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! :)

Yoganimals: New Picture Book Idea

            Once again, I have come up with another list-based idea for a picture book. This time, it's a play on yoga positions named after animals, starting with the question of what if all those animals got into their namesake positions, like pigeon pose or crow pose? 

           It's a work in progress. What do you think?

Happy Holidays!

We've been busy with travel and holiday prep around here, and not too many pretty pictures I'm able to share (only Top Sekrit projects:).

What's inside those tins? I'LL NEVAR TELLLLL!!!

Here is my holiday e-card! I've lately begun an obsession with the narwhal (the unicorn of the sea). One of these days I'll do a book about one. :)

Art for YA debut, SACRED

            While I was "toiling away" for the Halloween party, I was marinating on a project I’d signed up for months ago – an art piece illustrating a scene from a fellow YA writer’s debut novel, SACRED. 

            She had sent me an e-ARC months earlier, and I had chosen the passage I wanted to illustrate, but after a few frustrating tries at sketching the scene, I’d put it to my subconscious to come up with the solution. And so it did, although I’m not sure my technical skills were up to the task at hand.  It was one of my few attempts at a nighttime scene, and I was really interested in developing the effects of the different light sources. This of course gave me a choice about preordaining the brightest points of light, or figuring it out later using the screen or dodge tools in Photoshop. Those lightening tools can sometimes have a heavy-handed effect, and I’m not sure the distortion of the gazebo really worked – it might just look crooked. I am not sure if the two figures are convincing as teens, but it’s hard because they are dressed up for prom, and some kids do look like adults when they’re gussied up like that. Nevertheless, I received a decent response to it and it was, as always, a good experience for me. I got to be interviewed on her blog and it was fun to be a guest somewhere else (it gets pretty lonely around this here blog, just me and the tumbleweeds ;).

        

Hipster Zombie Halloween

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            This was an off-year for my family’s every-other-year Halloween party, so I decided to help my friend plan one at her house. We chose the theme "Hipster Zombie" and used Pinterest to brainstorm. I painted a giant zombie apocalypse mural for the photo booth we created, made jello worms, and jello brains, along with other delicacies and spooky accouterments. We hauled out my parents' impressive collection of black lights and fog machines, and a good time was had by all.

            But this was not work, no matter how much craftiness went into the party’s creation, so I'm not exactly sure why I'm including this on the blog.

2012 Working Writer’s Retreat

            For the second year in a row, I attended SCBWI-LA's Working Writer's Retreat. Here's a pic from last year's retreat:

            Luckily, this time I did not get laryngitis from singing too much karaoke. As I mentioned in the previous post, I had just begun a total rewrite of my book, which meant I was reading some pretty raw stuff to agents and editors, but also it afforded me the flexibility to make some fairly drastic changes in between sessions, rather than being a phrase hoarder (people usually say this as "Kill Your Darlings," but I'm a nonconformist). Though frustrating at times, it was definitely a learning experience to be that fast and free with my words.
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            In the meantime, I’d been dragging my picture book dummy with me to every focus group, and finally one of my group members told the editor who was faculty to take a look at my book. (I was so averse to being seen as shoving it in her face, I couldn’t work up the nerve to do it myself.) After the final readings on the last day, I approached her with the picture book and she took a look at it. 

The working cover:

 
            She laughed at it and kept saying it was cute, but we were in the middle of the hallway and I felt terrible, like I had basically done the "hand the manuscript under the bathroom stall" move. She recommended I send it to a particular agent, who I came to find out is like one of the best agents for picture books in the business. Whoa. She also said I could send her the new draft of my novel when I was done with it. *choke*  

           Post-edit: So Julia, you ask, did you query the agent she recommended? Did you send your novel to the editor right away after finishing the rewrite? No. No, I did not. Because I am chicken. This has got to change. And it will.

2012 SCBWI Conference

            So the conference came and went. I had my manuscript critique done by a fairly high-up editor at one of the Big 6. She basically told me stuff I already knew, but was hoping I could fix later. Apparently, they have to be fixed now, before I submit.

Of course, this means I’ve decided I need a full rewrite of my YA novel. I need to streamline the plot by combining characters and making my MC less passive. I have a new synopsis and outline now, and though I don’t know if it’s going to work, I have to give it a shot.

However, as I’m writing this, I’ve got two weeks before the SCBWI-LA Working Writer’s Retreat, and I have nothing to read at this point. This is unsettling, considering the fact that I thought I had a nearly complete first draft up until two weeks ago. But since I’m essentially changing the entire core of my main character, nothing I’ve already written really makes sense anymore. This will be my third total rewrite of this manuscript, though my writer friends assure me that this is completely normal.

Not to say the conference was entirely frustrating. There were lots of fun bits, too, as always!

Friends came to support me at the Portfolio Showcase:

In between sessions, I met up with a group of authors and illustrators who dubbed ourselves "The Circle of Awesome."

Me with my illustrator buddies, Jennifer Gray Olson (left), and Christina Forshay (right) at the SCBWI Hippie Hop Afterparty.

Comic-Con 2012

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            I’m not exactly sure when I became aware of Comic-Con’s existence, but I do remember thinking it appeared to be the Olympics for nerds. Not being the sporting type, I’d never bothered to find out more about it. Until now. A friend of mine had made a yearly pilgrimage of it and had made it sound like so much fun, I decided I simply had to go. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, so I looked online and of course it had been sold out for eons before I got there. Luckily, professionals (who get in for free, by the way), are allowed to bring guests, and while I could qualify as a professional, apparently the intertubes are full or something, and it’s like getting a green card in the US – far easily to hitch yourself to someone who already belongs than to wait your turn in line with the zillions of other qualified foreigners. Am I stretching a metaphor? Yes – but it still applies, I think. Except I didn’t actually have to marry my friend (my hubby would have objected greatly). We stayed in neighboring hotel rooms and traveled to and from the con together. My friend Abby came with me and she dressed up one of the days as a character from The Avengers.  (You won’t find me dead in a catsuit). 

            We met up with a bunch of our friends for meals and panels, and even went out to a unicorn rave in some old warehouse district. (Though by the end of that night, we were all complaining about our sore body parts – ah, the joys of getting older!)

      

          But, the crowds. Oh, the crowds. Thousands upon thousands of People of A Certain Demographic (nerds) pushing and nearly trampling one another, as though you’re in one big open air New York City Subway at rush hour. I fit right in, awkwardly.

            I brought my sketch book and my iPad (for Scrabble on the go!) and even made it a few laps around the pit (we spotted Nathan Fillion and cast members from Glee!) Look at Nathan:

           It helps to go into that giant room with some sort of purpose or goal. Our goal was to take pictures of all the other Avengers so we could have a full set. I think we got everyone except Hulk. I guess there aren’t enough steroid-sucking nerds out there with a penchant for green paint and purple pants.

            Anyway, I had a reasonable time, but when asked if I wanted to attend again in 2013, I passed. Sometimes putting things on a bucket list happens because you don’t know any better. And now I do. ;)

ALA 2012 – to ARC or not to ARC?

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            ALA was in Anaheim in 2012, and since I’d heard so much about it from the Twittersphere in years past, I decided to go along with a couple of my friends. I’d read through the loglines of all the books that were going to be there (at least, from the larger publishers,) and I created a “Wish List” of ARCs (advanced reader copies) I wanted to pick up. And I got some -- hooray! (When they have pallet-sized stacks of books, it's okay for non-bloggers/journalists to take them). I also got to meet and hang out with a bunch of cool writer folks afterwards at a couple of bars, as well as rub elbows with a few agents – though I felt too awkward to actually talk about my work with the agents, so instead I just came up with pun-filled and borderline offensive one-liners. Like I do. So, while I didn’t get on a first name basis with any of the agents, I did become online friends with a couple of writers who are pretty cool and who have stayed in contact with me somewhat. Which I appreciate, since I am the Unpublished Unwashed, and sometimes (not so much in the kidlit world, but sometimes) people can be a bit snobby. Here's a picture of me with YA writer extraordinaire Andrew Smith, a man who is decidedly UNsnobby, and therefore We like him (the royal We -- I'm getting a head start in snobbiness!;)

            Sidenote: if I ever become snobby, someone give me the what-for.

           Sidenote #2: I convinced my friend Abby to take a picture with GAME OF THRONES author, George R. R. Martin.

 
No, he did not come to the mixer afterwards. ;)

Graphic Novel Toolbox

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            I attended a graphic novel workshop on March 17, 2012 in Pacific Palisades. Mac McCool and Marla Frazee were the lecturers.  I was worried that I wouldn’t learn anything new, since I’d taken that 12-week long Graphic Novel History class at Art Center last summer. However, this workshop was more geared toward the production rather than the history of the medium. Whereas I’ve read quite a few books on the topic, it is always easier to take in the information in a lecture format, at least for me. Sure it was a superficial overview, but it was still a helpful refresher. And Marla Frazee’s talk reedified the need for thoughtful composition and emotional communication. Pictures to come...