characters standing on the pier looking at ... something in the water and I really needed to get a feel for the place, y'know? It was a bit hard to do at first because they're filming a new Miley Cirus (Hannah Montana fame) movie right now. Can you believe they set up an entire carnival on the beach just for the movie? It was cool to see, but a little sad that they wouldn't let anybody in to enjoy the rides (and boy was there a crowd!) Miley is back there somewhere:
Yeah, this is what we drove all that way to see - the pier which was a really stunning architectural feat, must say. The pavilion had these gorgeous arched supports - how did they do that!? Y'know, all jokes aside, there is something about experiencing a place, the temperature, the light, the reflections and shadows, that you just can't get from simply viewing photos online. Did I have to do this to create this illustration? Maybe not, but boy am I glad I did. I now have a context against which to place my mind's eye as I draw and I'm certain my illustration will be stronger because of it. On the way back from Tybee we hit yet another destination for the book which I will write about tomorrow! (No hints...)
Okay, Penguin is brilliant. Have you seen their new From the Publisher's Office? They have a "Screening Room," a "Radio Room," and a "Reading Room." You know we're all talking about technology and reading and where it's all going. I can't quite put it into words, but there is something about this site that feels so... RIGHT. Like this is where publishing is going - or this is what our stories could be. I keep looking at it and chewing on it and trying to come up with what a site like this can mean for me as an author/illustrator. How else could I be branching out and still be a story creator? Go visit and tell me this doesn't just get your wheels turning like all get-out. What do YOU think??? (Thanks to Publishers Weekly for the link.)
I told you I am now available for Virtual School Visits, right? (Read about my first one here.) All you need is two laptops with internet access (one with a video camera), projectors, screens, and a Skype account. Sounds easy enough, right? But what if you don't have the tech gear? Per School Library Journal, there's a new non-profit group trying to help. They're giving grants to get the technology into your schools. So visit Digital Wish to learn more. To read more about my Virtual Visits, click here.
Hubbie and I have begun a new adventure - exploring our own state of Georgia. Why? I'm illustrating a new picture book for Sterling Children's Books - "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgia" (Christmas 2010) written by my friend, Susan Rosson Spain. Sterling is doing one of these for each state and I'm honored to be the illustrator for Georgia! Despite living here most of my life, I'm learning tons because I need to visit several of the sites to be able to accurately illustrate them. For instance, Saturday we visited the Habitat for Humanity Global Village in Americus, Georgia to see examples of the houses they build all over the world as well as the bricks that make them possible. The first part of the tour is an example of the typical shanty towns found throughout the world. And although it's not supposed to be specific to any one region, it looked exactly like what Stan and I saw in Nairobi, Kenya during our honeymoon. The example is quiet and clean, but it's not hard to imagine the noise , smells, and lack of water and privacy people have to deal with. What struck me strongest was the school: Can you imagine the dedication it would take to try to learn in this environment? A friend of mine who works with CARE (with offices here in Atlanta) mentioned another concern students hit - there will often be a bathroom nearby for the male students, but not the females which keeps many of them away for obvious reasons. Also humbling was how it doesn't take much to elevate the conditions for people. Most of the houses we saw had no electricity or running water. The connection to the outdoors was much more tangible. For instance, here is a typical school in Africa: The homes Habitat for Humanity creates in other countries are not luxurious by American standards, but they can be life-changing for the people who receive them. Hand-made bricks are a big part of that. This is what I needed to see: They pack a slurry of ground and water and pack it down into the cavity then use an arm (not showing) to press it down into a brick . . . one at a time. It's hard work and can take two people several weeks to create enough bricks for one home. But the bricks have an interlocking design that makes them much easier for novices to use. In other words, they work. Want to help? You can buy a personalized brick at the Global Village for a donation of $100. All said, it was a wonderful Saturday bimble. Americus is charming. We ate at a new restaurant (Sue Baby's?), bought fresh veggies at their farmer's market and enjoyed the scenery all the way down and back. Mostly, we returned home with a humble feeling of how incredibly lucky we are to live where we do.
Fabulous painting demo by the illustrator of Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer - one of the first Native American baseball players. (Click the image.) (Thanks to Anastasia Suen's Children's Book Biz News for the link!)
Wow. Go visit the blog But Who Will Bell the Cats and prepare to have your mind blown. The author and . . . visual creator is Cynthia von Buhler and she creates models, 2 and 3-d settings, buildings, texture, lighting. I just don't even know how to describe everything she does. But the end result is truly stunning - something you can't stop staring at. Take the time to scroll all the way through - it just gets more amazing. The book will be out this Fall and announced at the forthcoming official website: www.butwhowillbellthecats.com. Lucky us, she created a blog to show her behind the scenes methods. Wow. Thanks to illustrator Philomena O'Neill for the link.
I get a lot of emails from people who want to break into the children's book biz - heartfelt emails by true beginners. It's why I wrote my article, "How Do I Get Published." Unfortunately, I send them there knowing that my article paints a grim, albeit accurate, picture of the industry. Which is why, I must give a HUGE shout-out to some friends who have busted through the gates recently:
Shelli Johannes Wells just got an agent, and she wrote a gripping round up of her path into this industry so far: The Inside Scoop!. If you want to know what getting into children's books takes - read her post. THIS IS the journey. (And yup, I did it too.)
My right arm in so many ways, Liz Conrad, also signed with an agent this past week. Like Shelli, she had her pick and went with her gut in the end.
And another of my posse, Vicky Alvear Shecter, recently signed on with my agent - we're agent sisters!
So, it's not impossible to break into this business. I have some highly talented and determined friends who prove it. I'm just thrilled to be able to share this wild ride with them!
Ever wonder about the process animation studios go through to make a movie? Here are some wonderful studies, models, and videos posted by one of the guys working on UP, Lou Romano: Art of UP. The third video is especially nice as it includes some of the soundtrack too - quite soothing. Thanks to Wendy Edelson for the link!
Have you seen the cover of the New Yorker? Everybody's talking about it because the illustrator, Jorge Colombo, created it on his iPhone using an application called Brushes. And here's a cool video of his process:
So, I downloaded the program and gave it a go... I obviously need practice!!
If you haven't heard about the release of the last book in the Percy Jackson series, THE LAST OLYMPIAN, than you obviously don't have a tweener in the house. The author, Rick Riordan, has been on a cross country tour for two weeks promoting it. Monday was his next to last stop in Decatur, Georgia hosted by Little Shop of Stories. Obviously the store couldn't hold the crowds, so the event was held at the local rec center. This photo doesn't even begin to do the crowd justice. It wrapped up the bleachers on both sides and was the most crowded book event I have ever seen for one author. Amazingly, Rick signed every book the kids brought - I'm talking hundreds of kids who had every book in the series. The man is surely returning home with a serious case of carpel tunnel syndrome. I went with my friend Vicky Alvear Shecter and we couldn't help but wonder if we'd ever get crowds like that. "Not likely," we decided, but it brought up the question of why? The answer was simple enough. We don't write those kinds of books. The kinds of books that hit that particular age where kids are soaking up knowledge like a sponge, collecting facts and trying to know as much as they can about a given subject. That age when they adore action-packed series and are not too self-conscious yet to worry about being publicly fired up about something they love. Remember being that age? I do. Back then, I was horse crazy and my best friend and I had collected the stats on every thoroughbred on the racing circuit. We knew them backwards and forward and correctly predicted the winning line-up of all the big horse races that year. We knew our stuff. So do the fans of Percy Jackson. They know their Greek Mythology, even though it's not traditionally taught in public schools, they know it inside out. And they crave more. Hence, the crowds. So, it brings up the question - who is your market? Who are you writing for? Is it a stand-alone novel, a series, or an information junkies dream? All these things will affect your following. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with not writing to this demographic, it's just an interesting exercise to be aware of it. And it's a whole lot of fun to watch 4th graders and up when they are really passionate about a subject. So who are you writing for?
If you've ever attended one of my Beginning Drawing Classes, you know how hyped up I get about line quality. It's often the difference between amateur and professional looking drawings. Why? Because just like shadowing can imply volume and light, so can line. The first thing I have students do in my classes is draw eggs – with line. The line is thinner where the light hits and thicker where shadow will fall. The master of good line quality was Charles Shulz - yup, of Peanuts fame. I spent over six years drawing Charlie Brown and Snoopy for a children's clothing company. To mimic his line quality, we'd draw two shaky lines side by side and fill them in. It wasn't easy to do. And when you look at his work closely, you'll see what I mean. It's something I try to stress when I create my coloring pages - variation of line. It's important and it creates . . . a sense of quality to a drawing. No way around it. Just as I stress getting the color and light correct in your work (read my article, "Illuminating Color"), line is important too. So, Loreen Leedy from my Picture Book Artists board turned me onto this fantastic TUTORIAL (click the image) by Bob Ostrom of how he achieves his line quality. I highly suggest reading it if this is something you struggle with. And while I don't use the blue or red pencils for sketching, or use Illustrator like he does, his method is very similar to how I create the coloring pages for y'all every week. 1. Pencil sketch by hand, usually while watching TV with hubbie in the evening. 2. Scan it into my computer the next day. 3. Recreate the drawing on a separate layer (sometimes many layers) using my Wacom tablet in Photoshop - so I can get that yummy variation of line. (Here's a before and after example.) And Voila! Groovy, eh?
We're writers and illustrators. We hide in our offices and studios, butt in chair, rarely coming out to play. Well, if you're working to be published, you're in for a surprising realization. Part of this biz is public speaking - a very large part. For some people, public speaking comes easily, for others it's a bit more work. So where can you learn how to become an effective public speaker? Chris Brogan is a techno-marketing whiz I like to follow because of his sound and useful advice. Recently he talked about Speaking and Presenting - Your Next Actions. He also links to some of his other articles on the subject which are also worth a look. I have a few bits on public speaking myself. Check out What I've learned about speaking engagements. And if you haven't seen it - check out my new video montage of a recent school visit on my Visits page. (And yeah, I gotta get my hair outta my face - my mother's been saying it since I was five.) The main thing to understand is that it will get easier. Knowing your material inside and out can create a comfort zone even in front of a crowd. It's natural to be nervous when you first begin public speaking, but the shaking will eventually go away and you will get better at it. Eventually, you may even come to love it. It can be a lot of fun to hold an audience in your hand while you share the things you are most passionate about.
Great article recently from PW Children's Bookshelf (are you subscribed?) ... "Surprises About Men: Unexpected Lessons from the Other Side." Author of After the Moment, Garret Freymann-Weyr, talked to men about their thoughts about love and se... when it first came into their lives. The result? Some great insights into how the male teen mind works. If you're writing a story with a young male protagonist, I highly suggest you go read the article!
So the San Francisco Center for the Book has put together a gallery exhibit called "Once Upon a Book" - as they say:
...this is the second in a series of children's book exhibitions. This show explores the creative process in the work of six critically acclaimed illustrators: Elisa Kleven, Remy Charlip, Maira Kalman, David Macaulay, Chris Raschka and Brian Selznick.
It runs May 4th - August 7th at The San Francisco Center for the Book. However, if you can't physically make it to the show, they have a GREAT series of videos of the illustrators talking about their process online! Very cool!
I used our new Flip Video Camera at my last school visit in Clanton, Alabama to see if I could finally join the world of YouTubers and the like. Mostly, I wanted a video to share about my school visits and public speaking engagements. I put together the various clips in iMovie - no small task. But considering I'm a complete novice, I'm pretty pleased with the results. What do you think? (It's about 4.5 minutes long.)
WOWSA!!! Get a LOAD of the new website design for Share a Story - Shape a Future! I knew this would be a special event to participate in - but I had no idea the scope our planner, Terry Doherty of The Reading Tub, had in mind! It has become something SPECTACULAR! Y'all have GOT to check it out!
Ever since my Day 5 "Share a Story - Shape a Future" post of "Technology and Reading - What the Future Holds," the topic has seriously been on my radar. I've got an article off to SCBWI for the Bulletin (keep yer fingers crossed). And I just finished reading this fantastic, in-depth article about how our stories are changing at Publishers Weekly: The New Storytelling: Multimedia Children's Publishing. Worth the read!
So here's a cool new thing. Remember I told you about my first Virtual School Visit a while back? Well, I'm not the only one getting into these. If you scroll down in that post, you'll see I'm starting to list author friends who are doing this too. Well Library Media Specialist, Sarah Chauncey, and Author, Mona Kerby, took it one step further. They've started a gathering spot for authors who are available for Virtual School Visits using Skype. It's called the Skype an Author Network and you can see my listing here. How brilliant is this!? I must admit, I really love doing Virtual Visits. It's a cool new way to connect with kids (even the older ones who enjoy the techie aspect of the presentation), and I can charge a lot less since I can realistically do just one session without traveling - in other words, not much down time from writing and illustrating. The only thing I miss is the hugs. Hm.
A good friend has her first book coming out next month (a memoir which I will scream and shout about) and she asked me "what happens on the release date"? I was rather pleased with my response:
On the release date, the hordes of masses that have been anxiously awaiting the release of your book rush to their local indies, causing great mayhem and anxiety, and purchase multiple copies of said book for friends, family, coworkers and random strangers, forcing the stores to reorder and the initial print run to run out, forcing the publisher to realize they have a mega-hit on their hands and they'd best order a six digit print run pronto as the New York Times is beating down their door to make it front page news......
So's a girl can dream....
This probably won't happen...unless you're Laurie Halse Anderson. (Have you seen the hype for Wintergirls!? Woosie - that's how it's DONE!) It's a funny business. We set all these hurdles for ourselves thinking "when this happens" or "when that happens I will have made it and it will be time to celebrate!" The reality is, the successes are more like jumping speed bumps...lots of them, to the point that you don't really notice when the big things have happened. They come quietly as you work alone in your office day in and day out. And as my writer friends and I often say, we're always moving the bar, so we never truly feel like we've jumped it. I wonder if we ever will. At least, that's been my experience. What do you think?
My article "Illuminating Color" has finally been published in the latest SCBWI Bulletin (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - scbwi.org). I sold it to them almost a year ago, so I've been anxious to see it in print. Of course, as with most periodicals, there was a space limitation which cut into what I was able to share about the topic. So, now that it's out, I'm free to post the article in full on my website, including visual examples of the ideas to which I refer, at links & articles - click on the title "Illuminating Color." In the article I discuss the elusive skills that can make the difference between amateur and professional looking illustration - the proper use of light and color. If you give it a gander - please let me know if you found it helpful!
Well, I told myself I was going to stop embedding so many videos as they tend to slow older machines down (mine for instance), but I also keep stumbling across these amazing videos (thanks to Deborah Wiles)! So, what to do? Share of course. This is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love," at a recent TED conference talking about how creative people can deal with the creativity that seems to use us up. Adapting her thoughts on the matter may keep you sane (in your head anyhow), it might even add years to your life! I know I'll be thinking this way. I kind of already do. I often tell my husband, "I have a story coming in" or "A story came in last night - I have to write it down." I'm also feeling pressure to complete this dummy I'm working on, because I feel the idea is on loan. If I don't work through it fast enough, the muse may share it with somebody else. (A possible reason so many vampire novels came out at the same time.) I need to get on it. Do you feel that way too? Are you the creator, or does the creativity work through you? Watch the video and leave a comment - I'd love to hear how it works for you!
OMG, I heard this was debuted at the national SCBWI conference in NY last weekend. (Which overlapped with Kindling Words this year - pooey.) It is so danged funny! You gotta watch. Alice Pope blogged during the conference, so if you weren't able to attend (like me) you get a good feel for the happenings at The Official SCBWI 10th Annual New York Conference Blog.
Ever wonder if your writing habits are similar to those of famous writers? Daily Routines is a new blog which lists the writing habits (when they could be found) of several writing greats. And it's a surprisingly fascinating read. What I found most interesting is that most writers seem to only be able to write a few hours a day - they must be taken by the muse and that can only be allowed for so long as it's a somewhat uncomfortable state. (And I must admit to feeling the same way.) What's your writing schedule?
So what are your writing/illustrating goals for 2009? Add 'em below in comments or join the discussion on my facebook pro-page. I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!
Tuesday I experienced my very first Virtual Visit with Austin Middle School in Dawsonville, Georgia. And can I just say - Technology ROCKS!! It’s a known fact that students are inspired when they can meet a working author or illustrator. They get to talk to a real person who has struggled to achieve a goal and succeeded - proving that they too can reach their own dreams if they are willing to work hard and focus. You can’t get that kind of real-world inspiration from a text book. But times are tough and many schools don’t have the budget to hire an author or illustrator to visit their school. And sometimes it's just not possible to easily fly somebody to a more rural location. So, what can those schools do for their students? Well, in this digital age we can take advantage of technology in new ways that can truly benefit our kids and maybe change their lives. I know there's been a lot of talk about Virtual Visits, but I haven't heard much from anybody who's actually done them - so here's the round-up of our experience! How it worked... I advertised the option for a Virtual School Visit on my website and my newsletter and offered my first one free to a school willing to experiment with me. Meredith Lowe, Art Education Teacher at Austin Middle School, contacted me and we went from there. She ordered my books, read them with her students and they started gathering questions. About three weeks before our date I sent a package containing giveaways, postcards, bookmarks and activity pages for the kids to use. The day before our visit, Meredith and I did a trial run using Skype's video option (free). Because it was something new, there were a few hiccups. For instance, there was some resistance to setting up a Skype account from the school, but we got past that and I shared my account name so we could connect. (At first it's intimidating to use, but once you're in there it's amazingly easy.) We also realized the need for external speakers and a webcam on her end so that I could see and react to the students. We got the speakers, but not the webcam. They could hear and see me, however, so we felt confident the visit would work. On the day of our visit, we connected online that morning to make sure we were ready to go. When we signed back on at 8:45, the kids had been gathered and we were off and running! Here’s what the kids saw: Meredith set up two projection screens and two lap tops. On one computer we connected using Skype so I could talk to the kids. On the other computer, she connected to my online presentation via the internet. I had created a home page to work from for our visit and she clicked to my online slide show (created through my .mac account), my picture book The Prince’s Diary on Lookybook.com, Paco and the Giant Chile Plant online, and a work in progress - my first picture book as author/illustrator, "Soap, soap, soap ~ Jabón, jabón, jabón." I'm looking into having an online white board in the future so we can do a demonstration drawing as well. Here’s Meredith's control center: Here’s what it looked like on my end: This looks like computer overload, but it’s really not that complicated. I am due an upgrade on my main computer - so the only webcam I have is on our laptop. But while I talked to the kids on my laptop, I scrolled through my slideshow, etc. on my main screens behind it. I just asked Meredith to forward a slide when we were ready to move on. The great thing about this visit is it offered a new angle. It wasn’t just about me and what I do as an illustrator, it was also an exercise in technology, so held special appeal to these gifted middle-school students. It also meant I didn’t lose an entire day to traveling which means I can physically do more of these while dealing with my tight illustration deadlines. What did I miss? Well, I hope to be able to see the kids via webcam during future visits. I really do react to and feed off a crowd, although they shouted and cheered for me which was fantastic! And I couldn’t sign books, although I hope to work out a signing arrangement if books are pre-ordered through my local independent book store. Most of all, I wish I could have hugged these guys for creating such wonderful greetings: But all said, our visit was a huge success. Meredith said, “The kids talked about your "visit" all day and were really amazed! The teachers wouldn't stop bragging either! Even our principal joined us! Thank you so much for your well organized slides and your excitement!” Best of all, a Virtual Visit is an affordable option for schools who otherwise wouldn’t be able to invite an author or illustrator to visit their students. I’m offering them at $300 per session and look forward to doing more!
Update: I'm not the only one doing these now! Check out author, Arthur Slade's recent virtual visit here!
I adore endpapers. It has nothing to do with the fact that I worked at a children's clothing company for many years and had to create fabric prints...nooooo. Endpapers are a way to segue into a story from a different angle than just telling the story. They are an opportunity to introduce elements or themes the reader should pay special attention to. And they can be flat out beautiful. Unprinted endpapers to me are a missed opportunity and oh so sad. So I was thrilled to read Shelftalker today and find out that there is an online collection of endpapers at Drawger. Got an hour to kill? Ahhhhh. So here are some of the endpapers I've created for my books...
They're doing it again - trying to sneak it through congress during the lame duck session. Please, contact your congressperson (click below) and don't let this go through unopposed. This bill would be devastating to our creative careers. There are some big companies set to make a lot of money off this bill. We have a tough fight. Please help.
Swing back to my graphic design days today. This is a great display of how some very familiar logos/brands have changed and evolved over the years (thanks to chrisbrogan.com for the heads up). This may seem off topic, but it's really not. When I talk to illustrators about self-promotion I often tell them to think of themselves as a brand. I encourage them to buy "theirnamedotcom" as their website rather than something unrelated, cutesy, or hard to remember. I tell them, "You just became the next Xerox, the next Coca-Cola." It's important that your artwork feed into your brand as well. In other words, have a recognizable style that only you can create. That way when a publisher or art director has a particular look in mind for a new project, they think of you and only you. Coming from a graphic design background (as I did), I used to think the opposite. "Isn't it good to show you're flexible, that you are capable of many different looks and can help a publisher with different needs?" The answer is no. There are plenty of illustrators out there who can mimic other looks - it's part of the job description for many in-house illustrators (they called us "wrists" or "hands"). Picture books are not the same thing as graphic design/in-house illustration - far from it. Publishers want something that stands out, something that will jump off the shelves as different and new (and wonderful of course). But after that kind of background it can be hard to find your own look or style (it took me years of experimenting). Sure, you can successfuly pull off lots of different styles, lots of different looks, but how do you find your look? How do you find what makes your work unforgettable? I have some ideas:
1) Illustrate like crazy. No way around this one. The more art you create, the more your media preferences and style will slowly percolate to the surface.
2) Become aware of the decisions you make unconsciously - certain colors you tend to use more than others (your personal color palette), angles of light you use by default, ways you tend to draw the human form. These will all tip you off to your own style. And once you recognize your patterns, you can play off those decisions by using them on purpose or consciously manipulating them.
3) Master your way of working. If it's not done well, it will not impress.
I had to struggle through all this as well and it flat out takes time. So, if this is your path as well - it's time to get to work! :)
I received an invite the other day to give an interview in WhoHub. It's a new site with a pretty groovy idea - interviews with creatives. I'm not sure how they found me, or what their criteria of who they invite is - but I enjoyed answering the questions. They were thoughtful and made me think. You can read my interview here. I hope they add more children's book creators!
In my recent talk about "Self-Promotion for Illustrators (on the Cheap)" I mentioned the need to be able to create one's own promotional materials. That means, even artists who work in traditional media need to be able to scan their images, size them, place them on a website, or use them for postcards or tear sheets. The best program to use to do all this? Photoshop, which is most definitely not cheap. But there are work-arounds out there. Art can be scanned or made into digital files at your local Kinkos. Images can be kept in flickr.com accounts to be sized and used for blogs, online portfolios, and other applications. Or you can use one of the many Photoshop-like programs now available online. The latest is called Aviary, created by the founders of Worth 1000. It's a monthly or annual subscription service you use online and can run as cheap as $7.99/month. Or you can use the free trial to see if you like it. I have Photoshop, so probably won't try Aviary - but I'd love to hear from anybody who does. Also, if you know of other options online - please add it in my comments section. Let's make this a resource for illustrators who need to promote themselves - on the cheap!
I mentioned earlier that my hubbie is a long distance motorcyclist and one of his favorite websites is Adventure Rider where people post amazing photos of their motorcycle adventures around the world. Recently they've become wise as well in this thread on m-m-m-motovation. I think this is just as helpful for writers and illustrators:
Just wondering what you were using to sketch Maya with? Marker~ Can't tell in the picture. Also wondering if you have advice for drawing on the spot? I did a visit and a kid asked me to draw an animal, and it was like I went blank......ever have anything like that happen? I had feelings of terror, does a camel have one hump or two, are their ears pointy or rounded, what is the shape of their neck, the whole thing freaked me out...I'm not a huge animal person anyway...but eeks!!! It was a sad camel if I do say.
Hi Donna, During my recent visit at B&N I used a dark pencil to create the base drawing and then colored with pastels. It's a good way to lay in large swaths of bright color in a short amount of time. Of course, it looks pretty crude until I apply my "magic finger" and blend the colors together. (I get a lot of "Ahhhhs" at that point.) I tried several different media to get that visual punch I wanted - quickly - and pastels seemed to work the best. I do try to keep the kids away from the finished art though as pastels are not the healthiest things in the world. I also recommend people hit the art with a light dusting of an aerosol hairspray to hold the pastels in place after I leave. (I usually sign the art to the venue I'm visiting.) As far as quick drawing on the spot? Oh yeah, I feel your pain. A friend asked me to draw a quick sketch of my dog Bernie (who hides in all my books) for her daughter. It was so bad, but supposedly her daughter loves it! You just have to cut yourself some slack on that front. Most people claim not to be able to draw a straight line and they truly appreciate even our roughest efforts.
Note: I'm going to try to be more proactive about answering the questions you leave in my comments - so ask away!
As of tomorrow, the Book Club section of Oprah Winfrey's Web site will offer a list of recommended children's titles, courtesy of the American Library Association's Quick Lists Consulting Committee. According to Diane Foote, executive director at the ALA's Association for Library Service to Children, the organization was contacted by Winfrey's staff in the spring about putting together such a list. "We were gratified they came to librarians to do so," Foote says.
The ALA compiled a list of 100 titles (including both recent and "classic" titles) in five age categories: infant to two, three to five, six to nine, 10 to 12 and 12 and up. The ALA's Quick Lists Consulting Committee has prepared recommended reading lists for numerous organizations in the past, including the PBS Kids Web site, Toon Disney and the National Endowment for the Humanities Bookshelf Grant Program.
Voice is such a difficult idea to grasp, and such a hard thing to define. How do we as writers find our voice? I was turned on to this great article by Kurt Vonnegut on "How to Write With Style," but I found it also described how to find one's voice. Definitely worth the read.
I don't usually talk about politics on my blog, but this particular issue directly affects me as a freelance illustrator. Have you heard of the Orphan Works Legislation that's been sneaking through the House of Representatives? Well, if this Bill goes through, it could directly affect my business - not in a good way. Right now, when I create, I own my creation. It's an automatic copyright. Seems logical. I created it so I own it. I make my living by people paying me to use my art. But sometimes when a person wants to use a piece of art, nobody knows who the artist is, or they can't find them. That's an Orphan work - a creation (music, art, a photograph, etc.) who's creator can no longer be located and therefore permission cannot be saught or compensation offered for usage of their work. Orphan works do exist, and libraries and schools do have legitimate reasons for wanting access to be able to use these works. But that's not what this Bill is about. It started out that way but quickly morphed into a way for commercial businesses to use artwork without much research and without much recourse for the artist. Here's the gist: Let's say there's a big t-shirt company (I mean really big) - that wants to use a piece of art for their company logo which they found on Google Images - a great sketch of a happy sun - they want to use it on everything they produce. They can do what they call "due diligence" (this term has not been defined in the Bill) to find the artist, and if they can't find the artist, they can declare it an orphan work and use it anyway. Say the artist finds out, because the image is now in every store in America. The artist can sue the company for damages, but there's a cap on how much the artist can sue for (not a very high cap). And here's where the Bill protects the abuser and not the artist: the Bill is so loosely defined, loop-holes abound, and if the big corporate lawyer is better, and more powerful than the lawyer a poor little freelancer can afford - the company doesn't have to pay the artist a dime and the artist is out the legal fees they spent and time wasted (which translates to income in a freelancer's world). Most of the time it will literally makes no sense for an artist to go after an abuser (this is true even in today's system). One argument to protect artists against abuses is to create a database for all works to be registered. Sounds logical? Well, this database does not exist yet. The software to search the work in a database does not exist yet. (I'd like to see it search for abstract art.) Whether or not this would be a non-profit or profit driven database has not been determined. In other words it could cost me money to register every single thing I draw or I don't have any rights to my own creations. Let's say that unlucky artist drew that happy sun on a cocktail napkin - there's nothing in this Bill saying how much that artist would have to pay to register that cocktail napkin. Reality check - people illegally download my work for their personal use all the time. Yes, I make my coloring pages available and free for non-profit uses, but I have other images on my website that have been downloaded literally hundreds of times (I can follow this in my stats) - work that I never gave permission for and was never compensated for. So why do I have my artwork online? Because I'm a freelance illustrator and to get new work, I have to advertise myself with an online portfolio. So while it's really rotten, theft happens. Beginning to get the picture? This Bill protects the abuser, not the creator. It could severely cut into my ability to charge for what I do and how I make my living. So what can you do to help stop this Bill from going through? SIGN HERE. Our biggest enemy on this legislation is that nobody has heard of it. One Congressman supposedly thought it was about orphan children. Another was quoted as saying "we must protect the consumer" (implied: not the creator). What!? So, please SIGN HERE. It's time to get as many people aware of this bad legislation as possible and start shouting about it to our representatives. The ability for me to continue creating art could hang on this - so please go SIGN.
Before: After: So I had another one of those pesky birthdays recently, but instead of jewelry or some such, I asked hubbie for bookshelves and some hard labor. I wanted to redo my office. It was starting to close in on me - with piles of books everywhere. I just knew storage could be handled more efficiently. But really the whole thing started with a shoebox. This fabulous lime green interior: I propped it up on my old bookcase and stared at it for months wanting to pull that incredible lime into my office. And then I came across these awesome orange bookshelves from West Elm (the 3x4 set in Saffron!). Had to have 'em! Aren't they purty? So hubbie and I pulled everything out of my office and started over. We painted the walls a pale yellow, called "Cornbread." With the orange shelves, I wanted the shoebox lime and some teal as an accent - it happens to be my personal color palette. What? Don't you know what your personal color palette is? I've found most people have one - especially illustrators. And it really helps to identify what that palette is and play up on the strengths of that knowledge. If you look at my website, you can see it in my main design. And here it is in swatches: The pale yellow is my neutral, the main colors are Orange, Lime and Teal. To find your own palette - lay a bunch of your art on the floor and stare at it. Are there certain colors you seem to use again and again? See if you can narrow it down to three. The hardest things to paint turned out to be my filing cabinet and stereo cabinet, four coats of paint later they were a lovely shoebox lime - a perfect match. The cool thing was the stereo cabinet ended up fitting perfectly underneath a parsons table I dug out of my parents basement. It was my grandfather's, and I couldn't get it out of my head when I first saw it. I loved its clean sqare lines and modern sensibility. Stylistically, it's a perfect match to my new orange shelves, and the color is a dead on match for the walls - sometimes I scare myself. By sliding the stereo cabinet underneath I ended up with an awesome credenza. And kismet - the orange magazine boxes slid into the album slots so perfectly, I couldn't have planned it any better. This kind of thing downright excites me: To top it all off, I painted my old wooden chair aqua. It ended up lighter than I planned (teal), but it's growing on me. Now with my lovely orange shelves and the black bookshelf by the door, I finally have enough storage for all my books - yippee!! (Ooo, I wonder if hubbie noticed his shirt matched the shoebox?) The only thing missing now is my ego wall like in my old office. I think I'm going to reign it in just a tad (that was a lot of holes to spackle) and put two pin boards over my credenza. Maybe this weekend. Honestly, the biggest experiment in my new space was the removal of my drawing table. I've never been without one and I hemmed and hawed. But since I went digital, I was really only using it as a cutting surface and not often enough to warrant the enormous space it was taking up. We'll see if I miss it too much, but so far, so good. So, can I tell you what a good giftie this was? We purged, we scrubbed, we reorganized (and we're both still sore). But my soul just feels calm and content now when I sit down to work in my new space. Of course, that's when my men let me use it...
I used to make simple repeats when I worked for a children's clothing company (wayyyy back when). I occassionally still do it, like for the endpapers for Paco and the Giant Chile Plant (which I am using as the background for my website right now). But this is the best tutorial I've ever seen on making a complicated pattern in repeat. Check it out at Design Sponge!
How cool is this!? Librarian and fellow blogger Jackie Parker has been writing for ForeWord Magazine, and recently put out a call to bloggers on one of my message boards. She had lots of questions like: Were you already published when you started blogging? Why did you start blogging? Why do you continue? Has your blog changed over time? How has blogging affected your career?
Several of us responded and she's collated our answers in "Let's Hand it to the Girls," her latest (and unfortunately last) Shelf Space entry. I loved reading the other responses, and found that we all seem to have similarities in the when, why, hows. So if you're thinking about diving into the blogosphere yourself - go have a read. Maybe you'll get some ideas. And if you already blog, maybe you'll see some similarities to your own journey. Fun stuff!
My publisher for Paco and the Giant Chile Plant, Dawn from Raven Tree Press came to town for the International Reading Association (IRA) along with Dick, the owner of their parent company, Delta Systems. They treated me to dinner on Cinco de Mayo where we talked about fun project ideas. Then Thursday Dawn and another Raven Tree author/illustrator, Sheila Jarkins (check out her new book coming soon - Marco Flamingo), and I took a day to talk to some important people here in Atlanta. First were my friends at the Latin American Association, where I take my Spanish lessons. Since Delta Systems specializes in ESL materials for all ages, and Raven Tree specialized in bilingual picture books, they were a natural fit. Our meeting was enormously successful and we were able to enjoy lunch at the Cuban sandwich restaurant across the street afterwards. Our second stop was to a new bilingual bookstore and educational facility in Alpharetta, My Spanish Workshop. I was thrilled to find out about this local resource. Third was The Reading Tree, our latest independent children's bookstore in Alpharetta. There we talked to friends, Cindy and Martha about exciting happenings in the independent children's book business. And from there we headed to my extended home, Little Shop of Stories. Of course, we were also exhausted, so hung out at The Brick until Sheila's son picked her up and Dawn left on Marta for the airport. But we got some great time to sit and try to digest all the information from the day and talk the biz. (Here's Dawn squinting in a sudden wind gust, Sheila, and me.) Do all creators get opportunities like this? To show off the places where the magic happens in their cities to the people who make the magic happen with their books? I hope so, because it was a wonderful experience for me. And I loved putting faces with the people I email with. Bonus was they are wonderful people and we all got along so well (and had a lot of surprising things in common), I know I have new friends.
Well, Paco has been properly celebrated with awesome kick-offs at the Alabama Book Festival, Cedar Valley Arts Festival, the Georgia Center for the Book, Mami y Yo, Barnes & Noble, The Reading Tree, and Little Shop of Stories. I finally get to sit back and relax (HA!). I tell you - with having to be at so many engagements, sometimes back to back, I have developed a system for creating a smooth presentation, so I thought I'd share my method. First is the bag. I use my SCBWI Southern Breeze tote to carry a copy of all my picture books, book marks, signing pens, a bottle of water, my camera, my drawing supplies (black pencils and pastels), publisher catalogues and postcards, and the folder. I keep it together so I can just grab it and go. The folder (which goes in the bag). I bought a bunch of yellow school folders and printed stickers with my name to adhere to the front. In the pockets I include a bio page with photo, a list of my books with a quick summary of each, information on school visists, master copies of my coloring pages and word find puzzles, bookmarks, and my invoice with a feedback form and a self addressed stamped envelope (if it applies). Most of these items are available for download beforehand on my Media Page (even how to pronounce my name), but I like to make sure I have a hard-copy with me. Loosely I include google maps if I'm driving to a destination which I'm not familiar with, and a print out of the contact information for all the key people I will be dealing with (including phone numbers in case I should become unexpectedly delayed). If I'm meeting with new people, media specialists or people who may be interested in inviting me to future engagements - I pull out the maps and info page, and give them the folder for future reference. Next, the illustration demonstration supplies. Having been to a few book signings early on where they didn't have an appropriate (or easy) easel, I finally bought my own. I converted a fold up chair nylon bag thingie with a handle into my over the shoulder easel carrier. I also have to carry a large drawing pad - again because I never know what they might supply me with and it's a variable better left figured out. I am probably going to reassign one of my big old portfolios to carry the drawing pad, as it's awkward and unruly (especially in wind or rain). In my purse I make sure my cell phone is fired up (but off during my presentation). I also keep book marks and signing pens in my purse at all times. The bod. It's ironic what you have to think about when you'll be in front of a crowd, but here you go. I dress casually, but ironed, clean and put together. I tend to dress a bit more colorfully than I do in my daily life. I also watch the neck lines - we tend to lean over a lot with kids - I don't need to make it a ride for the parents. And not that I wear short skirts anymore, but that could also cause trouble when your audience is at coffee table level (and I often end up on the floor with the kids). I have also figured out I have to have my hair held back in some manner, dangit. I have long hair, it falls in my face. Fine for every day, but not when a crowd is trying to fallow along with you and it's important you stay connected with them. Finally, the presentation. I end up speaking to all different age groups, so I have a library of activities in my head appropriate for each. The littlest ones are good with a reading, a demonstration, and coloring pages. A little older, and you can play some games too. The main thing is to keep them involved to hold their attention. For even older (4th grade and up) I have a slide show about what it's like to be an illustrator. Now I know a lot of people carry around projectors and laptops with power point and the like, but I'm not a good trouble-shooter and those things can have LOTS of problems at the last minute. What's worked for me lately is I have a slide show, created through my .mac account, hidden in my website. I share the link if I'm going to be using it, then I let the venue worry about getting it set up. They know what works best for them, so I let them handle it and they can get any kinks worked out long before I get there. So far, it's worked beautifully. (It does require they have internet access at the venue, but these days that is becoming more and more common and has not been an issue.) Giveaways - yup. Good idea. I've given away everything from coloring pages and bookmarks to maracas and sombreros (ordered from the Oriental Trading Company). The sombreros were a bit big and unruly, but when I saw the look in the eyes of the kids who won them (during a quick Spanish quiz after reading Paco) it made it worth it. Giveaways don't have to be expensive, so get creative! If books will be available for sale, I let the booksellers handle that end. (Hopefully we've been in touch beforehand and I've supplied them with all the ISBN #s and the title of the book I'll be featuring.) I just keep my pens handy. It does help if they supply sticky notes for people to write the names for the dedications. It's amazing how creative people can get with the spelling of some of the most common names and you don't want to get it wrong! I also have tag lines I use for signing each book. After a while, your hand will write it without a lot of thinking which is important because people always want to talk to you while you're signing - you need to be able to multi-task. And speaking of being in touch beforehand, most events are scheduled months in advance. I touch base as we get closer (in time for books to be ordered if necessary), and again a week before and the day before the event so I know they are expecting me and everything will be in order. It also helps to drum up excitement and get me focused on what's coming. It's also important to have one main contact person for this - this is often the same person I hand my camera to before I speak. I ask them to please try to include the audience in the pictures (as a picture of me alone is purty darned boring and doesn't share the feel of the venue). And I make sure to let everybody know I'll be blogging about the event and have free activities on my website. So that's it. This is my method for making sure my presentations go smoothly, that I have everything with me, and that I can leave fun things behind for the audience to remember me. But even with everything in place, it's important to remain flexible. You can't control the size of the crowd (which will vary wildly) or their moods (expect that you will sometimes have kids who misbehave). And you need to be creative on the fly. But that's part of what makes speaking engagements so enjoyable - they're a constant puzzle of how best to entertain the audience you have and they can be lots of fun to do!
A question came up on one of my message boards about business cards. Well, I don't hand out business cards, I hand out bookmarks. Several people liked that idea, but had questions and I thought it would be good information to share on my blog. Here are my two latest bookmarks: (Click a bookmark to open a version you can print and cut out!) I created these in Photoshop using my own art. The one on the left lists several of my books, while the other just promotes one book - Paco and the Giant Chile Plant. The one on the left I had printed at Kinkos - eight up on their 11"x17" cardstock (which kept the color pretty accurate - don't use their gloss stock). Here's what my .pdf file looked like: What you may not be able to see here is that I extended the size of my bookmark 1/8" around all outside edges here and placed crop marks where they should be cut down. (Kinkos can do this.) This guarantees I won't have white space showing around the edges and is the most efficient use of paper. I didn't have anything printed on the back for this round. Kinkos does a great job, but ends up being more expensive per bookmark. (And they are only as good as the person helping you, so they require a lot of hands on.) So, I searched out another printer for bulk. I've just started using a local printer, Claxton Printing. My main reason for not wanting to go with one of the large online printing companies like VistaPrint or others, is that I wanted to be able to see a proof - maybe even swing by to have a look if I needed it quickly. (I also like to support local businesses.) Another advantage is that I didn't have to set up the file for them. I just sent them one bookmark design (as a .pdf with the image extended 1/8"" all around) and they took it from there. They did a great job on my Paco bookmarks, and I got 500 bookmarks for about the same price I used to get 200 at Kinkos. (I also added information to the back of the Paco bookmark in black and white which you can also download by clicking the image to the right.) I tend to prefer a bookmark about 2 inches wide, although my heights have varied. However, I've found the shorter bookmarks easier to deal with in my purse. I also think, in the future, I may stick with a bookmark that shows several books - that way I can put it with any book I sign (I always give a bookmark when I sign a book), and it advertises my other books. But in the mean time, I've got about 400 more Paco bookmarks to give away! The main thing with bookmarks is I'm trying to let people know about my books and drive them to my website where they can download free coloring pages, word find puzzles, computer wallpaper, etc. Hopefully, they'll visit again and again and still be around when my next books come out!
The Spring Conference for the Southeastern region of the SCBWI (Southern Breeze) is quickly approaching. I am actually going to do a skit for the opening entertainment - gads! (Hence the purchase of the lovely bunny slippers.) Anyhow, there are still a few openings left. (Shocking, as the last few years were sold out!) So here's the info if you know anybody who may be interested – maybe YOU!
Book Writing & Illustrating Seminar! Springmingle ‘08 • February 22-24 Sponsored by The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
This is sure to be a spectacular seminar! The publishing houses represented acquire everything from picture books, MG books and YA novels, to poetry written by adults for kids – and they are looking for new talent!
Featured SM08 speakers include: - Editor Robin Tordini of Henry Holt (NY) Ms. Tordini acquires genres from picture books to young adult novels. She says, "Naturally, I’m always looking for interesting manuscripts and illustrations, too." www.henryholtchildrensbooks.com
- Editor Jennifer Wingertzahn of Clarion Books (NY) Ms. Wingertzahn acquires picture books, novels and poetry for all ages. She "hopes to find new talent" at SM08! www.clarionbooks.com
- Art Director Martha Rago of Harper Collins (NY) This company and its many imprints publish 600 titles per year in various genres. HarperCollins is a CLOSED house, but Ms. Rago will accept illustration submissions from SM08 attendees! Illustrators – get those portfolios ready for display! www.harpercollins.com
- Deborah Wiles, Award Winning Author and Keynote Speaker (Atlanta, GA) She’ll share her winning inside story. Visit her website – just look at that list of awards! www.deborahwiles.com
- Diane Capriola, co-owner of the bookstore Little Shop of Stories (Decatur, GA) This bookstore has been nominated for several awards. Hear inside tips from a successful bookseller’s perspective! http://littleshopofstories.com
Registration information at www.southern-breeze.org. Hurry – space is limited. Our last three seminars SOLD OUT!
Teatrio Children's Book Int'l Competition Exhibition
I've been invited to attend the opening reception for the 30 winners of the 2007 Teatrio Children's Book International Competition Exhibition at the Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta campus) tonight. SCAD students participate in this competition every year and this year not only are twelve of the 30 winning pieces by SCAD students or recent alumni, but the Grand Prize Winner is also a SCAD illustration graduate, Suzy Maier. Even better, the opening show is in America this year at SCAD-Atlanta. The artwork for this competition is always fresh and cutting edge, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what these new talents have come up with. I'm also happy to see several of my friends (Rick Lovell, Julie Mueller-Brown, and Jay Montgomery), the illustration teachers who have invited me back again this year to speak to children's book illustration undergraduate and graduate students (March 3rd). This is my favorite age group to talk to as I feel they can best use the practical, real working advice I can give them. At this stage, they are bundles of potential bursting to discover what creative voice they will shout to the world - it's an exciting time.
You know, one of the reasons I keep a blog is so I have a place to store links to things I don't want to forget. Today, I'm saving a link to an article by Jeff Vandermeer, "HOWTO Write a decent novel in two months." Hubbie sent it to me from boingboing of all things. It's short, but shares some great secrets to staying focused on the task at hand. I think his best bit of advice was to "Make sure you know what kind of novel you're writing." It helps you add necessary scenes, cut unnecessary ones, and keep the pacing true to the genre. Some of his advice is 'in the back of your brain you know this, you just never put it into words' type of advice. It's part of what I love about teaching. When you verbalize why you do what you do, you learn too. So, I promised to share a bit about my writing process as I work on my second novel . . . All I can say is, wow. And I thought getting into "illustrator mode" was hard! Still, I've done it once, so I know I can do it again. And now that I know what I'm writing (an actual novel), I don't think it will take nearly as long as the first foray did. This story takes place in the 1850s, so perhaps it takes me longer to travel back in time, but once I'm there, I have a hard time getting out! I love the research. I'm discovering so many stories and cool facts. I constantly stumble across examples of 'fact is stranger than fiction' and end up in amused shock throughout much of my day. I'll never include everything I learn, but I need to know enough to make my writing believable. For instance, Chapter Two has a lot of travel logistics in it. So the other weekend, I went to hang out with the Little Old Lady who helped me so much on my first novel. She actually had documents from her Great Grand-Mother travelling to America - even the name of the steamship. So, I spent some quality time on her floor, learning how to get around in 1850. What an interesting time it was. They were practically laying down railroad ties in front of moving trains! And how do you suppose they took baths? Well, I need to find that out... The writing is coming along well too. Once I get in the zone, my fingers can't seem to type fast enough. It's a great feeling, truly. Anyhow, more soon!
If you look to my sidebar you'll see that I've added a link to my blog on LiveJournal - I'm finally going there too (although I'll keep this as my main blog for now). I've heard too many wonderful things about the community and friend capabilities of LiveJournal. However, I don't want to have to come up with new content for every community blog I use (Facebook, MySpace, LiveJournal, etc.) I want to post once and have the other programs pick up an RSS feed. I've managed to make this happen in Facebook (here's the walk through to set this up and here's my profile on facebook - notice the feed.) I also managed to create a syndicated feed for LiveJournal which dumps into my Friends Page. But here's the question . . . how do I get that feed to dump into my Main Page on LiveJournal? And is it even possible in MySpace?? Any cyber-geniuses out there who could help me with this? (I'll do a cut and paste on this for LiveJournal today.)
I always tease about working in my bunny slippers. (As most freelancers will admit, you go to check emails before you grab a shower and before you know it, the entire day is gone.) So, I figured it was about time I owned some actual, real bunny slippers. Look what the FedEx guy just dropped off! Aren't they beautiful!!?? Bernie didn't know what to make of them though...
Oh, I have so opened a can of worms!!! Turns out I'm not the only one in love with funny slippers. Here's my friend Janee Trasler with her sock monkey slippers!! Do you have funny slippers to share?
People sometimes ask what my work space looks like, so I've taken some pictures to give you a peek inside the mad, creative brain. Drum roll please . . . Welcome to my lovable mess . . . Click the image to see it larger in a new window. There are several things to notice in this picture (beyond the mess). First, Bernie posed for me like a super-model. He's in all my books, so be sure to look for him! The bookshelf to the left is stuffed with YA and writing advice books, dictionaries, trade magazines, a turtle shell, a cow vertebrae and an impala vertebra (bones are cool), etc. I work with dual monitors (one is an Apple) and a 9X12 Wacom tablet. (The computer tower is out of view under my desk.) The small chair holds my Little Shop of Stories bag (my local indie bookstore) which is almost always full with my "read next" selections. My portfolio is on my drawing table to the right - I'm pulling it together for the Kindling Words conference I'm attending in Vermont later this month. You can click on this one too for a close-up. Behind my desk is what I have dubbed my "ego wall" and I think everybody should have one. It's grown slowly over the last few years. On it are things that remind me how much I've accomplished in this tough business. We get enough rejections and bad news, so I make a point of surrounding myself with the good stuff. You can probably see the big sign I used at a book signing for Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese, and the poster from the 1st Decatur Book Festival. (And the hand puppet I posted for this week's Illustration Friday.) I've also pinned up some proofs from my forthcoming book, Paco and the Giant Chile Plant, and the owl I sent to Keene State College for their 100 year anniversary parliament collection. Probably too small to pick out are the certificates and letters from Writer's Digest for my Honorable Mention in this year's writing contest (for my story "Queen Bea") as well as from the Southern-Breeze writing contest. Thank you notes, friend's postcards, schwag from conferences or schools where I spoke and images I like, fill in the gaps. Whenever I feel beat up by this business, I just look up. Moving around the room, when you first enter, on the left is my picture book collection, which has also become overflow for my YA books - stacked and two deep. I really need more shelves. (Yes, that's a Howard Finster on top.) The box to the right contains postcards for Paco and the Giant Chile Plant which I need to start sending out soon to announce its release - wippee! To the right of that is the closet. It has double doors which I use as my paste up surface when I lay out an entire book. Those open wide to reveal storage. I keep the bureau filled with dummies, drawing paper, my schwag (bookmarks, postcards, catalogues), rejected manuscripts, etc. The tv stays hidden since I rarely have it on. The boxes above contain art from the last - ahem - forty years of my life. (I threw out the really bad stuff so some future researcher will think I was always brilliant - ha!) To the left of the bureau are rheams of paper, file folders, envelopes - you know, normal officey stuff. It's a complete mess right now. I really should clean it up . . . later. Ugh. Here's the lovely view from one of my windows. I can see the light play across several back yards which is actually quite pretty. Sorry I missed my neighbor's tree in the fall. It's turns completely yellow - beautiful. If you look really close you can see my neighbor's dogs - I spy on them and keep them safe. They're sweeties. In front of the window is our music server. I've told you hubbie is a geek - well, here's the proof. I listen to WUTC out of Chattanooga on this puppy, and all our music is based here and wired through the house. Is good. My collection of children's magazines is below that (SCBWI, Southern-Breeze, publisher catalogues, PW Children's editions, etc.) Anyhow, the rest of the house is quite sparse and serene in comparison to my office (on purpose). My office feels like an extension of myself and this is where my creative juices flow. I miss it if I'm away too long (translation: a few hours). Thanks for letting me share.
It's 2008 and I've made some updates to dulemba.com including lots of new art on my portfolio page. I've added several new articles over the last year that budding writers and illustrators may find helpful at my etc. page. Work in progress covers are up on my homepage with more information about each listed on my books page. Please let me know if you hit any hiccups or just let me know what you think!
I signed the contracts yesterday - "Oscar the Badger" is a go! Written by Karin Slaughter (yes, thatKarin Slaughter), it will be published by MacAdam Cage Publishers (publisher of my picture book, Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese), and should come out in Fall of 2008 - wippee!!! So Hubbie and I went out to dinner last night to celebrate, and I ordered a salad for dinner... but then I had two glasses of wine which made me throw all caution to the wind so we ordered the bread pudding. And then our lovely waiter, who knew we were celebrating, brought us two glasses of champagne! Oh yeah, we did it up RIGHT! And oh yeah, I'm paying for it today... But y'know, you've got to celebrate when you jump the hurdles in this business. So often we have our sites set so far ahead, it's easy to forget to acknowledge the hurdles we have jumped that we once thought we never would. Cynthia Leitich Smith said it well in an interview at Through the Tollbooth:
"I have found that it helps to celebrate every victory no matter how small. You finished your draft? Celebrate! You received a personal rejection letter? Celebrate! Your workshop leader says your story arc is stronger? An agent asks for the whole manuscript? You’ve sold your first book? Your fiftieth? Celebrate! Celebrate! Celebrate! Celebrate!" Allow yourself to be happy! Be your own best cheerleader!
So yeah, I'm celebratin' baby! And I'll let you know more about Oscar soon. In the mean time - Woohooooo!!!
Well, I managed to back up my blog, my website, and change over to a new server with my hosting company without blowing anything up or losing any information - WHEW!! So, dulemba.com is back, new and improved, although it doesn't look ANY different. I have lots more room to share art and coloring pages easily. I'd like to thank the amazing customer support at my awesome hosting company, directnic.com, especially Marc who spent no less than 45 minutes with me on the phone this weekend literally walking me through everything, not to mention his helpful emails. If you're in the market for a new hosting provider, I HIGHLY recommend them!
Illustration Friday: The Blues (and figuring out color)
This is old. I'll say that straight out. But it's got a story. I've told y'all that I was a corporate in-house illustrator for many years before I moved into children's books. Well, I drew this for a box of bird-seed for a gardening company a long time ago. I drew it. I didn't color or render it. It was sent out to a freelance illustrator to paint the final. What!? Yup. At one of the companies I worked for, it happened a lot actually, and let me tell you, it gave me the serious blues. But back then, while I could draw my little tootsie off, I couldn't color very well. I could do flat color, cartoony stuff with my eyes closed. But the fine-art look, highly painterly styles, that wasn't me. "But aren't drawing and painting the same thing," you ask? Not at all. Knowing how to draw with black and white (pencil, pen and ink, etc.) is completely different from learning how to apply color well in any particular medium. Color is a finicky thing. Applying atmoshpere and light with color is a completely independent skill. You can't just make a color darker to throw it into shadow. Colors change, they grow cool and hot, they oppose each other. Color can cause objects to jump forward or hide in the back. Using color incorrectly can make a piece feel flat, or it can push things forward and back that shouldn't be, making the perspective feel wonky. Think about it. Have you ever seen artists who could draw like crazy with graphite, but the second they rendered their art with color, it went south like a duck in winter? When I first dove into freelancing with my own art, I had to figure out what my medium was, and then I had to become proficient with that medium to apply color effectively. It took several years and a lot of work. I feel like I'm only now reaching my stride. Nowadays, the puzzle I enjoy most in my art is tweaking color and light, making them really work. So now, I can finally work with color. I can pull off those painterly looks I always admired, but I always regreted that I hadn't rendered some of my earlier drawings and sometimes go back to them to see how much I've improved. I revisited this particular piece several times over the years in several different mediums (this one is colored pencil), and while I still don't think it's a success color-wise, I did reach a level where I thought, "It's okay." Of course, if I did it again today it would be completely different. Learning how to paint and render my own drawings has been an interesting journey for me though. I hope it's interesting to budding artists as well.
Betsy Bird has taken the leap - she's gone to audio. We can now listen to her awesome reviews along with reading them. She's got a good voice for podcasting and she sounds just as quirky as she reads - fun! (Mostly MG fiction.)
This brings up podcasts in general, and I'd be remiss to not mention some of my favorites. For those who love to follow authors on their book tours, go to Authors on Tour run by the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Colorado. These are mostly adult authors (clarification: people who write for adults rather than children), but they occasionally get some crossovers.
The Library of Congress' National Book Festival. These are webcasts rather than podcasts (you can see the authors), and they have a ton of children's book authors and illustrators you can enjoy. Check out previous year's shows too!
BEA podcasts. These also tend to include a lot of adult authors, but have some great panels and commentaries on the publishing industry. It's where I learned about BookTour.com where you can find out who's touring in your area and go see them in person!
Meet the Author Bookbites. More authors than you could possibly imagine doing private interviews. Very cool.
TeachingBooks.net does interviews with authors and illustrators (webcasts). Not all are free, but a few fun ones are - just to tempt you.
Kidvidlit. Okay, this one is rather new to me too, but it looks like a lot of fun. They're silly videos of authors and their writing lives. (Beware they take a little time to load and crashed my browser once.)
BookVideos.tv also has well done videos of authors talking about their books. (A whole section of children's book authors!)
Horn Book has decided to jump into podcasting as well and you can listen to their first foray: an interview with Jon Scieszka. They have a distinct advantage in their new venture - who wouldn't want to be interviewed by Horn Book? I long for the day when they knock on my door . . .
And last but not least, especially for the kiddies, you can see picture books read online by famous folks at Storyline Online. Very good.
Have more links to offer? Add them in the comments!
I have the honor of creating a snowflake for Robert's Snow this year to help raise money for cancer research. This is the third year illustrators have pitched in to help with this cause, and for good reason. One of our own has been too closely affected by this horrible disease. The story is worth reading about, and the snowflakes, which are auctioned off, are a joy to see. So, needless to say, I'm so happy to be involved.
The snowflakes are all original pieces of art. However I work digitally (the most original art I create is a first run giclee), so what did that mean to me? To the matresses . . . I mean, pull out the paints and see if I can get these muscles to do what I want! The great thing is, while I was improving with my digital art, I was learning a lot about traditional media. I never claimed to be good at mixing colors (which is part of why I went digital). Who knew that mixing colors onscreen would teach me how to mix colors off? Well, that's what happened, and I was very pleased with the results. I didn't think to take pictures until I was well into the project, so I jump around a bit, but I'll walk you through my process: I had to practice to get my hands used to working with a brush rather than a pen-mouse, and experiment with how the acrylics would react. I certainly didn't want to practice on my snowflake! So, I bought a piece of masonite similar to the material from which the snowflake was made and cut it down to small pieces (about 8.5"x11"). I prepared the surface by layering it with gesso. One of the things I always try to achieve with my digital work is that wonderful rich texture and transparency you get with paint. So, layer after layer of gesso, I used a dry brush to cross hatch when it was close to dry. After four or five layers, I had a nice solid white with a rich texture. I then used Saral paper to transfer my art to the masonite. It worked very well as you can see the back design on the left. I also wanted to experiment with "scumbling." It's a fancy word for painting the darks first, letting them dry, then layering thin, lighter colors on top. (This is where the transparency comes in.) It's also about the only way to get gentle shading with acrylics - they just dry so darned fast! (They do make solutions to extend the drying time if you want to experiment, but I didn't want to go there.) So I went in with the darks first. Here you can see I've already started to layer in the turquoise sky and vermillion santa suit. I especially liked the way my workspace came together through this. I bought a set of small tubes of acrylics. Because they dry so quickly, smaller tubes encourage you to squeeze out less and therefore lose less to drying (okay, and after much digging, I couldn't find my acrylics!). It's also amazing how little paint you actually need. I saved plastic egg crates and used them as my palettes. (I can't tell you how many expensive palettes I've thrown away that I could never get clean - this worked GREAT.) By the way, my brushes did not sit above my art while I worked - I've heard horror stories about that kind of thing. I moved them over for the photo so you could see the size brushes I used. So the main things I learned: there are major advantages to working small; use egg crates for palettes; take your time and let the layers build. I have to say, I really enjoyed this. I may actually try to do more projects in the future just for fun. Here is my finished snowflake front and back: I sure hope whoever purchases my snowflake gets in touch!
Little Yella riding hood went to visit her Grandma (with a bag full of bagels from Zabar's and a Starbucks Chai Latte) only to discover . . .
A while back, somebody asked if I would talk about my process with promotional postcard mailings. Since I'm using my latest postcard art for IF this week, I thought it would be a perfect time. I like to use Premium Postcard for my printing. They have no minimum print requirements which means I can send out a very targeted mailing list for less money. They are also run through the US Postal Service, so postage is included in their prices, and I can do everything online, including build my mailing list. When I'm ready to send my postcards, I just upload my art, click the names I want to mail to, and voila! I do, however, mail myself a proof postcard first. PP uses a coated glossy stock which holds up great in the mail and looks very professional, however, it tends to blow out the saturation of my art. So I usually send a very dummed down version of my art colorwise to get a good result. I build my postcards in Photoshop and save them as .jpgs to upload. Here's the front of my latest: Notice I have my name and contact information on the front. Art Directors will often pin postcards they like to a bulletin board. You never know what could sway an Art Director to hire you over somebody else, so make things easy for them. Include your contact information on the front so they don't have to fumble with your postcard to get in touch with you. Here's the back of my postcard: On the back I include my name, relevant title (children's book illustrator), a list of books I've illustrated with the publisher's name and any accolades they've received. I have my website address so they can see more of my art at my online portfolio (this is important and what makes the postcard/website advertsing technique so effective.) I include contact information for me and my agent. The art for this particular postcard is also published in this year's Picture-Book annual, so I included the page number. PP also has room for a small vignette of art - I included the "snout cream" from the bedside table. (This is an actual mailed postcard, so you can see the USPS logo and mailing strip.) I mail different art out three to four times a year to a mailing list I've pulled together by studying trade magazines and researching online. It's down to a select group of Art Directors and Editors with whom I'd especially like to work. And that's it! Hope you find this helpful.
I love posting these when I come across them: M E D I A R E L E A S E
CONTACT: Virginia S. Grenier Editor, Stories for Children Magazine Email: storiesforchildren@vsgrenier.com
For Immediate Release
Stories for Children Magazine Is Looking for Young Writers!
Stories for Children Magazine, which debuted April 1, 2007, is looking for stories, articles, and poems written by young writers ages 17 year old and younger.
VS Grenier, editor of Stories for Children Magazine stated: "Stories for Children Magazine is not only for adult writers. One thing that makes us who we are is that we also publish stories by children and teens.
After writing for magazines I noticed that there were only a handful that allowed underage writers. I couldn't believe it. How could the writing world not embrace the young it already writes for?
I decided to change all that with Stories for Children Magazine. My goal is to have at least one story, article, or poem written by an underage author.
After all if we don't help embrace the future writers how do we expect children to love the world of ink?"
Stories for Children Magazine is a free monthly on-line magazine for children ages 3 to 12 years old. Children will journey into the imagination with short stories, articles, crafts, puzzles, and so much more. Each issue also features a Children's Author and/or Illustrator.
Now come enter into the World or Ink at Stories for Children Magazine!
Full Media Kit, Magazine Cover Art, and more are available upon request electronically. -------------------------------------
Thanks from Gayle. :-)
PLEASE NOTE: Stories for Children is closing submissions on June 24th (youth can submit any time) and will not open again for submissions until September 1st; however, there WILL be a magazine coming out online for July, August, and September during this time. :-)
Ain't technology grand? This is why I try to stay on top of things. So I'm listening to a podcast from BEA on "Free Lunch." And it's several top guys talking about the whole "free content/information" movement on the internet, including the Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson. Sounds kind of boring for a children's book creator maybe? Well, Chris goes on to announce the brand spanking new site he's made available called BookTour.com (you can see my listing here). It's a site for authors to post their upcoming book tour events. As a user, all you have to do is plug in your zip code to find out about upcoming signings/events in your area. Wow. Not too long ago, I actually wondered why there wasn't something like this in existence. It would seem great ideas hang out in many heads (which is why you should always jump on yours). I do wish they would make classifications for illustrators and genres, but it's in BETA, so this could very well be in its future. In the mean time, I'm listed, and I'm keeping an eye on this baby!!
Yo ho! I'm back with the living, well sort of. I brought home a cold from my weekend in the mountains as a souvenir. Yuck. Anyhow! My Creating Picture Books class at John C. Campbell went well. I had six students of various levels and expectations which is always challenging, but exactly what I love about teaching. It's a constantly shifting puzzle to figure out how to relay the most pertinent information to each particular brain in the most effective way. It was also the first time I'd taught that information in such an intense environment. I've given my "Nuts and Bolts" of children's book publishing several times at conferences, but this was an entire weekend and added a lot of focus on writing. I believe we had some real successes with some of the students, so I was pleased. Speaking of writing, I've just sent out a revision of my novel, "A Bird on Water Street." Now, I love the internet, but sending a novel via email is so . . . anticlimactic. Where are the trumpets? Where's the mojo from my postmasters? Where's the ceremony? And what do I do now? I'm all wound up. So, I have created an "I just sent it out" ceremony in celebration . . . rearranging refrigerator magnets! Yes folks, it's all the rage. I grouped my take-out Chinese menus under one clip magnet and my pizza delivery menus under another. The classic monster cereal magnets are lined up in a neat, orderly row. OCD you say? No way. It's a ritual! It's a ceremony! And I somehow feel much better about sending out my manuscript. Oh, and just in case there is anything to that whole The Secret thing - my manuscript will be sold within three weeks. It will be fought over, a bidding war will ensue, and it will be purchased with a two book deal. Oh the glory.
Have I been quiet lately? Seems like it from this side. Why? Because I've been incredibly, insanely busy of late (14 hour work days, no lie). I won't bore you with the details but I do want to share one of the projects I just finished. Diane at Little Shop of Stories roped fellow illustrator, Liz Conrad, and me into painting a door to be auctioned off at this year's Decatur Arts Festival. This turned out to be quite the project when the old, stripped, mission-style (aka heavy) door arrived. It took five coats of primer and paint to cover each side - no small task! After days of prep, it was time for Liz to come over. We set up a great work space in the garage with hubbie's stereo blasting awesome tunes (yes, it's his favorite room). The weather was beautfiul and our supplies were plentiful. Now, what to do? We decided to lean on the bright colors both our illustration styles share and created a rainbow palette on the inset panels. To those we added cut-outs from our books (the galleys and such). Here's Liz doing her amazing cutting thing (cut paper is her preferred medium, so she's a whiz). We ended up using a combination of paint, collage, decoupage, 3-D, you name it. Here's me painting antennae on one of the carrot butterflies from Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese. The cool thing was, collaborating and working with paints and modge podge was something neither Liz nor I had done in a long time. We worked well together and it ended up being a fun break and a wonderful creative exercise. We really enjoyed it. It took two days to complete and we were pretty darned pleased with the finished door, must say. We both agreed it would be a fun, colorful addition to a child's bedroom. (Hope the purchaser sends a pic if they come across this blog post.) Here's the finished product: It will be included with the other colorful doors around the gazebo downtown during the arts festival. I'll be teaching Creating Picture Books at the John C. Campbell Folk School, so won't be there to hear the oohs and aahs, but Liz promises to share pictures. In other words, more to come!
I clued into this last year and had to share. Book Expo has a podcast series of authors and people in the biz during and around Book Expo. You can subscribe to the email newsletter alerting you to what's available with links to listen. Easy peasy! Click on the logo to learn more.
I taught my annual Beginning Drawing class at John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina this past weekend. Being around May Day, we were treated to Garland, Maypole and Morris Dancers. These are images from the website as it was rather drizzly weather during the performance. I especially liked the Morris Dancers. They had bells on their legs, clacked sticks together, and their faces were covered with blue paint. The story is, if you were kissed by one, you'd be pregnant before the year was out. Well, these are all fertility rites anyhow. Much fun to see.
I also had a great group of students. All claimed to be beginners, but I was so impressed with the drawings they created. I'll post the final gallery show as soon as I can figure out how to get the images off our new camera.
I'll be teaching Creating Children's Picture Books at John C. in two weeks. There's still time to sign up if you'd like to join us. What an inspired and beautiful place to hang out. I'm looking forward to going back.
If you scroll down, you'll see I've added a new feature to my sidebar. This is Shelfari - a website where you can create a bookshelf of all the books in your library, your reading group collections, your favorites, you name it. I know there are other programs out there that do this, but I found this one especially easy to use. I'm slowly adding my children's book collection which will take a while, let me tell you! The cool thing about this feature is by clicking on the covers you can learn more about the books or even buy them. It also feeds into my Amazon associates account, which is a way to make pennies (or Amazon credits - woohoo!) off of referrals. Now I will always say you should go to your local indie bookseller first, but having lived off the grid in the north Georgia mountains, I know that just isn't possible for everybody. Anyhow, it is in beta so is a bit clunky in some browsers (and please tell me if it's made my blog go wonky in your browser, especially if you're running IE on a PC), but I think I've made a new friend.
Tired and Wired. That’s what I am. I just finished an intense weekend at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Springmingle conference. I don’t care where you are in your children’s book career, conferences are FUN. They are opportunities to hang out with lots of people who just plain “get it.” They get how difficult it is to break into this industry. They get the passion for children’s books, and they get the desire and work it takes to contribute. And we’re odd birds, y’know. I’ve never met a children’s book author or illustrator who wasn’t intelligent and curious about the world around them. It makes for easy and interesting conversations no matter who you end up sitting next to. Along with being an attendee this year, I also gave portfolio reviews, which is something I love to do. My history in graphic design and illustration makes this a fairly easy exercise, and the teacher in me loves to give what I hope is helpful advice and pointers. Some artists’ work I had seen before and I was happy to see growth in skills. Go illustrators! This year’s conference had some great speakers too. Gretchen Hirsch, Assistant Editor at Harcourt Children’s Books, shared interesting perspectives as an Assistant Editor who works with picture books. Especially helpful was her break-down of the hierarchy at Harcourt: Editorial Assistant > Assistant Editor > Associate Editor > Editor > Senior Editor > Executive Editor > Vice President and Publisher. She suggested targeting Assistant Editors with submissions as they are starting to acquire their own manuscripts (with guidance from their Editor) and are eager to establish their own list. Claudia Gabel, of Delacorte Press, has a background in book packaging and therefore presented a more formulaic approach to the structure of mid-grade and young-adult novels. She stated the importance of establishing a “hook,” an unusual twist in plot or structure of a book that makes it commercially viable. I found her advice of dealing with a plot driven story in three Acts extremely helpful. It’s based on the classic Shakespearean structure, but she shared page counts per section and what stage of a story should be happening where within that structure. In Act I set up the story and end with an inciting incident in no more than 50 to 70 pages. In Act II, the meat of the story, end each chapter with a mini-cliffhanger, something to make you want to turn the page, and end the act with a high stakes situation which is nearly impossible to get out of. This section should be about 100 pages. Finally, in Act III, resolve the story, but make sure the resolution is not by coincidence. Readers want heroes - give them one. She said your character should want something in the beginning, but by the end realize what they need is something else. Barbara Seuling, Grande Dame of children’s book writing and illustrating, was delightful. She was well-spoken and knowledgeable as she shared her thoughts on the business as one who is highly established. She never forgot her roots however, and makes a point to visit every region of the SCBWI and share her experience with beginners. What a generous spirit. And finally, Michelle Poploff, author, VP and Editorial Director for Random House’s Yearling and Laurel Leaf imprints and Executive Editor of Delacorte Press, a true heavyweight in the business. She looks exactly like you would expect an established editor to look, intelligent, sharp and comfortably confident. I couldn’t believe what I heard as she described what she was looking for, basically describing my book, “A Bird on Water Street,” until she mentioned she was currently working on a book about mining (my book centers around the closing of a copper mine). However, I was thrilled (notice that manic-depressive pattern I talk about in this business?) when she sat down with me and my new friend, Shelli Johannes-Wells, and said she had read my book. What!? Turns out she was one of the editors to whom my agent sent my book (go Faith!). Ms. Poploff talked about my book and the characters and asked me about the setting (can I tell you what a strange experience it is to have your creation quoted back to you?). She mentioned it needed some work in places, which I expect, but said she didn’t think Faith would have trouble selling it. OMG. Do I need to explain how validating this was? Can you blame me for being a bit freaked out that one of the top editors in this business read, remembered and said kind things about my First novel which took me almost four years to write? Wow. So, along with getting to hang out with my buds Liz Conrad, Vicky Alvear Shecter, and new friends, I received some wonderful feedback, and much needed validation. Kudos to Jo Kittenger, Donna Bowman, Robyn Hood Black, and all the volunteers for pulling together yet another fantastic conference (and to Tina Bilbrey who created the great logo).
I try to as best I can even though I am so far away from the publishing hub of New York. I've been reading the publishing houses' financial summaries via Publishers Lunch and was a bit confused about the overall message. I want to know, "are children's books on the rise, on the fall, or somewhere in between? Which children's markets are strongest?" Well, PW came out with an article that everybody remotely connected with picture books should read, "Are Picture Books Back?" Do it. Go read it now.
Just got an email from my agent. My first novel, "A Bird on Water Street," went out to publishers Friday. All I can say is, Weehaaa!!! And Ee Gaads. And I'm a nervous wreck! A friend said I shouldn't be a nervous wreck yet - more like a few weeks from now when we might actually start hearing responses. I tell ya - this business moves slower than molasses in winter. But once things are out there, it's like jumping off a cliff. Will you fly? Will you crash and burn? You just don't know. It's a heckofa ride. Weehaaaa!!!
"Come meet us for breakfast," my friend said. "But I just ate," says I. "You need to get out, c'mon," says my friend. But I was already "in The Zone." What exactly is The Zone? It's this strange, otherworldy place my brain goes to when I'm creating - and I must admit, it's not a completely comfortable place to be. It's a release of myself and everything around me. In the zone, time flies quickly and very little can pull my attention away. I can go into the zone at 11:00am and come out at 4:00pm wondering, "What just happened?" It's a little weird. The more I write and illustrate, the more I realize how necessary it is to let The Zone take over. I've discovered that reading emails and checking blogs isn't just procrastination - it's how I slowly wind into The Zone. It's an important part of how I work. However, I'm also starting to realize that I have to balance it with a bit of real life. See, the The Zone is slightly addictive. It sucks me in and would really like to keep me there. It wants to rule me - scary! But if I let it keep me, I can stay holed up for days without any human interaction, and my social skills really do suffer. So this morning I said yes to my friend and I met her and her daughter at Thumbs Up Cafe. I got a take-out salad for lunch and caught up on what she's up to, as well as some other friends who I haven't seen in a bit. And y'know what? I feel better, I feel more human. I am a social creature after all. And now that I'm a functioning, interactive part of society, I am once again ready to sit down and go into The Zone.
Okay - so I'm getting into the groove of my 2nd novel, but I have to put it aside for a bit. I just got fabulous feedback on my first novel from my agent and her assistant. They love it. Woohoo!!! Could I be any happier? They do have some suggestions, none of which have to do with the story or my writing style - they're all really good suggestions that will make the book a little more marketable, timely, fleshed out in a few places where they wanted "more." In other words, the kind of changes you Want to hear. I'm thrilled. This is the kind of input I really look forward to and appreciate. Buried in thousands and thousands of words, it can be hard to keep it all straight in your head, so to get positive feedback is first, much needed validation, and to get information on how to make it even better is like working with a talented art director - it really does take a project to the next level. I don't know, maybe it's my days from graphic design working with teams and Art Directors, but I do feel like one person creates the initial *kapow* and then a team of people shine it up. I like the feedback and direction. I like the input. And I like being given the tools to take my initial *kapow* and make it *KAPOW!!* So, here I go . . . I've got work to do!!
I started a new novel today. Well, writing it anyhow. This one's been on my mind for a while, and unlike my first, I know how it ends. In fact, I know most of the story, I just need to get it onto paper. Starting a new novel is almost worse than starting a drawing. Wow, and I thought a blank sheet of paper was scary then! I've been procrastinating - my vice is twiddling with my blog or website (strange, sick hobby, I know). Hubbie and I went out to dinner last night, and he's so amazingly supportive. "Just start writing it!!" he says. "Okay, okay!!" Y'know, having one under your belt doesn't seem to make doing another one much easier, except for the fact that you do know you can finish one. And that seems to be something. Walking has become a fun way to work out the story too. Three miles zoomed by without my hardly noticing today. My mind is stuck in my story going, "what happens next?" and "what if..." It's actually pretty fun. Everybody always accused me of having my head in the clouds most of my life anyhow. Now, it's just on a specific cloud. :)
Well, I had about three pieces of art that fit this week's theme, however they were all still in black and white. So I'm going to take one of them all the way and show you my progress. This is a piece from my picture book dummy, "Queen Bea." First is the line-art version. I usually do sketches, scan them into the computer, then arrange my composition. Sometimes I then do a cleaned up line-art version to then work from. But I have to say I probably won't create line-art anymore. Editors seem to respond better to pencil sketches - where things look more rendered in black and white. My line-art seems to have more of a cartoony look that doesn't hint enough at the extent the final piece will be rendered. So here is my next stage, flat color. I set the pencil or line-art layer to multiply in Photoshop. I work on a flat color layer below it. I may go in and add a few more color blocks to indicate light and shadow, but this is almost finished with stage 2. Next I'll pull it into Painter where I do my shading and rendering. You'll have to check back to see how the piece ends up - it usually takes me a few days. Update: Thanks for all the great comments - I'm so glad some of you find my process helpful. I used my weekend to finish the art - isn't that what weekends are for? Anyhow, the last step was to render in Painter then pull it back into Photoshop for minor adjustments. Click on the final piece to get a better look.
Turns out the main servers for my hosting company were located in downtown New Orleans. Not only did the servers go down, but one of the guys there stayed in his office and kept a blog of what was going on outside. You may have heard about him in the news, reporters were constantly contacting him. Amazingly, my website and my blog were down for only a day and a half! I am so impressed that they were able to get things rerouted (not sure what they did really) in such a short time, and in circumstances I can't even begin to imagine. I didn't expect to be back up and running any time soon, and I was willing to wait. DirectNIC has been a great hosting company. This is the first and only time they have gone down in the several years I've been with them. No, they don't support higher programming languages for bells and whistles (part of why they are SO inexpensive), but I've been very pleased with my site using basic HTML and some javascript. I tell ya, they were good before, but they've just gained a customer for life.
Well, I finally did something I was avoiding since the creation of my website. I use a very basic hosting company (uber cheap), so I don't have any of the bells and whistles that PHP, CGI, ASP, etc can allow. So my portfolio page has been a simple inset frame set-up. Bad thing about that was I couldn't put comments on each illustration unless it was part of the art (which I really didn't want to do). I kept thinking there had to be a way without making an html page for every piece of art, and well, there really isn't. So that's what I did, created html pages for every piece. So now, when you click on a thumbnail, it opens a "bigger" view of the art which when clicked opens an even larger view on its own page with comments. I probably have too much work showing in my portfolio, so it was no simple task. Anyhow, check it out at: http://dulemba.com/index_illos.html. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Oh, and if you have scrollbars in the initial larger view, please let me know. I tried to avoid them, and don't see them on any of our systems here at the house, but I really thought that would be an issue. I'm surprised it hasn't been . . . so far.
Well, too funny. Shortly after writing my last entry about digital art - a call for articles for/from illustrators was announced at SCBWI. So, I've combined my feelings with a bit of the history of digital art and my method (which is in my FAQs section of my website) into an article for "The Bulletin: Painting with Pixels." I've just heard that they will be bumping another article to fit mine into the next issue because it is exactly the kind of information they had in mind. Very cool.
Observations on Children's Writing and Illustrating
I’ve been busy creating some new pieces for my portfolio pages, and preparing for Story-time at my local library. I will be the stand in for the month of May. All of this has me doing quite a bit of research. I read almost every picture book I own, a considerable amount, to select ones that read well to a young group. I pulled out my Picture-Book 2004, and went through it with a fine toothed comb to come up with ideas for coloring pages - and I’m learning some new things.
From my reading, I’m learning there are some noticeable themes in children’s books. Yes, we all know about fairies and good-night books, but I’ve been surprised to find some not so obvious themes: Acting Out, Dinosaurs, Dragons, Farm Life (usually from the animals’ point of view), Urban life, Dogs and Cats, Wild Animals, Holidays, Bed time, Bath time, and Dreams. I’m also realizing there are holes in some of these categories. For instance, there aren’t enough books about aliens or pirates. I try to fill in with songs and poems, even storytelling, for my Story-time program. But I really have to stretch to keep on theme in some areas.
Before I talk about my art research let me mention, I do feel like I’ve gone through a growth period recently with my art. It always seems to work like that . . . you cruise along with your skills on a flat plain for several months or even years, when suddenly *zwooop* - up you go to a new plain of skills. The neat thing to me is, suddenly, I feel like I’m looking at art through new eyes. I’m noticing things I didn’t notice even 6 months ago.
So I was searching for ideas, to draw new coloring pages for the kids, by devouring my Picture-Book 2004. What jumped out at me here though, was something I didn’t expect: nuances in illustration skills. Sometimes, an artist can really draw, but doesn’t handle their medium well. Or the detail level is wonderful, but without contrast, creating no depth. Sometimes they can’t draw at all, but they are wonderful designers and have amazing creative ideas. And sometimes an artist will draw wonderfully in black and white, but lose it when they get to color. I concluded there are talents underlying the umbrella talent of illustrator - some are: drawing ability, color understanding, medium proficiency, saturation, proportion, and design comprehension. The ones I really love are the illustrators who excel in all of these areas.
Saturation, or lack of saturation, especially, was perhaps my biggest surprise. Many styles and mediums, by their nature, allow lots of paper show through - watercolor and colored pencils for example. This can work, but sometimes it doesn’t. I think a wash of color before rendering can help in so many areas. A tiny example: the light allowed to show in the foreground of a piece, cannot be the same light allowed to show in the background of a piece. Otherwise there is no delineation between the two - no depth.
This has been such a valuable exercise, I think I’ll try to do this every 6 months or so, as it seems I still have new lessons to learn even when I look at things I’ve already seen. Training the eye to really see, isn’t that what being an illustrator is all about?
Wow. So I was having issues getting my archives to work. Seems I know just enough about all this to be dangerous. So I sent a help note off to blogger.com. Not only did they get back to me in a timely manner, but they fixed the problem for me! So my archives are now working. Can't ask for better support than that. :)
I received another request asking more detailed information about my method. If anyone is actually reading this thing, here is my response:
Happy to help. I've definitely been narrowing down my method. I do the elements of my drawing with pencil and scan that into Photoshop. After arranging the elements into the composition I want, I colorize that layer to a sepia and set it to "multiply" which makes it transparent to layers below. I create a layer below that where I color in all my flat colors (it's not filling, it's on it's own layer). I then create another layer where I do my rendering. So it looks like this:
top layer - line art set on multiply (or darken if I don't want it that visible)
middle layer - for rendering (sometimes this layer completely covers the bottom layer as I like to have variation and texture in my colors)
bottom layer - flat color (don't ever delete this layer as it also makes it super easy to select certain areas you need to render)
I then pull it into Painter and save a 2nd version. Painter is still not 100% stable, and I've had it quite on me - wiping out the file I was working on. So I save back and forth between two files while working.
In Painter, I select the object I'll render on the bottom layer, move to the middle layer and render. I've found about three or four brushes I use almost exclusively: "Artist's – Impressionist" gives me a wonderfully textured look. "Oils – Smeary Round" is the biggie, and "crayons" which almost burns the color which is great for skin tones (boy do you have to set the opacity low and use light colors!). I use a few others occasionally, but those are my workhorses.
One thing I've found is Painter is lazy about keeping colors true. I've pulled files in and out of Painter where the color has totally changed on me. Photoshop is the stable program, so I always pull my files back into Photoshop and adjust my colors there, saving the final file from Photoshop (using that bottom layer to select the spots that need work).
So, to get the pic at the top of the sidebar - I have to plug info into my profile. Thing is, if you don't put in enough info, the Links section bumps up and crosses over it. I think it's kind of weird how the sidebar works anyhow. If I want to put anything into it, I have to put it into the coding myself. I would think there would be some automatic field where you would do that . . . the same way you post. Hm.
Anyhow, Stan says I'm procrastinating. Which I'm really not. I finished an illustration for GLITTER GIRL AND THE CRAZY CHEESE today, and I'm way ahead of schedule so far. Thing is, these last few pieces are so detailed, they're going to take more time. They already are. I really aught to go put a compress on my eyes for staring at this thing all day. I can always tell if I've been sitting here too long - I start squinting. Which I'm doing.
But this BLOG thing is kinda cool! I'm sort of siked about it. Stan's put new info on his blog too, so we keep bugging each other, "Go look at my blog!" "No, you go look at my blog!" hehe.
Okay. I think I have this thing figured out. I'm using blogger.com to create this. In its template area, you can play with the coding, so I've adapted it to fit in with the rest of my site. Some of the text colors aren't consistent, but I was hitting conflicts with the blogs style-sheet, and the colors aren't objectionable . . . so it stays. The main thing is to see if I even use this thing. We shall see . . .
Allrighty, well I'm trying this again. This time it looks to be free and I can apply my template to the coding. So, it will look like my site. Style sheet and everything. Still an experiment. I don't know how likely I'll be to come in here and talk about things online. Dreamweaver makes it so easy to upload stuff, it almost seems like it would be easier to do this by hand. But, we'll see
And then we headed for the mountain. About 20 minutes in on a National Forest road and we were there! Well, sort of. We parked the car and then hiked a mile uphill. THEN we were there! 
Can you imagine the dedication it would take to try to learn in this environment? A friend of mine who works with 
My article "Illuminating Color" has finally been published in the latest SCBWI Bulletin (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - 
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The pale yellow is my neutral, the main colors are Orange, Lime and Teal.
I used to make simple repeats when I worked for a children's clothing company (wayyyy back when). I occassionally still do it, like for the endpapers for Paco and the Giant Chile Plant (which I am using as the background for my website right now). But this is the best tutorial I've ever seen on making a complicated pattern in repeat. 
I've also pinned up some proofs from my forthcoming book, 
The box to the right contains postcards for 
I signed the contracts yesterday - "Oscar the Badger" is a go! Written by Karin Slaughter (yes, that 
Diane at 
We decided to lean on the bright colors both our illustration styles share and created a rainbow palette on the inset panels. To those we added cut-outs from our books (the galleys and such). Here's Liz doing her amazing cutting thing (cut paper is her preferred medium, so she's a whiz). 
