Birdie Drawings

M.T. Anderson (keynote)

- Does some things just for artistic pleasure, not necessarily for the book or for marketing.

- “Those books that take us away from what we expect show us the world anew.”

- “Don’t be afraid of your eccentricities.”  (Love that quote!)

Courtney Bongiolatti (on boy books)

- Recommended Guys Read website.

- She also recommended that you know your genre. Are you writing Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Humorous Mystery, Sports, School Stories, Historical Fiction, Combination of Genres, Relatable, or Out of the Box?

- Boy books should have a boy main character, be about a kid that the reader wants to be like, and have series potential.

Carolyn Mackler (on characters)

- Quirks, details and language help define characters. Make them consistent throughout the book.

- Writing exercise: What does your character keep hidden in their underwear drawer, and if nothing, where do they hide things and what do they hide?

- “Number one challenge is figuring out what to omit. What you omit is more important than what you keep in the story.”

More Birdie Drawings

E.B. Lewis (keynote)

- “Keep forging forward – there is life after you feel like the inspiration has died.”

- “As artists you need to fill yourself up to overflowing and then give it all back.”

Gail Carson Levine (keynote)

- If a character is going to change, we have to see how it happens (the set up) or understand later how it came to be.

- Grow in the writing – as you write you get to know your characters better and develop them through writing.

- Writing exercise: 3 characters are getting ready for school. How does each one prepare? Reveal the thoughts and feelings of each; they should all be different.

Jon Scieszka (stories across multiple media)

- Websites, blogs, etc. that are mentioned in the book are live and each character has their own online presence. (Talking about his Spaceheadz books.)

- Multimedia platform books are a hard sell even for an established author, but more publishers are starting to look for these books.

- Fully half of his budget for the project goes for online efforts (the publisher pays someone to do the web stuff).

- His books stand alone without the web stuff so that schools and kids without web access can still read and enjoy the books.

Even More Birdie Drawings

Gennifer Choldenko (being your own best editor + keynote)

- “What you experience while you’re writing, we’ll experience as we’re reading.”

- “Every detail must work within the context of the world you created (essential part of every novel, not just fantasy).”

- “To make your novel fulfilling, you have to get to the emotional core.”

- “Start on a new project before revising the last one.” (Need multiple projects/ideas.)

- “Good work takes time and major revisions.”

“If you find yourself not wanting to work on a chapter or a storyline, that’s a clue. Go where the heat is because if the heat is there for you, it will be there for the reader.”

Rachel Vail (keynote)

- Middle grade is where you start to go out and notice the larger world, not just your small family.

- “Life or Death moments are a dime a dozen in middle grade.”

- “Voice sometimes comes later after you’ve done a lot of work/pages.”

- Many middle grade and chapter books have a one act play structure.

The Rest Of The Birdie Drawings

Linda Sue Park – I was fortunate to be able to take the MG premium workshop with Linda Sue Park. Here are some gems from those sessions:

- In middle grade: “They’re learning that the world isn’t fair. What are they going to do about it? The world isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean it has to be miserable.”

- Character (for her) has no substance without setting. Mix/balance emotions and setting with what makes them specific vs. what makes them universal. Setting helps make it specific.

- Character should have an internal and an external quest. Internal=what character needs (character development). External=what character wants (plot). Internal quest should be subtle.

- “Story doesn’t take place inside someone’s head; it takes place in the world.”

- Need to think about balance. Stuff can’t always just happen to them – character needs to make things happen. Plot progresses because of choices that the character makes that cause action.

- How much space in your story do you want to give to something out of the character’s control where they can’t act or react? (Probably not much. Example: getting swept down a river.) The reader is waiting for the character to act or react.

- “If your flashback is too long, maybe it’s not a flashback – it’s called flash.”

- Chapters are usually similar size. Short chapters make for quicker read and makes more impact.

- Love the process and what you’re doing. Enjoy the moments and the writing whether you get published or not.

Dogs and Cats and Umbrellas

The other new piece of art I have is a drawing of a lantern fish that I did for Ripple. It sold before I could post it here, but I still wanted to share the drawing because it works for the WaWe oceans prompt. Plus, it cracks me up. Hope it gives you a laugh too!

Fishy With A Built In Flashlight

The third piece of new art you may have noticed already. I have a new avatar because my hair is all chopped off. It will grow back (eventually) right? What happened was that I got a really bad haircut, which I tried to grow out for two months. Then I went to MN and asked a friend of mine that’s a hairstylist if she could fix it. She said no, so she chopped it all off and I’m starting over. The new avatar will be around until I have more hair again (I’m guessing 6 months, or maybe 9 … or 12). Eep!

Updates and new plans: A while back I announced that I was taking a break from Twitter, Facebook and the BlueBoards. The break was supposed to be for four months. Shortly after my update for the first month I had to answer a message on Facebook (for a commitment I’d previously agreed to). Since I was going on to Facebook, I also decided to visit Twitter and the BlueBoards. It was really hard to tear myself away again. For me, a month wasn’t long enough. After two months, I was cruising along, getting work done and blogging. Now it’s three months later and for me, three months is enough. I miss my friends and the industry news and the fun of hanging out online. So, I’m going to start (slowly) getting back into things. I might still take a few days off here and there, or a week, or maybe even a month if I have a deadline. That seems like the smart thing to do when I need to work and/or clear my head. However, as important as it was for me to step back and catch my breath, it’s even more important for me to jump back in. It’s more fun, not to mention more inspiring and productive to be surrounded by all the wonderful and creative children’s book people online!

p.s. Now that I’m home again, I’ll be posting notes from the LA conference and a new website design soon!

Octopus and Jellyfish

This piece is approximately 4″ x 5″ and painted with acrylics. This piece can be yours for $10. I’ll update this post when it’s listed on the ripple blog (it’s supposed to post on July 8th). ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them.

Note: There are still two other images of mine available. Happy Whale (digital print) and Seagulls (acrylic painting).

Happy Whale print / Seagulls painting

The chicken coop has a few visitors.

The prompt for Illustration Friday this week was “satellite,” and the prompt for the CBIG Blog this month was “country.” I decided to combine the two in a painting for the ripple blog (to help animals affected by the oil spill). Click here for more info or to purchase this painting.

There’s still a whale print and two paintings, seagulls and pelicans, by me for sale from previous weeks.

Happy Whale

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do so I just started working. I made paisley-like swirls and filled the centers with fishies, sea turtles and jellyfish. Then a couple of happy accidents happened and I decided to create 2 paisley whales:

Paisley Whale #1 (Unhappy)

Paisley Whale #2 (Singing)

I’ve decided to donate digital prints of these three images to the ripple project. Click here for more info or to purchase these images. Each print is 3″ x 4″ and sells for $10. ALL PROCEEDS go to one of these two non-profit charities: The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center. The buyer donates directly to one of the charities, ensuring that all the money goes to the relief effort. They then send the email confirmation and the art is shipped out to them. The copyright notice is for the web only and won’t be on the prints, but they will be signed.

Note: There are still two paintings from my original series available for purchase here (the seagulls and the pelicans). Both paintings are 2.5″ x 3.5″ and are the actual paintings, not prints.

seagulls and pelicans

How am I doing on my goals?

- Exercise: I’m exercising on a regular basis (this is week three)!!! Some days I’m so sore I can barely get out of bed (even though I’m using one pound weenie weights … yeah, I’m that out of shape). I know from the last time that eventually it gets easier (it’s starting to get better). I’ve only lost a couple of pounds but my clothes fit better, so I’m guessing I’ve gained muscle weight.

- Zombies: Almost done revising the beginning! Plus I have a shiny new synopsis that has helped me figure out the ending! I have a ton of writing left before the book is done, but I’m happy with how it’s going.

- Chickens: This is going to be a chapter book graphic novel, or at least that’s what I’m shooting for. I just sent a story overview and three act arc to my critique group. I’m crossing my fingers that they won’t find too many plot problems so I can start writing and drawing (actually, I already started, but knowing if the story works will help me keep going).

- Blogging: Still working on how often to blog and how to fit it into my schedule. Lots of planned blog posts haven’t happened either because I didn’t have time or I thought they weren’t that interesting (in otherwords, posting to my blog all the things I wanted to Tweet about seems like a bad idea).

- Visiting Blogs: I thought I’d be visiting blogs all the time now, but I’ve only visited a few. The first week I stayed away because I didn’t want a new obsession (or actually an old obsession – blogs were my time kryptonite before I found Twitter). Then I got involved in my projects. Since I’m not online much, I don’t think about going online just to read blogs.

- Having a life offline and away from work: This is starting to happen now that the crazy deadlines are done (meaning all the stuff I was neglecting because I was online all the time).

- Reading: No novels yet, but I’m almost caught up with my Writer’s Digest magazines and SCBWI Bulletins. Novels are next on my list; I can’t wait!

- Art: I finished my cats wearing hats picture. I’m also working on my chicken graphic novel and new pieces for my portfolio, as well as creating art for the ripple project (all proceeds from the sale of art goes to help animals affected by the gulf oil spill). Two of my paintings are still up for sale ($10 each) with new artwork available later this week!

That’s what I’ve been up to the last month … well that and wondering about all the fun stuff and news that I’ve missed.

How’s your summer going so far?

I started sketching right away, thinking that it would be a quick project. Ha. I kept painting and painting and painting, until I felt the pictures were ready to be sold (see the painting process below the finished pictures). It took me a week to paint these four paintings, and in the meantime, Illustration Friday chose “Ripple” as the word for the week to encourage more artists to create ripple sketches for Kelly’s project. There’s a lot of really really great art and more keeps getting added each day. So far Kelly Light and other artists have helped raise over $3000! At $10 per piece of art, it’s a real bargain and helps a great cause. Here are my four ripple paintings (link to purchase these paintings.): Update: The Sea Turtle and Hermit Crabs have sold. The Pelicans and Seagulls are still available!

1 Sea Turtle

2 Hermit Crabs

3 Brown Pelicans

4 Seagulls

All four paintings are done in acrylic paint and are 2.5″ x 3.5.” Here’s the painting process if you want to see how they were created -

Step One: sketch

Step Two: blue

Step Three: Yellow

Step Four: final color

Because I always like seeing how other artists work, here’s my paint palette when the project was complete (I kept the acrylic paint wet by putting it in a Ziplock bag between painting sessions:

Paint Palette

For more information on how you can help animals in the gulf by purchasing art, or to purchase these paintings, please visit this page on the Ripple Sketches blog. Thanks!

Cats Wearing Hats

After finishing the drawing and I realized that it works for three illustration prompts. Here’s my reasoning: The CBIG blog’s May theme is, “Dream.” This picture is obviously a dream. No self respecting cat would ever wear a hat (at least not without a fight). WaWe’s challenge this week, is “Outdoor Fairs Festivals and Markets.” These cats are obviously on their way to a festival. Why else would they be wearing hats? Finally, it also works for the Illustration Friday word this week, “early,” because the early cats get to wear the hats (and that’s an early bird in the upper left, going home after getting her worm).

What do you think? Does it work for all three prompts?

* For those that like to know art supply details, I used Prismacolor pencils, acrylic paint, and acrylic inks (one of my ink bottles spilled all over the table, almost ruining the drawing – I was lucky to be able to save the table and the drawing).

It’s time for me to jump off the party boat; my vacation is from now until September 22nd.* Four whole months. (Yikes!)

However, I’m not going to disappear altogether. I’m staying off those three sites, but I’ll be blogging, checking email, and reading blogs. (Although I won’t be reading blogs on a blog reader, friends list, or follow list, because those are as addictive as Twitter for me.) When I have time, I’ll go see what friends are up to on their blogs. A few minutes here and there throughout the week is a good way to keep in touch, and hopefully manageable (crossing my fingers).

See you in blogworld or on email this summer! I’ll miss being at the parties, but I’ve decided to spend my summer writing, drawing, reading, and trying to reach my goals. At the end of the four months, I hope to be done with my zombie novel and have a finished (or almost finished) graphic novel starring a chicken named Daria. I’m also hoping to get in shape (a.k.a. lose all the weight I gained while I was injured) and spend more time with my husband (actually having fun in the real world, instead of online).

What are your summer plans? Have you ever taken or contemplated a break from online fun? Did it work for you?

*Unless, of course, I go crazy and decide that I can’t live without Twitter and the BlueBoards (I can probably live without Facebook). BTW, I had a hard time posting this because, as much as I want to do it, I don’t want to leave the party!

Update: Here’s my one month check in post.

Kitty

This is Kitty. She’s currently residing at my parent’s house. I’d like to find her smaller twin to have at my house. So far, I haven’t been able to find her online or in fabric or vintage stores, so I thought I’d post about it in case someone knows where I can find her. Have you seen her?

Kitty was sold as a pre-printed fabric in the 1960s and 70s that you could cut out and sew to make a toy. There were two sizes of cats, this one and a smaller one. (I’m looking for the smaller one, but I’ll take either or both!) My mom found this one a while back, but they didn’t have the small size and she hasn’t seen them since. I’ve seen them called, “Charlie,” online, but nobody seems to have the fabric or the small version of the cat.

Wondering why I’m looking for Kitty? She was my original muse.

Thanks for your help!!