Shelf Talker

ShelfTalker is a blog by Allison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith’s children’s books-buyer fame. She has been hired by Publishers Weekly to post reviews news and observations about children’s books. It is ala

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 but from a book-buyer’s point of view. YA authors may be interested in the astute reviews of her 16 year old side kick Katrina. I’m sure I do not have any time to look at more blogs and internet information. I’m sure I should be writing and drawing. By the way,

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  ,

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  and annemariepace how do you have time to be on Verla Kay and other wonderful sites finding the amazing information you give the rest of us? But if you do find time, take a looksie.

A shard of blue

The mood of the country is sad and the weather in the Northeast isn’t helping this part of the country perk up either. The rains and winds paired with astronomical high tides left destruction in their path. There are houses literarly in the sea from this last storm. Our family only lost power only for one day so I’m thankful for that. We are also on a hill and have not had to deal with much of the flooding that others have had. For those who were worried about my not calling, it turns out that my dear hubby switched our phone to Vonage and I didn’t realize it had kicked in. I had many voice mail messages when I finally figured out how to connect the various colorful cables. They came in a box addressed to my husband which I promptly stuck in the corner of the mud room. I guess I needed those.

In other news, I am prepping for three days in first grade classrooms next week to help them celebrate Poetry Month. We will be focussing on our five senses, and noticing how poets engage our five senses in their writing to paint mind pictures for the reader. Next we will be gathering sense words during an outside exploration and then coming back to the class to create a group poem. I’m really looking forward to it.

A shard of blue
by Anna Boll

a shard of blue
sliced through
rain clouds
and sad news
bringing hope for tomorrow
but there was no rainbow

It’s late…

…and I’m happy to say that I finished my revisions on my dummy book. Not without incident of course. Today I hired a sitter to allow me to get this work done. I had just completed a redraw of a spread (which included a number of drawings on a single page) was about to save and DARK. The high winds blew over a tree which landed on an electric line and there went my work and my reason for the babysitter. The problems of digital work. Well, I decided it was still light enough to read by the window and finished reading The Penderwicks. Totally worth the 15 bucks I paid for the sitter. I also got in a nap so had no problem staying up late to finish the work tonight. Barring more outages, I’ll print tomorrow (so I don’t wake anyone) and send it off to Val the fabulous crit registrar. Then I can start memorizing my new aerobics choreography.

100%

Zokutou word meter
30 / 30
(100.0%)

So I am please to report that I finished my dummy in time for last night’s critique session with my stupendous live writer’s group friends. They gave me great suggestions and helped my with some real issues and now I am back to the revision stage so that wonderful blue line will go away. But not entirely. That is the pleasure and pain of revision is that you already have something to work with.

For a moment, indulge me. When your manuscript is presented to an audience it is always difficult and emotional. Presenting my illustrations and writing last night was especially draining. I had so much work, time, love, energy and money (color printing costs) in those pages that it was physically difficult to write on the draft. Finally, I got over it and started marking it up. Four years this manuscript has been in the making. And so many different forms and revisions… I can’t even count. It is truly a labor of love because even if some fabulous agent and/or editor person picks this up and pays me for my work it will not properly compensate my time. It won’t matter. The compensation (for this one) is in the process, what I’ve learned about myself as an artist, author and a parent. Sharing this book with the world is my goal.

That dummy Dummy

Okay, I think I’ll have the Dummy of my current WIP “done” for my writers group. Done right now means that the first six spreads are completed with color and designed as I’d like to see it in the book. However, I’m totally open to art direction (of course). The rest is in sketch stage. The images are clear and composed, the text is as I’d like to see it in the final. I don’t want it to be too finished as if to suggest I don’t want to work with anyone who might change this. I also don’t want it too messy.

The poll is just for fun as I’ve seen numerous dummy books from all of these catagories depending on the relationship the artist has with the Art Director/Editor and how well known they are. Melissa Sweet showed me one of her dummy books and it looked like a bunch of scribbles and writing with pasted in text. She is the one who told me the real art happens after the dummy is approved. Then again, Melissa Sweet is Melissa Sweet.

Power Out

I just got my power back last night at 8:45 after two days without. Over 170,000 customers were affected by the snow storm here Wednesday and Thursday. I am embarassed to admit that I felt a little lost and disconnected without my LJ fix. Now I have two days of drawing to try to catch up on before the Easter traveling and visiting commences.

Dummy Progress

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
12 / 30
(40.0%)

Forty percent! Well, I’m moving along here. I’m hoping to be done by Sunday night. Possible, possible.

As a writer, the most exciting thing about illustrating my own work is that I am able to see how the pictures and the words work together. My manuscript started at 340 words and I’ve cut almost 100 of those. Why? Because the pictures say they same thing as the text. Instead of telling the games that the main character played throughout the day I can show a room full of leftover games and toys with the text, “Mama and Orson played all day long.” This is liberating but also very difficult because it is sometimes hard to decide how much the reader will “get” from the picture and when words have to stay or things need to be explained. As writers, we always try to show and not tell. In picture books, we need to let the illustration do the telling too. Words are also necessary when the pictures and words are in opposition to set up a humorous moment. My text says, “Mama got ready for Orson’s bath. Orson got ready too.” The picture shows Mama getting ready and Orson hiding under a towel. Keep on working!

Haiku class and Passover

I just led a Haiku workshop for second graders, which went really well. We used their research on dinosaurs to create poems using the Haiku model. Here is the one we completed as a group. Hope you enjoy it.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

extinct meat eater
strong long tail swing, swish, slap, slash
running- crash bang boom

By Mrs. Goodman’s class

In other news. Last night was the first Passover Seder. For those of you who don’t know, a seder is a long dinner that celebrates the Jewish exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery and includes four mandatory glasses of wine, boistrous singing and a bunch of not so mandatory prayers. A fun time was had by all but it was almost a catastrophe…

When my guest called me yesterday at 9 am I was deep into an illustration for my picture book. My thinking was, I’ll work on this page and one more, then go food shopping and write an email to my guest about tomorrow night’s seder. I don’t know exactly why I thought that seder was Tuesday night. Maybe it was because I was off one day all weekend. I missed April fool’s day entirely because I thought the first was Monday. Needless to say, when I answered the phone I was shocked to realize that the shopping I’d planned to do for tomorrow’s seder was going to be for that night instead. Let me explain that this is akin to having to create an entire Thanksgiving in a single day. My house was a wreck, no food, kiddo coming home in an hour and a half, ACK! Actually I had some other choice words which I used to convince my husband to leave work to vacuum during his lunch hour. He did, he’s great. Small son also helped by washing windows, making placecards, baking Passover cake with me, and generally being patient with a hysterical mother. This makes up for the fact that he totally lost it during the actual Seder. Anyway, everything turned out great.  We had a wonderful time, the food was delicious (lemon dill salmon), company was fun, house was clean. Score one for spontaneity… or is that called procrastination.