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Chatting with a friend just now made me think: I am older than I expected to get.
When I was a teen looking forward to the millennium change in 1999 I was disappointed that I'd be an old lady, barely able to enjoy it. The millennium change was 17 years ago. I enjoyed it JUST FINE. Ahem.
What would my teen self think of me now?
She wouldn't approve of my short hair or my body, but she'd like my studio and work.
She'd want to be friends with my kids.
She would think today's Charlie is a nice old guy, and the Charlie I fell in love with in 1980 was romantic.
She'd like my dogs.
She'd think it's weird that I eat vegetables for breakfast.
She'd think it's cool but not groovy that I became friends with my siblings,
that I have so many good friends in my life today,
and that I'm this happy.
All of this makes me plan what I'll be like in 2046.
I'd better not disappoint me.
Have you entertained your 17 year old self lately?
Or your 87 year old self?
This is a page from my sketch-journal when I was 17.
Thank you,
teachers and librarians and others who put books in kids' hands.
We appreciate you.
Taken from my sketchbook, this is me greeting Travis Jonker
at Nerd Camp 2015. (He's not really that much taller than I am, I don't think...)
I first became aware of Jennifer Wharton's brilliant book reviews on the Jean Little Library blog a couple years ago, when she mentioned an Ellie McDoodle book and my awesome friend, children's book author Carrie Pearson alerted me.
It occurred to me, why not look up Jennifer's library and see if my travels would bring me near it sometime? And to my utter shock, I was indeed going to be within sketching distance in just a few months.
I attended my agent's retreat in Lake Geneva, and the Jean Little Library isn't more than a pebble toss away.
We drew penguins, owls, Ellie McDoodle, Ben-Ben, dragons, cats, dogs, ... all sorts of stuff.
Here's Ben-Ben:
I like to draw on a document camera and project it onto the wall so people all over the room can join in easily. We were in a big room, and that crowd really filled it up.
One girl gave me a drawing with an impressive use of spirals:
This is my favorite kind of event: connecting with enthusiastic kids. What a great author life I lead.
Thank you SO much, Jennifer and Jean Little Library!
Wow, what a terrific event -- teachers and authors and kids and librarians and lots of talk about books of all kinds... and it's all FREE. Of course I carried around a sketchbook the whole time.
Here are some sketchbook pages from Nerd Camp 2015, our second year of participation:
These are the authors on our panel. Wow!! Big names!
After talking and sharing ideas with teachers for two days, we bring in the kids.
Below, my group is drawing themselves as characters. Next they drew themselves as rabbits.
Then we started writing and drawing a story together.
In between sessions I got to hang out with fellow Bloomsbury author
Erin Soderberg, creator of THE QUIRKS -- what fun she is!
Thank you so much to the organizers of
Nerd Camp, especially Colby Sharp and his family.
Thank you to
Bookbug, Kalamazoo's terrific independent bookstore, for handling sales at Nerd Camp. How great to see the overwhelming support for your store, from the crowd.
What an amazing resource this program is! I'm so happy to be part of it.
On Tuesday we visited Potterville Benton Township District Library,
We brought an easel and drew bats, dogs, penguins, and my first-ever cat on a bike.
Before our audience arrived I showed off the art from Leopold the Lion.
Pictures from the event:
We always draw Ben-Ben.
We brainstormed characters, then started a story.
Poor Lex the dog! Cat has swiped his bones and is getting away.
Can Lex's best friend the squirrel help?
Cat skids into a mud puddle. Will Lex stop to help him?
But what about those scary bats?
Librarian LuAnn helps with the easel pages.
Thank you, Potterville Benton Township District Library!
That's a long name and you are long on hospitality, as always. We had a great time.
When I ran a little advertising/design shop on campus a few decades ago I drew up a poster that said,
Before you decide on one, draw 50.
Under that headline was some line art: 50 thumbnail illustrations (and they were actually decorated thumbnails). The poster was to remind me not to settle on an idea too early in the brainstorming or drawing process. My best work doesn't usually come on the third try.
I'm illustrating a book about a lion.
The first task is to get to know that character inside and out: what's he like?
For a method actor the question would be, what's his motivation?
My best way to figure it out is to draw, draw, draw.
I don't just aim for 50, anymore.
Usually I aim for 100.
Eventually I figured out the lion. (After drawing 137.)
Now, on to the rest of the characters...
(And if I need to draw dozens more lions because I ultimately don't like the one I chose -- or the art director doesn't -- I won't be surprised. Whatever it takes to get my best work.)
Today my kid invited me to tag along on her Engineering group field trip to the local landfill. I've learned never to pass up that sort of opportunity because something useful will come of it. I was right!
I learned:
- it's a landfill, not a dump. Landfill people dislike the D word. In my state, dumps are illegal, and they offer no protection for earth, air or water. Landfills have strict regulations, and a lot of engineering goes into meeting them.
- those plastic grocery bags are worse than I'd thought. They blow around at dumps. I already knew they're terrible for our lakes and oceans, they are unrecyclable, and they don't break down into compost like paper bags can.
- There is beauty even at the landfill -- my daughter found a tiny perfect heart rock for me.
- my work-in-progress picture book about a (shhh, it's a secret!) needs more work, and probably more research.
Of course I took along a sketchbook.
Our tour guide seemed a little nervous at one point when she noticed I was taking copious notes. I hurried to explain that I was writing a kids' book, and this was just research for it.
(The last Engineering group field trip was to a special top-secret facility where the kids had to produce picture IDs to enter and parents had to wait outside.)
She relaxed and said most people don't take notes on her tours.
If people knew what power the almighty pen wields, they might scrutinize children's book authors more.
But I am harmless, and she must think so too; she offered to send me a poster showing a cross section of the landfill.
On the RhyPiBoMo blog, an interesting question came up.
I am posting it with my answer, here, with a couple words and line breaks added for clarity.
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Kristi said: I have a question for today’s guest, Ruth Barshaw. Is sketching something that one is just naturally good at, or can it be learned?
I answered:
Hi, Kristi! I’ve read varying opinions on this, and have talked to some famous illustrators about it too. Though some will argue against it, I’m not alone in my firm belief:
Anyone can learn to draw well. It just takes time and lots and lots of concentrated effort.
Some people say that it also requires talent. I say no.
Some people claim I started higher on the “talented” level — that people who draw well are somehow born with a special knowledge, or even just a predisposition that sets their work apart.
I am not sure if that’s true or not.
I’m not an expert on brain studies, but I am a researcher and have dug deep into this subject a few times.
I don’t have any of my early childhood art.
I do not remember being told by anyone that I had special talent for art until I was in third grade.
By then I loved to draw, maybe as much as some other kids loved to run, or loved to play baseball — things I liked, didn’t practice much, didn’t *understand* how to do better, and so wasn’t much good at — and so didn’t excel at.
Lucky for me, my art ability was recognized by a couple of teachers who asked me to draw things for their bulletin boards.
I’d drawn one giant cartoon of Dennis the Menace for a group project and one of the other kids begged to take it home.
Third grade is the first I can recall of anyone wanting my art.
I remember working really hard in second grade to develop my art (and also to grow my hair long).
The working hard on art part, I’ve done ever since. (Growing my hair long is still an issue)
I see amazing art done by very young children.
Maybe they really are specially talented.
Or maybe they just have smart people in their lives who value art and tell the kids why what they did is special.
I believe it’s learning WHY that makes one a better artist. And, of course, repeated concerted effort.
If you want to read more about how to become a better artist, check out Betty Edward’s Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
You’ll be astounded at her students’ growth in mere days.
But it shouldn’t be surprising: They have someone telling them how to see things differently, WHY certain things work and others don’t.
You can teach yourself how to draw.
You’ll learn faster with smart help.
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Many years ago a friend told me she had decided artists and people with special arts talent (musicians, poets, even people who deliver great lectures) have that information/talent/predisposition whispered to them by the dead masters.
I was a little offended: does this diminish my own hard work at developing my skill?
How do we explain the talented artist who doesn't use their art at all, who wastes what appears to be a gift from above?
My friend's idea has spread widely. I've heard it many places.
I still don't buy it.
I still don't like the suggestion that I was born with something that others weren't, that what I have developed was whispered to me, that I am lucky instead of hard working.
(I realize her suggestion doesn't automatically equate to all of these; I am extrapolating. Probably proponents of the idea would say I am both lucky and hardworking.)
Brain science says once you think something, it's easier to think that thing later.
Confidence or the lack of confidence can build from your thoughts.
This is why people (like me) post affirmations on their mirrors and computer workstations: to repeat good thoughts, so they grow.
If you are rewarded for something -- if a teacher nods in approval, says something nice, tapes your paper to the wall for others to see, shares it with the class -- you learn to repeat.
If you're rewarded for innovation, you will innovate more.
If you're rewarded for being quiet, for not coloring outside the lines, for drawing exactly the way you're told to draw, you might still grow up to be an artist but it'll take extra effort to push yourself to greatness.
If you're punished for doodling on your page margins, for designing varied but barely legible handwriting fonts on your school papers, for creatively mixing things a teacher thinks shouldn't go together, for ::sigh:: depicting things someone thinks you shouldn't (yeah, all that happened to me), it might stifle your art instinct. Or it might merely send it underground, where you work on it quietly but only share it when you think it's really ready. That's what I did.
I believe time (and science) will show that we are all born with an infinite palette of possibilities. We paint our own futures. The colors are dulled or brightened by other people's intrusive praise and criticism, but we can undo their efforts, remix and repaint.
WE decide if we'll be good at sports or art or science. Or all three.
Case in point: My youngest kid. She's an accomplished athlete. And a very skilled artist. She has won a scholarship for engineering, which means she's really good at math and science. (All As)
Of course she was born brilliant.
But she also had people in her life who helped guide and encourage her.
And she worked very hard to develop her little proclivities into admirable skills.
Everyone is born brilliant. Not every person has the cadre of encouraging family and friends. We ALL encounter disappointments and red herrings and false starts and obstacles, rising tension, conflict, villains.
We ALL have the ability to work hard.
We are the writers of our life stories.
We choose the happy ending.
We choose whether to succeed.
My blog post is up!
This is RhyPiBoMo -- Rhyming Picture Book Month, designated and developed by Angie Karcher, author.
It's a month of blog posts about picture book rhyme -- written by authors who excel at rhyme (and then there's me, a newbie). You'll find lots of tips, ideas, how-to's -- really great stuff taught by people who know how to do it well. It's all free, of course!
So check it out!
Find my post here:
http://angiekarcher.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/the-tap-dancing-elephant-falls-down-wednesday/
And then go read all the other days!
I'm thrilled to be included in RhyPiBoMo. I've written lots and lots of rhyme, tried many stories in rhyme over the years, and, after all that work, I have exactly one marketable manuscript in rhyme.
The story is about music.
I'm not really a musician. I play harmonica pretty well, but that's about it. I remember a little from organ classes, I know how to put together and hold a clarinet and make awful sounds come out. On days when my voice isn't husky from allergies or exertion, I can sing moderately well. I can sight-read music well, though slowly. I can figure out how to play a song I heard, on harmonica, after a couple tries. I'm in a band composed of authors, and we sing and play music -- much of it original -- at agency retreats. I'm no musician, though.
My husband sings beautifully.
Our four kids are all musical. Two sang on stage in high school. One's a real musician, performing for pay -- he and his wife play duets together, songs they write and sing with their own instruments. It's beautiful, heartwarming, inspiring -- intimidating. Seeing how well some people play with (and work at) music makes me realize how far behind I am.
When this idea for a music picture book hit me, I first wrote it down. Then I emailed my son and asked for his help writing the book (really, I wanted him to write it and me to illustrate).
He said no.
He said I could do the job, and he would send a few ideas. His ideas were really great, but I sure was disappointed at first. The story was too big for me to let drop or give away, so I started to tackle it. Piece by piece, stanza by stanza, line by line, word by word, image by image... The story came together. I'm very excited about its potential.
I'm working on the art.
Figuring out one of the characters:
Just like the writing, creating the art of this book scares me.
You never know what you can do until you push yourself, right?
My whole life I've done things that scared me.
It's always paid off.
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My page on Angie Karcher's blog has my post and lots of great extras, collected and organized by Angie:
http://angiekarcher.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/the-tap-dancing-elephant-falls-down-wednesday/
Join Angie Karcher all through April as she brings in 35 guest authors to divulge their secrets on what makes great rhyme and how to write it.
Sign up here.
It's easy and fast.
Then read Angie's blog all month.
Soak in the wisdom of such rhymers as -- well, name someone in the industry.
They're probably on the list.
Read the posts, follow the lessons, comment occasionally so you are eligible for prizes, and -- did I mention this part? IT'S ALL FREE.
Join us. (My day is April 23)
By the end of April you'll be on your way to becoming an expert in writing rhyme for picturebooks.
Michigan Reading Association held its 2014 conference this past weekend, and I got to do some presentations at it. At the huge general session on Sunday they unveiled the poster for next year's conference and -- ta-daaa! -- I helped create it.
Fellow Michigan author-illustrator and dear friend
Matt Faulkner drew the MRA lettering scene and that gorgeous, intricate calligraphy of the words Honesty, Diversity, Unity, and Equality.
I did the Michigan readers pen/watercolor art and the layout.
These posters were distributed to teachers and librarians and will hang in schools around the state.
I've already seen a few in schools, actually.
This is a busy season for author visits-- I'll watch for more in my travels to schools around the state.
Pretty heady stuff!
I always thought blog collectives were pretty cool. I belong to a few of them and rarely take part.
The incongruence of those two beliefs made me hesitate when The Sketchables asked me to join their rebooted effort of blogging sketches.
My worry was that I wouldn't keep up.
I tend to get very busy with deadlines and school visits and new projects.
This spread from my sketchbook was drawn
at the NY Public Library's fantastic exhibit,
The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter.
But I knew it'd be good to get into the habit of posting my art online regularly. I have probably 500 full sketchbooks at my house. Some of that work is worth sharing.
So I said yes.
Here's my latest Sketchables post. It shows a page of first draft art for my next Ellie McDoodle book.
Check out the Sketchables blog. See cool, fun sketches by
Priscilla Burris,
Heather Powers,
Nina Crittenden,
Joy Steuerwald,
Steve Bjorkman,
and me.
And, if you're inspired, get sketching!
It was almost exactly 38 years ago that my high school art teacher took me out in the hallway and gave me a little blank book to draw and write in. It was hardbound, maybe 200 pages, and I'd never seen a book like that before in my life.
I'd used diaries (hated, HATED the lines and confining dates in them) and I'd used sketchbooks (loved the textured paper, disliked the spiral binding that always let go of the pages) and I'd used scribble pads (loved the smooth paper and low price, disliked the poor binding that fell apart; I never filled them). I'd never seen a blank book that I could fill however I wanted.
Today these things are everywhere. My favorite brand is Moleskine, but I'll use anything in a pinch, and often make my own.
Though I was immensely grateful, it took me a long time to get up the guts to ruin that book by writing and drawing in it. It helped that she wasn't going to grade or approve my work. I'd had a spotty record of turning in work in art class, just a couple short years earlier.
These days I talk about this wonderful teacher -- and awesome teachers who go beyond what's expected to help the most wretched kids, like me -- in almost every single author presentation I do.
That's many hundreds, so far. Maybe thousands.
This teacher gave me a way out of the scary, ugly stuff in my head and in my life. She gave me a safe way to vent. She gave me a way to remember the good things for my whole life. And she gave me, ultimately, a career. Ellie McDoodle is my character who records her life in a sketchjournal.
I still keep a sketchjournal with me almost all of the time. I'm not big on constricting, useless rules, so I don't make myself draw in it every day, and I don't keep it with me in the shower, and I sometimes make mistakes or leave blank pages or write or draw something that isn't my best. Eh, it doesn't matter. The perfectionist in me is muted now that I am over 50. And maybe my collection of about 450 imperfect sketchjournals from over the years will be useful to others someday.
For now, for me, they're a daily reminder of what that first book from Mrs. Elizabeth McCarthy taught me:
- when life hands you lemons, draw them.
- keep track of both good and bad; someday you'll be glad you did.
- it's okay to make mistakes. Most mistakes are funny, years later.
- keep a sketchjournal. And then take good care of it when it's full.
Here's a sketch from that first sketchjournal, from 1975, in my 16 year old hand.
I'm pushing my younger brother on the tire swing at a picnic.
Here's a page from one of my recent trips to the Upper Peninsula. That's my husband and me on a Lake Superior beach in Marquette. It's surprising to me that my art is so similar, almost 40 years later.
I tell kids to keep a journal. I think it's the single most important thing they can do to figure out their lives. And who doesn't need that?
I'll share more on great teachers in a future post -- I certainly have been lucky to know very many.
I'll share more from my sketchjournals in future posts, too. But maybe you'd like to see what others do with their Moleskine notebooks. Click here:
http://moleskinerie.com
My local indie bookstore's most recent Shelf Awareness issue features Nina Katchadourian's new SORTED BOOKS, an insightful and fun introduction to the idea of rearranging books to form dialogues, jokes, fragments, questions and poetry.
Buy Nina's book at your favorite indie bookstore, or from Schulers, where I sip tea and write books.
Travis Jonker at 100 Scope Notes (now part of the School Library Journal blog family) has been displaying book spine poetry for years, too. And he's put out a call for entries.
Every other time he called for entries I told myself I was too busy and couldn't participate.
Well, I am still busy.
(This is March Is Reading Month! Charlie and I trekked through rain, sleet, and snow to speak to zillions of schoolkids about how to become better writers. And I am on deadline for the 6th Ellie McDoodle book.)
But this time I heed Travis's call.
My book spine poem is about Ellie McDoodle and her love for taking a notepad into nature and documenting what she sees -- and the line at the end exhorts us all to follow her.
Click on the image to see it larger.
The book titles, top to bottom:
Picture This (by Molly Bang)
The Call of the Wild (by Jack London)
In the Nick of Time (Ed: Anne Van Wagner Childs)
Someone Like You (by Sarah Dessen)
Ellie McDoodle (by Ruth McNally Barshaw)
Alive (by Piers Paul Read)
Awake to Wildlife (by Tim Nowicki)
Go Girl! (by Hannah Storm)
Loving the Earth (by Frederic Lehrman)
Thinking Visually (by Mark Wigan)
Pencil Sketching (by Thomas C. Wang)
Pictures of Hollis Woods (by Patricia Reilly Giff)
Great Expectations (by Charles Dickens)
The World of Incredible Outdoor Adventures by Field & Stream
Star in the Forest (by Laura Resau)
Now We Can Go (by Ann Jonas)
Try your own Book Spine Poetry! Tell Travis about it.
Take a notebook out into the woods. Tell me about it.
Now we can go!
The sale of Ellie McDoodle simplified Chinese rights for the first four books was announced this week. This brings a whole new (huge!) audience for the Ellie McDoodle Diaries. Welcome, readers in China!
You join the readers in North America, Italy, France, Turkey, and South Korea.
Ellie McDoodle gets a makeover this May,
with a new cover for every book:
Did you notice the new name, too? The Ellie McDoodle Diaries are coming to a bookstore or library near you!
Ellie herself remains the same, though. She's a strong, smart kid who always has a journal with her to capture her adventures in. Ellie was made in Michigan but she's destined to travel the whole world.
Book 5 comes out on May 28. In it, Ellie and her friends put on a play: The Wizard of Oz. Their version is based on both The Wizard of Oz book (published in 1900) and The Wizard of Oz film (1939). The Wizard of Oz is one of the best known and most beloved books of all time. The film has been my favorite since the Wicked Witch of the West scared the bejeebers out of me when I was 4. My book, The Ellie McDoodle Diaries: The Show Must Go On, is my tribute to the creative minds who put together the original book and film. I added a few things that aren't in the originals -- like Evil Toto:
(Don't worry! Dorothy and Ellie are in no danger. And you might be glad to know that no cairn terriers nor flying monkeys were injured in the writing and illustrating of this book)
What else is new: My website!!!
March is Reading Month! Charlie (my husband and helper) and I are winding up a very, very busy month of school, book festival, and teacher conference appearances. More on some of that, later. For now, let me just say that I am pretty sure I get the BEST fan mail of any author or illustrator, anywhere. Ellie McDoodle fans often send doodles and illustrated notes. I will share some with you as soon as I get my book deadlines handled.
Which reminds me...
Book 6 is on the way! It's about elections and confidence and believing in yourself and ... well, I am not sure yet what else it's about. I'm still writing the outline. But I do know this: The book comes out next year, so I need to stay on top of the deadlines.
When things settle down here, I will share some first draft art and writing with you. (Well, after I've written and drawn it. I haven't gotten to that stage, yet. Maybe I will share some first draft writing and art from book 5 -- that one's done.)
Warning: You might not recognize any of it. My first draft writing and art is very different from my final book writing and art. I make a lot of mistakes and I need lots of revisions before my work is ready to put in a book. Luckily, I have a wise editor and a critique group of smart writers to help me.
That's it for now. I'll post more news soon. Thanks for stopping by!
Charlie and I had the FABULOUS opportunity to meet Ellie McDoodle, Mo, Ben-Ben, Josh, Lucy, Mr. Brendall, and many other Ellie McDoodle characters yesterday when we popped in to surprise the performers during the Tech Week rehearsal for the stage play at Binda Performing Arts Center on Kellogg Community College's campus.
It was a thrill to see the characters alive on stage.
I'm so excited about the performance this Saturday.
If you're near Battle Creek, Michigan, come by and see it!
Two performances Saturday April 21, 4pm and 7pm.
Click here for all the official information for it or scroll down to the end of this post.
Thank you SO much to Miller College Children's Theater Project and Jenny Andrews for making this happen.
Thank you to the excellent script writer, Jack Wentworth.
Thank you to the fabulous What A Do Theatre and Zac Thompson for directing and managing the play.
And thank you to the performers and their families for making time in their busy schedules to take advantage of an opportunity to experience professional theater, with all its demands and rewards.
The best part of it all? The next Ellie McDoodle book, which I am writing right NOW, is about theater. This production is great inspiration and research!
Here are the performers for Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School
Adapted for stage by Lakeview High School student Jack Wentworth
Directed by Zac Thompson.
Cast List
Ellie McDoodle...........Anna Harrel
Mom / Whittam...........Ghevon Sebastian
Dad / Brendall...........Anahita Suifollahi
Josh...........Derek Whitesell
Risa...........Kailen Roop
BenBen...........Kessy Cook
Travis...........Avery Beck
Lucy...........Kylie Ohrt
Mo...........Cassandra Galonsky
Marla...........Ariana Saifollahi
Zoe...........Tyree Jones
Sammy...........Kelea Gaskins
Joey...........Naomi Todd
Alex...........Taren Todd
Lisa...........Bailee Goff
Sarah...........Hannah Slayton
The performance will be held at the Binda Performing Arts Center on Kellogg Community College's campus on Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling Jenny Andrews at (269) 967-1374 or at the door prior to each performance. Adult tickets are $8.00; students K-12 $4.00; children 5 and under are free.
Go to Tara Lazar's blog to read more.
PiBoIdMo is Picture Book Idea Month -- join the group and commit to thinking up an idea per day for a picture book. Read the official blog for inspiration each day. At the end of the month, choose the ideas you like best from your collection of 30, and maybe finish one. Sell it, repeat.
The picture book has taken a bit of a beating lately in the press.
Some e-book supporters are quick to say the paper book is a relic.
An October, 2010
New York Times article claimed parents are pushing their kids to read more complex books, younger, and suggested parents don't find value in books that have to be read aloud to their kids, as picture books are meant to be shared. This set off a torrent of responses, including
this charming one from an elementary school and
this one in the Horn Book, more recently.
The truth is, the publishing world is changing (as is every other part of our world). To be alive is to change. I don't know where it's all going. Nobody does. Until we find out, I say we quit wringing our hands. Embrace your creativity, keep reading, keep writing, and keep encouraging kids.
I'm joining PiBoWriMo for several reasons:
- I wanted to join last year but didn't because I was trying
NaNoWriMo for the first time and didn't want to split my effort. That's National Novel Writing Month, also held during the 30 days of November, and it's the long version of PiBo: Write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Stephen King writes that fast (though I hope his editors don't). Last year I ultimately met my goal for NaNoWriMo -- I wrote an Ellie McDoodle book in a month. The hard part was achieving a 50,000 word count for a 17,000-word book. I counted edits and rewrites, of course. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I should have been able to add 170,000 to my final word count. Since the work I do is often half art, half text, and I am often on deadline, it can't always be shoehorned to fit the NaNoWriMo parameters. But it fits PiBoWriMo.
(
Shutta Crum is doing both PiBoWriMo and NaNoWriMo this year. Cheer her on -- she'll need it.)
Why else I am joining PiBoIdMo:
- Before I started writing and illustrating Ellie McDoodle books, I tried creating picture books. I really thought that'd be my big mark on the world. Maybe it still will be. This is one way to find out.
- I have a neat idea for a picture book going right now. It'll take a while to write, edit and illustrate, but I'm excited about the idea and I figure, what better time to fire up the brain to think of more good ideas than when I'm already
bogged down with something else? No, I meant, already stoked and paying attention to the sweet whispers of of the muse.
Are you thinking maybe you've got some picture book ideas that need corralling? Got a novel idea you'd like to explore? Push yourself to join
PiBoIdMo or
NaNoWriMo -- you won't know what you're capable of until you try.
(Hey, I just found out my writer husband Charlie has joined PiBoWriMo too -- awesome!)
2 Comments on It's PiBoIdMo time!, last added: 10/29/2011
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| A very fun book. |
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| My caricature of Audrey |
Author Audrey Vernick is unflinchingly honest and gasp-for-breath funny, in real life and on the page.
When I first met her we were at our literary agent's writer retreat in an idyllic setting near Boston, with a reservoir perfect for kayaking, woodsy paths ideal for writerly contemplation, tables on the patio just right for manuscript inspiration. And a wide, green lawn that I kept hearing hosts frolicking baby foxes early in the mornings -- but I never saw them even though one morning I did get up very early to jog.
This was a lovely backdrop for meeting Audrey and other stellar members of our agent's client list.
At such events my strategy is to memorize names and analyze people quickly.
Instantly I pegged Audrey as sort of a sister.
To me this means she can take endless ribbing (and get even) but she also has a huge heart. She's deep. Compassionate. She plays fair. By now she knows some of my worst faults and insecurities but never uses them against me.
We drove for ice cream one night --
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| Erin Murphy, literary agent, and Audrey Vernick, literary author |
and Audrey's group got lost. (Probably her fault.) We gave up looking for them and drove back to the retreat center, but I remember worrying -- not for their safety, but for us. Audrey's little, but she's a big part of any party.
It was on this trip that I came to know Buffalo, of Publisher’s Weekly starred-reviewed Is Your Buffalo Ready For Kindergarten?
4 Comments on Meet Children's Books Author Audrey Vernick, last added: 7/21/2011
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I'm happy with it. If it doesn't win, I'm okay with that too -- I have already seen some uber-fabulous entries by other illustrators. May the best Heidi win! 
This is so awesome Ruth! Congrats! Wish I could go. Have fun.
Very cool Ruth, and I wish we were going to be in town to see the play (going to Ohio to see Emma since she did not come home for spring break.) But I'll look forward to hearing a full report!