also from the laura ashley press show held in central london last week were two new childrens collections. the girls collection was based on patchwork and applique and featured butterflies and flowers. the boys meanwhile had a check and gingham theme featuring 'tractors & trucks'.

my final few shots from the laura ashley AW12 press show feature a few fashion prints. unfortunately for bloggers who take snapshots the fashion room wasnt well lit and most of my shots were blurred. but i can report there were lots of illustrations of bows for girls and feathers for womenswear. my favourite print was this woodland design (above & below) on a little girls dress. you can see some

Trivia: Leap Second . . . & Leap of Faith!

In February, we posted Leap Day Trivia because 2012 is a Leap Year. Did you also know that 2012 has a Leap Second? A leap second is one second added to clocks worldwide to compensate for the slowing of the earth's rotation.

Believe it or not, there is an International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service, or IERS for short. (Wow! I wonder how I get a job with them?!) They determine when to add a leap second. Since 1972, a total of 24 seconds have been added to the clock. And the next one will be added on the last day of June. So on June 30th, 2012, there will be 86,401 seconds instead of 86,400!

In honor of cosmic leaps, we have some wacky Leap Second Trivia for you. Imagine if there were other things you could leap. For instance . . .

1. Leap Class! What class would you create, if you had to have an extra class in the school day?
2. Leap Grade! Which school grade would you choose to repeat if you had to do it all over again? Or what new school grade would you create to add on?
3. Leap Meal! What meal would you choose or invent if you had to have an extra meal each day?
4. Leap Sibling! Would you pick an extra brother or sister?
5. Leap Birthday! Which birthday party or year would you love to repeat? Or what would you do for your extra birthday this year?
6. Leap Gift! What one extra gift do you wish you could get?
7. Leap Vacation! An extra vacation anywhere in the world – where would you go?
8. Leap of Faith! If you could cure or fix one thing in the world, what would it be?

Let us know your Leap Answers and any other wacky Leap Questions you can think of in the Comments below.

Don't forget there's one extra second on June 30th. Spend it wisely. Myself, I think I’m going to use it to eat an extra Hershey's Kiss . . .

— Ratha, Stacks Writer

If you want to be a writer in today’s world, you must have a simple and effective writer website. You need something to come up in searches when people Google you. You need a place where agents and editors can learn more about you and what you’re writing. You need a place to post news and information about yourself so you can connect with other writers and build your platform. A website is this all-important “central hub” for your outreach efforts online. Because having one is so important, WD has enlisted literary agent Kathleen Ortiz to teach a brand new webinar called “Create an Author Website to Sell More Books and Attract Agents & Editors” on Thursday, June 28, 2012. All attendees will also get their website critiqued by Kathleen.

DETAILS

It all happens at 1 p.m., EST, Thursday, June 28, 2012, and lasts 90 minutes. Each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation. In all WD webinars, no question goes unanswered. Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. You will receive a copy of the webinar presentation in an e-mail that goes out one week after the live event. The answers to questions not covered in the live presentation will be included in this e-mail as well. Sign up here.

ABOUT THE CRITIQUE

All registrants are invited to e-mail instructor Kathleen Ortiz their completed website within 30 days of the webinar. Participants should apply most (if not all) of what they learned to their new website. All submissions are guaranteed a critique by instructor Kathleen Ortiz—including evaluation of construction at that point, as well as suggested next steps to make the site even better. Kathleen reserves the right to ask for writing samples from writers whose sites she enjoys.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Twitter, Facebook, blogs—all great tools. But without an effective home base to manage your presence, all you have are various online tools with no toolbox.

Author websites are critical for effective online marketing and readership growth. Even unpublished authors can benefit greatly from establishing a starter site. By creating a site, you build awareness of your books to create a platform, make contacts in the writing and media world, and begin accessing opportunities for your writing career.

Agents and editors do explore online and look at writers’ websites, and they also Google prospective clients frequently. Sometimes the available online content alone is enough to garner interest (rather than waiting for an unsolicited query). This webinar will examine current authors whose agents or editors found them online because of their website and online visibility, not because of a slush pile query.

This 90-minute intensive webinar focuses on the simplest FREE tools to get a website up and running in less than 48 hours. Don’t

Apparently, Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-bionic Titan) impressed Sony Pictures Animation with his directing on Hotel Transylvania. Variety reported on Monday afternoon that Sony has enlisted him again to direct a 3D CG Popeye feature. Avi and Ari Arad will produce under their Arad Productions banner with Sony.

(Photo of Popeye and Olive Oyl at the Mermaid parade on Coney Island via Lev Radin/Shutterstock)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: E. C. Segar, Genndy Tartakovsky, popeye, Sony Pictures Animation

Re-Imagining Your Picture Book

Workshop by Harold Underdown

written by Jennie Chan

         Look under, down and deep, even into your character’s underwear.

If you need better advice than that, then you should invest in Harold Underdown’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books.  To my surprise, although he had every opportunity to hawk his own book, Mr. Underdown started the workshop by encouraging us to get what he described as “The Bible”: Ann Whitford Paul’s Writing Picture Books: A Hands-On Guide from Story Creation to Publication.  If you can’t decide whether you’re approaching children’s book writing more as an idiot or zealot, then you should check out www.underdown.org for sample chapters and detailed reviews.  Or, you can read the rest of this article to get a sense of what Mr. Underdown personally offered at the June 2012 NJSCBWI conference.

As a former teacher, I was impressed by how Mr. Underdown ran the workshop.  Efficiently yet gently, with the highest form of technology being a hardcover picture book, Mr. Underdown guided us through a 5-step routine 5 times:  He read an excerpt.  Pointed out a perspective or strategy.  Asked questions to help us apply what we’d learned to our own picture books.  Gave us time to write.  And listened to us.

If you have a picture book manuscript that could use some re-imagining, here are the 5 writing exercises (in parentheses are the titles and writers of the books that Mr. Underdown read from—in addition to illustrating his points, they are recommendations for the best picture books):

1)      Character—Do you know your character?  Can you fill a page with your character’s likes and dislikes? What is character’s room like? What is character’s favorite ice cream and why? What is character’s favorite book and why? What interesting quirk does your character have?

(Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are)

2)      Underlying emotion—What is your character feeling? Does the feeling change? How does your reader know what your character is feeling? Can the feeling be intuited or is your text telling it? Are you telling a feeling because it’s easier or because of a better reason, such as a rhythmic refrain?

(Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day)

3)      Language and voice—How would your story change if you were to write it from a regional dialect? A jargon used by a particular group, such as parents or firefighters?  A style that has a different degree of formality than you’re used to?

Think of a voice you’d like to adopt and rewrite a couple of your manuscript’s sentences in this voice.  Even if the results don’t work for your story, developing this skill would be useful in broadening your appeal to a variety of markets.

(Cynthia Rylant’s The Relatives Came)

4)      Point of view—This is not just about a first, second or third person narrator; it can also be about revealing story and character through a different form, such as letters.

If you were to write a letter from your main character, which character inside or outside the story would it be addressed to? What would the letter focus on?

(Sarah Stewart’s The Gardener)

5)      Setting—How does the setting impact your story? What would happen if you changed the setting? What else would change?

(Vera B. Williams’ A Chair for My Mother)

If you want to try a “whole other workshop” on your own, here’s a sug