BLOG TAG!

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I’VE BEEN TAGGED!

Ack! I’m It!

I’ve been tagged for this mini-interview by Rodolfo Montalvo.

I met Rodolfo for the first time at the SCBWI-LA Summer Conference a few years ago – I’d been hearing about this talented illustrator, and there was all this chatter . . . so I was curious – Who is this guy? He must be really full of himself. (Kidding) Soon after meeting him, we joined up in an illustrating critique group, so I got to know him pretty well over the weeks of Google Hangouts. Of course, he’s the most laidback guy you’ll ever meet. During our meetings, I got to see lots of his sketches and artwork for THE AMAZING WILMER DOOLEY (the sequel to THE CONTAGIOUS COLORS OF MUMPLY MIDDLE SCHOOL, which he also illustrated).

 

It’s fun seeing his career progress and cheering him along. It just keeps getting better and better! His first picture book, DEAR DRAGON, (written by Josh Funk), will be published Viking in 2016.

You can see his blog tag post here.

And now, to answer the questions.

Drum roll, please….

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What am I working on now?

I can’t go into too many specifics here, so I will merely allude to things. 

Today, I updated my online portfolio, if you want to know what I'm working on NOW now. ;)

I recently signed with my agent, Lara Perkins at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and have been hard at work preparing book dummies for submission to editors. It is a LONG process.

Besides things I can’t get too specific about (as I mentioned above), I have two new projects I’m developing, as well as two book dummies that need revisions. I’ve also got drafts of a YA and a MG novel that are burning holes in my hard drive.

Right now, the key is to focus on revising and making my work stronger, rather than getting lured away by “The Shiny New Idea.” One of the benefits of having an agent  that I didn’t anticipate is that she can help me figure out which projects to focus on and in which order. After all, there’s something to be said for following one’s muse, but it’s certainly nice to have an external guiding voice.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I developed my current kidlit illustration style over the course of about 5 years, though it’s still a work in progress. ;)

I’d estimate that 90% of the physical labor is done using Photoshop. But that doesn’t mean anything is automated and easy to produce. Even though everything after the pencil sketch is done on the computer, I’m still hand drawing almost every line, and hand painting almost every splash of color. I use the computer because it gives me the ability to undo mistakes, and still capture that freedom of a quickly drawn line (even if it takes me 50 times to get the line to look just right).

All told, a full color double page spread takes me about 30 hours of solid work to complete.

Why do I write what I do?

For picture books, I write what makes me laugh, but always try to instill a little bit of myself or someone I know into the main character.

For stories for older children, I start to write about issues that troubled me at that age – they are the seed at the core of the story, and the story itself is very different from anything I have experienced. It’s a fun challenge to come up with a fresh story that can involve some of the somewhat pedestrian challenges I faced. After I start with that seed, I definitely adjust as needed to service the story, and occasionally, that seed is entirely cut out of the book. But by then, I’m invested in telling a good story, so I don’t mind at all. I need to start somewhere, and the best place to start for me is from my own experience.

I think as I gain more experience writing, I might be able to find a different starting-off point, but I want to be more confident that I can pull it off when I do.

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TAG, YOU’RE IT!

And with that, I will tag my good buddy, Ken Min.

 

I met Ken Min for the first time at an SCBWI-LA Summer Conference. He was wearing a fake plastic moustache strapped over his upper lip, and I was convinced he had had surgery or a cleft lip or something and that was his cool way of covering it up. Every time I saw him after that, I made sure to make moustache references. When his illustrations for HOT, HOT ROTI FOR DADA-JI won the Picture Book Honor Award for Literature from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), I was down in Anaheim when he gave his acceptance speech and he played it totally cool as a cucumber. His style is so unique and different from my own. It’s fun to try and stretch my mind around his illustrating methodology.

Tag, you’re it, Ken!

BEAVERS - Stickers on LINE

It had been quite a few months after my HOOT stickers went live that my next round of stickers finally got approved this November. You can see them for sale here: https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1039467/en

But unlike last time, this time around I didn't delusionally track the stats. After all, as of the last time I checked, there were over 25,000 SEPARATE entries into the Creators' Stickers category. Unless I could manage to be featured, it was certain obscurity for the Beavs...which again leads me to the comparison to self-publishing a book. Even if you've got a quality product, how are people going to find you if you're one unit of an anonymous horde?

And again, all the self-promotion I could possibly muster at this point in my career probably wouldn't do a thing, as it doesn't seem that LINE is being adopted in the US like it is everywhere else in the world, and my reach is primarily in the US. How to extend my reach? I don't know. But in the meantime, I can't get most of my friends to even open the LINE app anymore because it sends push notifications so frequently. Maybe users elsewhere are more tolerant of them or even excited to read about the constantly updated features, but not them.

Anyway, for what it's worth, as shown back in June, here's the product of a month of my life:

https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1039467/en

Maybe I sound a little bitter. I shouldn't be. It wasn't a waste of time. I made sure it wouldn't be, by rationalizing the work in two ways before endeavoring on it. After all, it was through this process that I managed to create the dummy that landed me my literary agent! So what if I'm not making boffo bucks in Japan? That has never been my life's mission. So I am officially shrugging off any negativity about it! *SHRUG*

Onward!

#Inktober 2014

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           Last year, I missed the opportunity to participate in #Inktober, so I created my own month of drawing: Drawing a Day December (#DrADaDec). And I made a lot of drawings that I’m proud of. But I’d never challenged myself by restricting my art to one medium. Inktober’s got it in its name: you’ve got to use ink. I certainly didn’t feel confident without an eraser or Control-Z, so I thought this would be a good way to force myself to nail it on the first try. And this year, I managed to remember to start drawing on October 1^st:

#Inktober Day 1: this porcupine hobo is ready to ride the rails!

            This character was so well-liked that after a few days I returned to him, and before I knew it, started telling a story about him, one installment per day. These story installments aren’t compiled into one tidy document anywhere else, so I supposed this is the place to make it so.

            Now again, because there was no eraser, and I didn’t crumple up any drawings and start on a new one for the day, there are a number of flubs and technical mistakes in there. Also, I didn’t plot the story ahead of time, I made it up as I went along. And with all those excuses (heh), here is the rest of The Saga of Porcupine Hobo:

#inktober day 5: hobo porcupine enjoys a feast!

#inktober day 6: Porcupine Hobo stows away.

#Inktober Day 7: Porcupine Hobo meets Bun-Bun the Tramp.

#Inktober day 8: our stowaways are discovered.

#Inktober Day 9: After the Bull throws them out, 

and they plunge down, down, down into the river, 

Porcupine Hobo's and Bun-Bun the Tramp's lives flash before their eyes...

#inktober day 10: FLASHBACK! Part 1 of Bun-Bun the Tramp's Origin Story:

  As Bun-Bun's life flashes before his eyes, he recalls his humble beginnings as a pumpkin farmer.

#Inktober Day 11: Flashback Part 2 of Bun-Bun the Tramp's Origin Story: 

Tail between his legs, Bun-Bun had to admit defeat against The Great Dustbowl. 

He was not a dust bunny, after all.

 #Inktober Day 12: Flashback Part 3 of Bun-Bun the Tramp's Origin Story: 

Bun-Bun abandons his dust plot and sets off into the unknown to seek his fortune.

 #Inktober Day 13: Flashback Part 4 of Bun-Bun the Tramp's Origin Story:

 Bun-Bun meets Cubby the Drifter, a roller skating bear who escaped the circus. 

Cubby teaches Bun-Bun everything he knows about Hobo Living, 

then gives Bun-Bun his hat, and goes to retire in a cave. 

Bun-Bun The Tramp is born.

 #Inktober Day 14: Bun-Bun the Tramp and Porcupine Hobo 

fish themselves out of the river and find themselves on a small island. 

As they while away the hours and recover 

from their rude awakening, they exchange life stories.

 #Inktober Day 15: FLASHBACK! Part 1 of Porcupine Hobo's Origin Story:

Porcupine Hobo recounts his not-so-humble beginnings 

 in a 5th Avenue estate, silver spoon firmly lodged in mouth...

#Inktober Day 16: Flashback Part 2 of Porcupine Hobo's Origin Story: 

The prodigal son departs for his Ivy League studies...or so his parents think.

 #Inktober Day 17: Flashback part 3 of Porcupine Hobo's Origin Story:

 Porcupine DID fritter away a certain stretch of his stint in academia 

grooving in one long dance party. But it was not to last.

#Inktober Day 18: Flashback pt 4 of Porcupine Hobo's Origin Story:

After one particularly rough night, our hero awoke to find a hollowness in his heart. 

He knew nothing. He was a shell of a porcupine. 

Something had to change.

 #inktober day 19: Flashback Part 5 of Porcupine Hobo's Origin Story:

If the porcupine was going to REALLY learn about the world, 

he was going to have to take matters into his own paws. That very afternoon,

he walked through the wrought iron gates of his school, never to look back. 

Porcupine Hobo was born.

#Inktober Day 20: While Porcupine Hobo recounts his origins, 

Bun-Bun the Tramp uses his Advanced Hobo-ing skills 

to build the duo a shelter and start a fire while they await rescue. 

They while away the time, hollow-bellied but warm.

 #Inktober day 21: Porcupine Hobo wanted to make the swim 

across the river, or at least try to build a raft, but Bun-Bun the Tramp 

refused to leave, and Porcupine Hobo couldn't abandon him now. 

He had never been so cold and wet, and dark was fast approaching.

#Inktober Day 22: the rain had cleared, 

and a strange glow was coming from behind their shelter. 

They ran out and saw a shadowy form waving at them from a boat. 

"Our rescue has arrived!" Shouted Bun-Bun the Tramp, and he began hopping 

up and down, gesturing frantically for the boat to come near. 

Porcupine Hobo began calling too, 

though he had no idea about the identity of the shadow.

 #Inktober Day 23: As the shadowy figure on the boat drew closer, 

Bun-Bun the Tramp exclaimed, "Ha! I knew it! 

It's Cubby the Drifter come to save us!" 

He explained to Porcupine Hobo that Cubby was that rollerskating bear 

who was his Hobo-ing Mentor. Cubby called out, "Ahoy, hoy! Saw my old tophat

 stuck amongst the reeds upriver a bit, and knew you couldn't be far. Climb aboard!" 

And so they did.

#Inktober Day 24: After paddling down the river aways, 

the animals steered the boat into the reeds, 

following Cubby the Drifter's instructions. 

"Where are we going?" Porcupine Hobo inquired. 

Cubby had a mysterious smile in his face. 

"Just trust me," he said. 

Bun-Bun the Tramp nodded in assurance, 

so Porcupine Hobo tried not to worry.

#Inktober Day 25: Cubby The Drifter leads Bun-Bun The Tramp 

and Porcupine Hobo off the boat and onto a tree-lined path. 

"Follow me close. It's awfully dark out here..." Cubby called.

#Inktober Day 26: As they approached a bend in the forest path, 

Cubby the Drifter gestured them on. 

When Bun-Bun the Tramp turned the corner, 

he let out a whoop and ran towards...whatever it was. 

Porcupine Hobo cautiously poked his head around a tree. 

He couldn't believe his eyes.

#Inktober Day 27: colored lights twinkled, the smell of stews wafted in the air. 

 Porcupine Hobo fairly floated down the small hill and under the banner of "Hobo Haven."

#Inktober Day 29: they were welcomed with open arms to Hobo Haven. 

Porcupine Hobo looked around in wonder. 

Here were Gypsy Mice cooking up beans, there, a fox with a harmonica, 

and down the path, a whole cluster of happy hoboes, 

dancing 'round the fire, singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain."

#Inktober Day 30: And they lived happily ever after...until...

 #Inktober Day 31: Hobo Haven was great and all, 

but Porcupine Hobo still hadn't seen the world, 

and Bun-Bun the Tramp missed his pumpkin farm. 

They bid farewell to Cubby the Drifter

 and the rest of the hobo community 

and set off via handcar on their next adventure. 

The End...ish.

HOOTS! are LIVE!

May’s post already talked about the product, but: The HOOTS! have gone live! 

 
Quick recap: Around the end of March, my friend from business school contacted me about creating a series of “stickers” for the online messaging app, LINE. As he explained to me, LINE is a powerful communication tool which works like What’s App meets Facebook Messaging meets Skype. The app was hugely popular globally, with almost 500 million users.

And I’d never heard of it.

See, most of those half a billion users are in Asia. Great! I thought – I’m huge in Asia, according to my website’s Google stats. (P.S. That’s a joke. I’m also due to inherit the estate of a Nigerian prince, right?)

Anyway, the folks at LINE were opening up the market for freelance illustrators to augment the shop’s selections. It’s an interesting pricing model: premium prices for “namebrand” stickers (trademarked), a second tier for those offered by LINE, and then discounted pricing for the audience-created product. It reminds me of self-publishing, too, as very quickly it becomes clear that you need a platform to really move any of your product before it gets buried by the competition.

So at the end of the second day the stickers were available, after my partner and I informed the social media world of our appearance on the scene, my HOOTS! sticker set was rated #23 most popular out of almost 5,000 (at the time) audience created sticker sets. I had convinced my closest friends to download the LINE app so I could at least send the stickers to them, and they, of course, nice as they are, bought the set themselves (it was only 99 cents!) But that only accounted for 8 or so sales! Number 23?!?

 I thought I was an international sensation.

But after my meteoric rise to the Top 25, I plummeted hard, disappearing into obscurity within a week. Moral of the story? I guess when you’re no longer on the “new” page, you fade into the masses. And though I’d spent a month working on the things, I definitely wasn’t going to get a good return on my investment.

The good news is, this was like a beta run of what would happen if I self-published a book. I’d get a bunch of my friends to buy it, and it would artificially inflate the rankings enough to show up on stranger’s radars, they’d buy it, and then it would fade away as soon as the rankings slipped. I've always asserted that self-publishing isn't the route for me, and this experiment confirmed that.

But then again...

I only pimped it out that very first day, and haven’t mentioned it since. I feel like it would be annoying if I did, since no one I know had even heard of the app before I started talking about it, (Ah, the hipster life, amirite?), so I’d have to convince them to download the app first. And I don’t want to become a shill for an app that’s not mine! I gave my one pitch, and I feel like that should be it.

Now, if it were something like What’s App, I’m sure I would pimp it a whole lot more, since people in my extended social circle already use it. But still, people besides me would have to start talking it up, no matter was “it” is, in order for there to be sustained sales. There would have to be something new to say about it to merit blasting to my entire network again.

It’s not like I could post reviews or do a blog tour to sell my stickers on an app, so maybe the experiences are not as similar as I originally thought. And maybe I would have a better result with something I self-published. Maybe. But what it does boil down to is visibility. It seems obvious, but this was a good reminder. I need eyeballs to see my product if I want those eyeballs’ wallets to open. :)

BeaverMAYnia

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Since a month of toil is never enough, after a month of working on the owl LINE Stamps, (now called Stickers, for the US Market, I suppose), I then started messing around with finding a new character, and deciding on a beaver.

He was so cute, I decided, “Hey, why don’t I draw 40 of him, and use 'doing an in-depth character study' as an excuse and come up with a picture book about it?” You know I can rarely do things for less than two rationalized “reasons.”

 

Drawing 40 beavers was fun! Even though it took me forever. (I was going through a lot of personal drama with multiple pet death and stuff, so it took me longer than it should have). Then it took me a month to color them. But don’t get me wrong – in the meantime, I was writing and revising a beaver-based picture book. It evolved from something really quite terrible to something that got the high praise that it “makes sense and could work.” High praise, indeed! Well, that was the second draft. The first draft was a nightmare of Julia psychoses. (I told you, I was going through personal drama).  Anyway, a few drafts later, I was ready to thumbnail the story (okay, I lie, I thumbnailed from the first draft on – it helps!), and then sketch out a first draft of the dummy. Gotta have a dummy for the big SCBWI conference in August!

LINE Stamps

I had my cohort of owls…or whatever a group of owls is called…was called to active duty after a few years sleeping in the barn rafters. A business school friend contacted me about an opportunity for freelance illustrators to submit “stamps” for an instant messaging app that’s popular in Asia. To be more specific, they have over 480 million active users. At 10% of $1 a set of 40 stamps, multiplied by some unknown fraction of the active user population…all my brain was doing was saying mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money.

Not really. I realize the likelihood of making any actual money in a marketplace that was sure to be flooded with worthy competitors was next to impossible. But a girl can dream. And since I already had the majority of the drawings necessary for a set of 40 already done, all that remained to do was draw a few extra owls like basic emoticons, and then color them all in. Easier said than done. It ended up taking me about a month to color them all in and reformat them according to the LINE specifications. It’s all in Japanese, so my B-school friend has to be my liaison. We agreed for all his translating and submitting work, he could make 10% of my 50%. We'll see how it goes!

SCBWI’s FEBRUARY FEATURED ILLUSTRATOR! --> (ME!!)

Holy wow, that's me!

At the end of January, I heard from the main office of SCBWI (my professional organization, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) – I had been selected, out of I don’t know how many members but it’s gotta be hundreds, to be the Illustrator featured on the home page at www.scbwi.org during the month of February. I literally squealed when I read the email, and forced my husband to get up and read it too. He was entirely unsure what it meant, but I KNEW. I’d had my eye on that Featured Illustrator spot for a couple of months, and been wondering what a person had to do to get featured. Well, I still don’t know the answer to that, but boy, do I feel lucky that I was chosen. Within an hour of announcing my selection on Facebook, I had received an offer of representation from an agent(!)

But I've had my heart set on the short list of agents I’d been cultivating for almost a year. If ever there was a time to contact them, it was now. With two picture books under consideration at two different major publishing houses, PLUS this feather in my cap, I hoped I looked good enough to merit a deeper look. I had momentum! A real, verifiable source vouching for me! What an honor. Now it was just a matter of striking while the iron was hot: go to the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York wearing an invisible sash which reads “Miss February” and which gives me indomitable self-confidence! 
Barring that fanciful idea, at least sending off mailers to agents, art directors, editors – anyone who still accepts things via US mail. But I still kind of wanted the sash...New York was calling.

The small hitch was that, long before I’d even heard of the SCBWI Featured Illustrator splash page, we had planned a two week trip to New Zealand. In the middle of February. Then I found out the page wouldn’t be updated until the first Monday of February – the day we were leaving for New Zealand. How was I going to properly take advantage of this opportunity? Of course I should go to the NYC conference….buuuuut….it started less than two days after our scheduled return from New Zealand.

Yes, I’d have to do it.

When SCBWI's updated website went live, I was already in New Zealand! See the "Telecom NZ"?

We had a trip of a lifetime in New Zealand, and I tried really hard not to worry about squandering this opportunity. I would just need to make up for it during the rest of the month. 
So, two weeks later, I was home for just 35 hours before I had to go back to the airport and fly across the country. By the time I arrived at JFK, I was having trouble speaking complete sentences, I was that jetlagged and travel-weary. And I had to wake up at the equivalent of 1am New Zealand time to go to the illustrator intensive. It was not ideal.

But I did it.
Maybe I was awkward and overtired, but I was there.

Five days later, I’m typing this while flying home. Every single one of my postcards was picked up by industry professionals attending the private portfolio showcase and cocktail party the Friday night before the conference officially started. We’ll see if any of those seeds sprout anything. I hope my fellow attendees didn't think that I was just horribly unprepared when I ran out of the small cache of business cards I had brought with me as backup!

an assortment of my postcards printed by moo.com for the same price as printing a single image. I brought 100 postcards to the conference. All gone!

A full breakdown of the conference to come in the next post. For now, thanks for letting me toot my own horn!