An Introverted Extrovert’s Overview of Networking Trials and Tribulations

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Or is it an Extroverted Introvert? Either way, for some reason I get oddly shy around agents and editors. And I am not a shy person usually. So why? Why, why, why? My attempts at self-analysis have revealed that it is probably because I’m afraid I will offend or scare them with my sense of humor.

Bring An Invisible Friend

If I were introduced to an editor or agent in a group in which I had a friendly face or two, I could at least get some banter going with someone I know will respond, but I need that sort of intro or else I may come off as weird. It’s like I need to bring a human example with me to show the stranger that I am not scary.

Deviating From Center

I just make jokes…even when I’m nervous. I can’t help but make jokes (I mean, I can hold it together at a funeral, but in general, I bring humor into conversations as a way to break the tension, so I can go from heavy to levity on a dime). It’s a fine line between quirky humor, and just plain scary/unpredictable, and I’m constantly pushing it, reading the person to see if I can take it further. I ramp it up fast, and some people are just too surprised or they don’t dig my brand of humor, but I just want to get through the uncomfortable part of winning someone over as fast as possible. It might be a weakness, but in situations like a conference, I feel an overwhelming need to be liked, and I start blathering in an attempt to keep strangers engaged and amused. I guess this is my inner stand-up comedienne rearing her head.

On A Scale From Bore to Loon, I am…?

But talking to an agent or an editor one-on-one, and I get so worried that I’ll say the wrong thing and I’ll make the most disastrous first impression, that I shut down, and I have to remind myself every three seconds to just be myself. But at the same time, I have to network and be agreeable, which is tough when all I want to do is banter. And it starts to feel unnatural if I don't tell jokes. I’m sure there are agents and editors out there who can pick up what I’m throwing down, but I think their defenses are so high when they meet a stranger at one of these events, that I might read as a “false positive” on their loony meter. (At least that’s what I’m telling myself, haha).

The Solution!

Okay, this may not actually be a solution. And okay, this might just be a lame punchline. But, here goes anyway: Maybe I should just wear a label that reads: “WARNING: May Tell Lame Jokes Unexpectedly.”

Because, notice I didn’t say I was funny . . . I just said that I tell jokes.

*badumdump*

Bring on the rotten produce - I'm here all night, Ladies & Gentlemen!

SCBWI Winter Conference – NYC 2014

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Below are my personal experiences during the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC. Beyond recommending that you work hard to get your money’s worth, I’m not offering any advice, just recounting my time. Do with it what you will. J

JET LAG up the wazoooooo

Just came from New Zealand, was home for 36 hours, and then headed to New York for the conference. My internal clock was on the fritz. Tried to go to sleep at midnight EST, ended up awake, staring at the ceiling at 5am. Needless to say, the next morning, I was not bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

Friday – Illustrator’s Intensive

This sold out intensive began with a live interview of Tomie De Paola about the importance of composition, a topic that woke me right up out of my jet-lagged stupor. Being a visual person, I especially appreciated the accompanying powerpoint presentations with Tomie’s work illustrating each point he was making. The other speakers were engaging as well, but I don’t remember them as clearly, since their topics weren’t as pressing for me.  

           

Live critique of WIPs

After the break, an editor (Arthur Levine of Arthur Levine Books at Scholastic), an agent (Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties), and an art director (Melissa Manlove of Chronicle Books) all critiqued illustrators’ art on the fly, as our images were projected on the screen. My submission was chosen to speak about, and I didn’t hear a single negative word about it. Arthur Levine claimed it had “European sensibilities.” (ooo la laa!) and that it was telling that the first two rounds of remarks had gone by and not one person had asked why the dinosaur was doing yoga, which meant that the image had done its job successfully.

“Homework”

In the next phase of the intensive, participants were made to sit around large tables at which one faculty member would individually review each participants’ “homework” assignment. Which was to illustration a scene from Snow White. He said mine was a good start, and that I needed to do another round with more cohesively themed details, but that would come in the editing process. So nothing bad about the art itself. Wow!

In fact, Arthur even sought my portfolio out to review the next day at the portfolio showcase (he didn’t throw a contract in my face or anything, but it was still a step in the right direction!)

Faculty Party (to which I was not invited)

That night, SCBWI threw a faculty party for which they invited all the local agents, editors and art directors. All the Illustrators’ Intensive participants were allowed to leave their portfolios out for review by the partygoers. I wasn’t allowed to attend, but boy, did I want to see what they thought of my portfolio! All I know is that they must have liked it, because I didn’t have a single postcard left by the time I was allowed to pick up my portfolio after the party! (The number of postcards left after a show is the only way to gauge what people thought of your work, as comments and critiques are no longer part of the process. So for the cards to have all disappeared before the other attendees even had a chance to take any was a VERY, very good sign.)

AWKWARD!

Lest I sound too much like a braggart, you should know that there were awkward moments too: Trying to get to know an agent I’d been researching and just getting nowhere (more on that in another post); knowing so few people at the gala party that it was hard to get introductions to other people so they didn’t think I was just a weirdo showing up and introducing myself; eating lunch by myself because I wasn’t included in any groups’ plans. I did feel like a “new girl,” trying to navigate preexisting groups of friends. It was definitely tiring, since I am not a robust extrovert. But, the rest of the conference was spent getting inspired by authors and illustrators who had “made it to the big time” and solidifying fledgling friendships, and I left having gained experience and a little fact time, so all in all, it was probably a worthwhile expenditure IF those funds are readily available. AKA, this “fun” trip was NOT cheap, so I’d recommend really forcing yourself beyond your comfort zone during the conference to make the most of the investment.

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!

Drawing-A-Day-December

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After Inktober (in October) and SkaDaMo (in November) passed me by because I was too busy with the latest picture book dummy and then my NaNoWriMo novel, I decided to do a drawing a day in December. I had an anemic Tumblr page that I was eager to fill up with doodles and sketches. I’ve read and heard that art directors et al appreciate seeing an illustrator’s sketching style as well as their finished work, and since I had been working so intently on my picture book dummies, I hadn’t been able to share as many of my drawings as I would have liked to. So, also in an effort to distance myself from my latest picture book as well as the new NaNoWriMo project, as well as to make the December scheduling madness more manageable, the drawing-a-day-December was born. Once I had announced my intention to my friends, they spread the word, and pretty soon we had formed a nice-sized group page on Facebook. We brainstormed a long list of prompts and set up a schedule, so that the day’s topic would be automatically tweeted every morning at 8am.(#drawingadaydecember)

After the first few days, I was seriously wondering if the group was going to make it through. Many participants dropped out after the first day, or hadn’t even submitted at all. But, to my surprise, my friend’s mother-in-law was steadfast and stuck it through with me. Newly recovered from a brain implant, she was experiencing the pleasure of having control over her limbs again after spending many years suffering from Parkinson’s. This was her outlet. And what a joy it was to see how happy she was to be doing what she loved once again, not to mention providing me with positive reinforcement to keep going with the daily drawings, even if it meant I would have to miss out on some social activities.

After 31 days, I had 31 drawings. Not all of them were fully realized in color, and obviously not all of them were good, but I had completed a challenge I’d set out for myself. Check them out on the "Sketches" tab on this website.

Other positive outcomes:

I also learned to approximate the time it takes to do a fully realized drawing. If it’s at all complicated, it will likely take more than one day (hence the unfinished ones)

I’d managed to grow my Instagram following slightly. (it’s still paltry)

And, last but not least, I began to receive a lot of kudos from my fellow illustrators. To this day, I’m still hearing, “Oh, you work A LOT.” Which is sort of one of the best compliments you can give me, since I’m always terrified I’m being lazy when I need to stop work to process things or whatnot.

So, YAY!

NaNoWriMo and the Angst That Goes With It

A quote from my journal while in the midst of NaNoWriMo:

<< Why do I do this to myself? Why do I sign up for something that is so herculean that I burn out a week into it because I’m simply not used to writing the sheer amount of words required to fulfill the 50,000 word challenge? Part of it was peer pressure, that’s for sure. Part of it was that I so badly want to have this draft done because I feel like a charlatan having come up with the idea back in February, and having only written 7,500 words of it. So here I am, at around 20,000 words, feeling burnt out and uninspired (it is the week 2 slump, after all), but I still have to write 30,000 more words! And to be frank, I don’t even know if this story has that many more words to write to get finished. So, it becomes a futile exercise of putting characters in a room and having them talk about their personal thoughts and emotions – which is not very realistic, having all my characters be open books. Most people aren’t that emotionally available. Oh well. >>

Luckily after the two week blues, I was able to turn things around and get a draft in and “win” NaNoWriMo (writing 50,000 words in a month). Now that draft is going on the backburner to simmer for a few months. It’s time for me to get back to illustrating!

PICTURE BOOK DUMMIES – THE INTERNAL PROCESS

Since right after the 2013 SCBWI Summer Conference, I’ve been deeply entrenched in creating a new picture book. I’ve taken two versions all the way to fully-realized dummies - because I couldn’t tell if they’d work or not until I saw them on the page. This is not a very efficient way to work, considering that, at least for this book, it took me a month of solid work to complete each of the dummies.

So is there a way to streamline my process? Is it even worth trying to do, since I’m still learning about my own process? Shouldn’t I be focusing more on the final product itself, and doing whatever it takes to get the best possible book out there? I don’t have an answer. I suppose if there was an unceasing demand for my books, then yes, I’d have to work on streamlining my process. But right now, so much of my work feels like new, untested experimental methods, and it’s only at the very last minute that things start to feel rote – and when I say very last minute, I truly mean when I’m taping the printed out dummy together, and only concerned with trying to line the pages up right against each other, and I’m no longer thinking about the art.

Even cleaning up the art in Photoshop or laying in the text feels experimental, like I’m still figuring it out and scared I’ll mess it up. I guess that’s what keeps it exciting for me.

At any rate, two months in, and I have a third version of the story (to say nothing of the countless drafts and attempts that didn’t make it past the thumbnailing stage). I’m really hoping this is the one. The goal was to have the dummy done in time to submit to agents before the holiday slowdown, but now that looks unlikely, since I have to redraw everything, do final art pieces, and refine a query letter. It’s possible, but because I was foolhardy and signed up to do NaNoWriMo for a different manuscript, and I have a revise and resubmit request from an editor for another picture book. Honestly, I’ve got my hands full. I guess that’s better than the alternative, which is not having any ideas at all. But every time a new story idea pops into my head now, I meet it with a bit of trepidation because I know how overextended I already am.

If this sounds like complaining, forgive me. And please believe me: I know how lucky I am that this is what I get to do with my life, even if I don’t yet have an established career. Or maybe that makes me even luckier, since I’m STILL able to practice at it, and not be defined by inferior work in the marketplace. I’ve heard that there’s a better opportunity for a debut author or illustrator than there is for one who is midlist (i.e. Didn’t earn out on their advance).

The Responsibility of Adding More Diversity in Children's Literature

I read an interview of two children’s book agents in which they discussed diversity (or lack thereof) in children’s literature. http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/11/06/literary-agents-discuss-the-diversity-gap-in-publishing/ One agent made mention of the fact that the vast majority of children’s book authors are well-educated, white women with enough of a financial cushion in their lives to be able to dedicate the time and money to pursuing an extremely financially unrewarding … well, some are looking at it as a career, others as a hobby, I suppose. Anyway, this agent was not surprised that so many books were about white middle class children, because people tend to write what they know. 

And that’s the default setting. I find it in my own writing, and even in my drawing – the kids I draw may have wider noses on the whole than the average white kid, but for the sake of color variety, I often give them blond or red hair, when the vast majority of people on this earth have dark hair. So it’s not representative. Worse yet, when I’m in “the zone” painting (and thus, not really thinking intellectually about diversity in children’s literature), I have a default go-to skin color, which is so disappointing of an impulse of mine. There I go again, mixing up a creamy peachy pink on the palette. Please. My skin isn’t that color, so why am I painting with it? I’m going to make a concerted effort to draw more diverse faces in my future sketchings. Captain Obvious here, but people of all types should be adequately represented in literature. The fact that this sentence must even be stated is a sad state of affairs indeed. /end soapbox

Pinterest: Time Vortex or Mind Expander?

If you haven’t checked out Pinterest, part of me wants to tell you not to, in order to avoid the inevitable time suck that it will be. But the other part of me, the part of me that has benefitted greatly from having as a resource, is controlling my fingers in the moment. Yes, although if you look at my Pinterest account, you’ll see I have a ridiculous number of pins on “crafting” and “jewelry-making” boards, I also have an even larger number of pins on illustration and art boards.

http://www.pinterest.com/jujuco/

And that is what keeps me coming back. Never before has it been so easy to consolidate and sort visual imagery and inspirational material. My art seems to have grown and matured at light speed ever since I’ve been able to pull up certain pieces and analyze what it is about them that makes me tick. I’ve learned, for example, that darker scenes with in-frame light sources really get my brain bubbling – Mental carbonation being a good thing, in this instance. Another unexpected benefit is being able to analyze the visual appeal of certain images when quite small on a screen and surrounded by other images. It really forces me to consider what it is in an particular image that has grabbed my attention, regardless of whether or not the image is still successful when I increase the size and look at the technique. Basically, composition, composition, composition. If you haven’t already checked out Pinterest, and you’re feeling brave, go ahead and check out my illustration inspiration board and following a couple people I’ve been following. If nothing else, Pinterest provides a satisfying brain break from my own work when I need to stop staring at it for a while.

Post-SCBWI Conference Frenergy*

*Frenergy - frenetic energy, as defined by Laurie Halse Anderson, as in the frenzied feeling we all seem to experience at the SCBWI Conference. I like to think it has a dual meaning of energy gleaned from being with friends. Because I certainly absorbed a lot of that kind of frenergy this weekend.

Ah, memories...

Pre-SCBWI Conference Karaoke Night, in which I learned I am best suited for 80s songs sung by male vocalists...

Early evenings spent hanging on the hotel patio with the Circle of Awesome (now featuring: a fire pit!)...

 
Acting the tap-dancing fool in a homemade tutu at Saturday's Black and White Ball (I'm the one in the captain's hat)...

 Oh yeah, and acting professional and networking and stuff.

Somehow there aren't any photos of that.

Anyway, it's back to real life after 4 days of soaking up inspiration from industry luminaries, hanging out with old and new friends, and, in general, receiving affirmation that I'm in the right place in life. That's right, the SCBWI-LA Annual Conference is over and it's back to cleaning the litter box (read: working from home).

By the way, here's a picture of a unicorn:

No, not a real-life unicorn, though that'd be magical. It's a picture of my postcards, of which I have ONE left, and I guess that's only because I had left it at home to show my husband. As pathetic as I may sound by admitting this, strangers' willingness to pick up a free piece of art is one of the most concrete ways I've been able to measure the success of my images, since we don't receive feedback from the portfolio showcase. So the fact that they were all gone by Saturday evening is quite affirming.

The even better news is, I've already received quite a few emails from people asking me to illustrate a picture book for them. *fist pump*

The not-so-good news is that they aren't editors or agents. To explain, on day one of learning about the kidlit biz, I learned that one of the hard and fast rules is that you don't illustrate a book before you get a book deal unless you're willing to do it just to get paid up front, with no expectation of further momentum. But still, FLATTERY!!

And maybe some of these people have huge platforms and are committed to putting their feet on the pavement to make sales.

And maybe while my other projects are percolating amongst industry professionals, it wouldn't hurt to get a little more practice.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have so much writing and art of my own that I want to share with the world, (plus that old litter box needs cleaning), I should probably stay the course with my current 5-year plan by finishing my middle grade novel and querying agents with my full range of offerings.

At the end of September, it will officially be five years since I took my very first picture book class at UCLA Extension, and was advised not to query agents until I had a least four projects under my belt. Well, with four completed picture book dummies (none of which I've discussed in any depth on this blog, as I'm superstitious), a slew of other PBs in the works, a YA novel, and a in-progress MG (middle grade) novel, I'm almost at the end of what I hope is the prepublished chapter in my origin story. Heh.

I'm ready to come out of the gate flying!

Getting Ready for the 2013 SCBWI Summer Conference

This year, I was determined to get all my marketing materials for the conference done WAAAAAAY ahead of time so I wouldn't have to worry about paying for rush delivery and whatnot. This plan coincided nicely with a three-week nature photography roadtrip my hubby had planned in June. What was initially intended as a en plein aire painting experience for me turned into a shut-in sweatshop in which I pounded out a picture book story, sketches, and 5 finished paintings, PLUS drawings for new portfolio pieces, all done from inside a series of hotel rooms of varying quality. No distractions, since hubby was out photographing nature with his photography buddies. Here are a few of the images I'll be using for my promo materials:

I cropped these for the business card (I'll add a pic of the final product when it arrives):

That last one was inspired by this picture I took from a tiny plane we flew in Idaho:

As for the postcard, what started out like this:

Ended up like this:

I call it "Feast in the Forest," and I'm pretty happy with how the lighting turned out, as it's a skill I've been working on for quite some time.

The Benefit of Proximity - Proving I'm Not A Crazy Shut-In!

            You may have noticed that in the last year, this blog has been more focused on outward activities than it was before -- it seems that staying in one's cave making art just means you'll die in an art-covered cave, alone. My desire not to die alone means I've participated in quite a few social events, including writing retreats and illustrator meet-ups with friends I've met along the way. Some pics to prove I'm not making this up:

Here I am at the afterparty for Sara Wilson Etienne's launch of HARBINGER (check out her book trailer; I am one of the crazed fire-lit silhouettes!):

A public outing to Jennifer Bosworth's launch party for STRUCK (check out her book trailer; my elbow makes an appearance in the dance scene!):

And Leigh Bardugo's launch party for SHADOW & BONE:

             In addition to book launches, there have been quite a few get-togethers. SCBWI has been an invaluable resource for me, mostly because without their events, I never would have met these great people and gotten to BASK IN THEIR GENIUS. So here are a few SCBWI semi-sponsored events.

The SCBWI-LA Halloween party in 2011:

The SCBWI-LA Christmas Party in 2011:

              And it's always fun to celebrate other people's successes!

A celebratory lunch for Ken Min's Silver Medal (APALA Honor Book, 2012)

A big ol' illustrator brunch to celebrate Eliza Wheeler making the NY Times Bestseller's List:

            Finally, it's good to get out every once in a while to blow the stink off, but it's even better when I can get some work done while I'm out there!

An Art Day with my illustrator friends: 

A Writing Retreat with my author friends: 

            Why yes, I did just force a mini-photo album onto my blog in an effort to prove to potential editors and agents that I am a sane person with reasonable social skills. What of it? ;)

New Pieces from My First Solo Art Show

A closer view of the new pieces I made for my solo art show:

My First Solo Art Show – Traveling Caravan to San Diego

            Towards the end of 2012, I entered into talks with a community music center in San Diego that had created a program for local artists to display their work to be viewed with musical accompaniment.  An author friend of mine whom I had met at a local SCBWI event about a year earlier knew the program coordinator and asked me if I wanted to be considered for a show. 

            "Uh, YES."

            So introductions were passed around and my online portfolio was sent to them and wall measurements were sent back, and after a while, the slot for my show rolled around, and my husband (who had just had a hitch installed on our car so we could tow our bikes around,) happily rented a small uHaul trailer and some moving blankets, and devised a complicated weight and leverage system with bungee cords within the trailer for my art to travel in as frictionless an environment as possible. Computer engineer hubbies are the best!

 

            So we made an entire weekend of it. Our friends caravanned down with us and got rooms in the same hotel, and we ate, toured, and hot tubbed together. They even helped hang the art up and went around buying snacks and drinks for the opening night party. Not even a flat tire could slow us down (Well, it did actually. A little bit, so good thing we had multiple cars!)

            The party was deemed a success. Over thirty people came down from Los Angeles for the opening, and a lot of them had never seen my fine art before. I was glad to have a chance to share with them another slice of my life. I was touched by the effort that everyone had put in to support me and my art. 

            For the two months that the show ran, I would receive occasional updates from the coordinators letting me know that people had been asking a lot of questions about the art and asking for my card. It was definitely strange to be physically far away from my art. I kept worrying that something bad would happen. None of the art was damaged, thankfully, though there is a small dent in the frame of one of the smaller pieces.

            Similar to how I felt prior to my first time participating in the Venice Art Walk, I experienced some anxiety when facing the prospect of selling all my favorite pieces. But each time, I come to the conclusion that I would be willing to part with them for the right price, and I raised the price accordingly for those pieces. Supply and demand, baby.

Well, once again I found that though there is limited supply, I’m even more limited on the demand side, so I was able to bring home all my favorite originals, having sold only prints. (Still, print sales = yay!)

            Considering that the venue ended up being off the beaten path, and more of a place to bring your kid for music lessons, I’m not surprised that my fine art did not sell like hotcakes. Had I known more about the reality of the location as opposed to their pitch, I probably would have shown more of my children’s illustrations. As it was, I had created four new print pieces to fit in the hallway through which most of the children traversed. 

             We hung them low enough for the kids to see, hoping they’d ask their parents about it. The added benefit being that I could conceivably use the pieces in my illustration portfolio. Perhaps I priced them too high as well, as there was much interest, but very little than actually resolved into sales.

            That said, it was certainly flattering to have a live musician “jam” to my art for a few hours in front of my nearest and dearest. One of the best parts: the thrill of being able to put “Solo Art Show” on my CV.

Threadless Competition - onesie design

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            In between work on my picture book ideas and writing projects, I enjoy illustrating one-off designs which I post on Zazzle and other custom merch sites. However, I’ve been somewhat frustrated with Zazzle, since their ranking algorithms seem to bury my items in the search results in the US. I could be completely wrong here, but it’s a working theory, since most of my orders come from abroad. This makes me think I’m missing out on the majority of possible sales. The quality of my work itself couldn’t possibly be the reason for lagging sales in the US! You see where this is going, and it’s not just a river in Egypt.

Recently, a friend got me excited about Threadless, a site where illustrators submit their work of a particular theme into a contest, and the winning choice is crowd-sourced. There was a onesie design contest (or "infant creeper" as some places call them, making me wonder if the word onesie is trademarked - hi lawyers! *waves*) by a children’s clothes retailer, and feeling somewhat inspired, I entered two pieces into the competition. 

No, this isn’t a feel-good story where I win and I’m carried on the shoulders of other illustrators through the gates of Illustrator City. I didn’t win. BUT…according to the FAQs on the Threadless website, I managed to earn a very high score on the Unicyclesaurus design, a 3.16, and I should pat myself on the shoulder for it. *pat, pat* Now where’s my book deal? HA! ;)

 I posted a few pieces on Society6, such as the above Bare Hugs print, but so far no sales. Zazzle's still bringing in consistent sales, no matter how small the amount may be. So I guess I'm back to square one. *shrugs* I'll take it as a sign that I should get back to writing and illustrating picture books.

Key Art for a Middle Grade Novel, SPIRIT'S KEY

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Earlier this year, my friend, Edith Cohn, let it drop that her middle grade book, SPIRIT'S KEY, sold and she’d be debuting in Fall 2014. After much squeeing and jumping up and down, we "Prepublished" all went back to whatever we were doing to try to Make It, and I secretly harbored jealousy deep within my shriveled little heart. ;) But I couldn’t stay "mad" when she asked me to do some key art for her…very literally key art, since it’s of a key!

She's using the key logo for her website, her business cards and her promotional bookmarks, and it's exciting to see my work out there.

Another piece of art she asked me to make was an illustrated map of the island on which the story takes place. She sent me a back-of-a-napkin-type sketch and a PDF of her book, and here's what I came up with:

See the key in there? It's like a Where's Waldo poster, ha! I had a lot of fun working with Edith, so I think I'm going to try my hand at making a mock cover for her as well. I'll update here when I do. In the meantime, (though I don't think it will take me that long,) look for her book in stores next year! :)