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Ein neues Buch ist in Arbeit. Skizze für die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, die im Herbst 2013 bei Coppenrath erscheinen sollen.

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This is a nice interview with the very lovely Lynne Chapman. They discuss mainly how she got started illustrating children's books. I always love to know this, don't you? There's a different story behind every artist. :o)

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node are a non-profit social business who work with the worlds best designers and illustrators and convert their images into the highest quality hand-made fair trade carpets. designers include sanna annukka, donna wilson, petra borner, micah lidberg and node founder chris haughton. node's makers, kumbeshwar are a founder member of fair trade nepal and their employees are taught literacy and

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i popped into next at the weekend to pick up their new spring summer 2013 catalogue and found that some of the new items were already instore. there seemed to be a lot of lovely yellows which was a trend also born out in orla kiely's ss2013 ranges. here are a few snaps and there are tons more new designs online here. and finally just for fun a couple of

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Journeyman animator Shako (aka Shibabrata Chakraborty) created this beautifully creepy short. It tells a disturbing tale, via a rich textured-print look evoking old kitschy paintings. Or at least, it looks that way to me. I love it.

A girl named Mary has a dark past. She lives in her foster home but her painful past never leaves her. She suffers from a rare mental disease called Attachment Disorder. Will she get well? Will she be able to feel love again?

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In case you missed them, the 2013 ALA Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc.) have been announced!

Celebrate great children’s book writing and illustration by checking out this year’s winners and honor books here: 2013 ALA Award Winners

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Yesterday on the blog we highlighted student feedback from Laguna BelAir School that we received on the 2010 and 2011 book sets. Today it’s time to read some of the wonderful comments we received from the teachers.  As I mentioned yesterday obtaining feedback from our participants is a crucial part of our WaterBridge Outreach project and we are most appreciative of the students and staff at Laguna BelAir School who took the time to share their thoughts and comments on the book sets.

Question: How specifically have the PaperTigers book/s (any of them) helped you to open your pupil’s minds and hearts to other places and other cultures

The PaperTigers books are stories of different countries. Because of this, the stories helped me in opening my pupils’ minds and hearts to other places and other cultures. For instance, the book Rain School relates the culture of children who don’t have a formal school to enter to, yet they still loved schooling despite of their unfortunate situation. The books tackled variety of stories introducing other places specifically remote places and containing adventures of young children. The lessons they hopefully learned might have opened their minds to the fact that more children are still wanting or excited to be educated and that my pupils are more fortunate than them. ~ Ms. Sheila Lumbay, English 1 and 2

Since most of my pupils don’t experience too many hardships in their lives, it is difficult for us teachers to open their minds in the reality of the world. But with the help of the PaperTigers books, they became aware of the different cultures. I have read a pupil’s answer regarding the difference of his life to the lives of the characters in the story. He said that he is fortunate because he doesn’t need to build his own school compared to the children in the book Rain School. With the help of the books, they become thankful with what they get, as well. ~ Ms. Kate Caling, English 3 and 4

Question: What was your favorite PaperTiger book/s among your pupils and why?

The favorite books among my Grade 5 students are One Hen and A Child’s Garden. But most of the students like A Child’s Garden because it is a story of hope despite local conflicts in the country. ~ Mr. James Alvin Mirador, English 5

Biblioburro was the favorite book of my pupils because most of them were able to read and to reflect in the story. The book has inspired them to read and borrow more from the library. In fact, one of their comments says that they also want to be like Luis who was a generous man and really loved reading books and shared those books to the children from far-flung places. ~ Ms. Sheila Lumbay, English 1 and 2

Question: How specifically have the PaperTigers book/s (any of them) helped you teach English and encourage reading among your pupils?

These books helped me little by little to appreciate reading. I learned a lot about other cultures and started to get fascinated in books. They said that if you want to learn more vocabulary words, try reading children’s books. It’s true! It widens not only my vocabulary, but also my students’. I could easily motivate them because I incorporated the stories in my lessons. The students and I were hooked with the books. ~ Ms. Emirose Gonzale, English 6 and English Coordinator

Do click here to read the entire teachers’ feedback document.

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In case you missed them, the 2013 ALA Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc.) have been announced!

Celebrate great children’s book writing and illustration by checking out this year’s winners and honor books here: 2013 ALA Award Winners

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King of Pine
Art Blog of Samantha King
I Done Drawn It !
Shane Glines « CranioDsgn
DUCKSOFRUBBER
D r a w i n g B o a r d
floony
Eric Carle Blog
Craig Knowles Design and Animation
Toby Shelton: stuff i did
limbolo
Do it, "for the Fat Lady"
PANDO ART
Terry Song
Gregory Georges
Yarrow Cheney
Nathalie Ragondet
.
samba for rats
Tatevik
Martin Wittig
Julien Bizat
kavi
Zunchini - Ilustrações
Crayon Box of Doom
Ooh La La Design Studio
Johnny Yanok's Art & Stuff
Eric Barclay
Carlos Illustration
coolashu
Abhishek Singh

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I've always loved Little Bear (as drawn by Maurice Sendak)

imagining himself flying to the moon and telling his mother all about his plans.
And I also love his mother, in the words of Else Minarik, replying that maybe he is "a fat little bear cub" and "will come down very fast, with a big  plop."

I've landed with a big thud: my book is off to its first readers and I'm back in the world of doing my freelance work and getting my taxes done and cleaning my house, those kinds of things. Being OUT OF that world and in another of one's own creation is part of the fun of writing.

But this book reminded me of the other things I love about writing -- things I haven't felt in a long, long time. When I revise, I can just do it -- and for long hours at a stretch; it's very satisfying to be so engrossed and to see something get better. The first draft is usually torture, though: all the waiting, all the times when nothing comes or what does seems (and may well be) completely inadequate. This time, though, sometimes what I wrote in the first draft  surprised me and  made me laugh out loud, and that was fun, too.

One difference between a book that has life and potential and one that doesn't are those surprises, those ideas that just come....but those moments don't mean the book as a whole is GOOD or even works.

What I enjoyed most, though, was being IN the book: not wanting to do anything else. Not thinking about anything else. Waking up in the morning and wanting to write -- even though it usually took a lot of dawdling before that happened.

This is the first book I've really enjoyed writing in a long, long time -- and whether it all holds together or not (my biggest worry), whatever my first readers say about it, I've had that -- and learned a lot, too, about how to make it happen.

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The Asian Pacific American Libraries Association has announced their 2013 literature award winners. Thanks to Shen’s Books for publishing the press release. Highlights include:

Picture Book Winner: Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth, written by Joan Schoettler and illustrated by Jessica Lanan, published by Shen’s Books.

Picture Book Honor: A Path of Stars written by Anne Sibley O’Brien, published by Charlesbridge.

Children’s Literature Winner: Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan, written by Hildi Kang, published by Tanglewood Publishing.

Children’s Literature Honor: Shark King by Kikuo Johnson, published by Toon Books.

Young Adult Literature Winner: Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary written by Keshni Kashyap, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Young Adult Literature Honor: Ichiro written by Ryan Inzana, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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gabrielle treanor of the green gables exhibited at top drawer a couple of weeks ago and was absolutely thrilled with the response to herstationery. as well as her current ranges of cards, notebooks and gift wrap gabrielle also launched three new collections of cards and two new gift wrap designs. she has ventured into hand lettering and there are 12 new greeting cards featuring her hand

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Matt and I will be moving into our new place soon. But before it is inhabitable by humans, an almost-complete interior renovation is needed.

We've been in the midst of this for over a month now. I've never been involved in anything like this. While I knew it would be a new experience and was prepared for that aspect, there's no way I could have fully prepared for the total emo-clash I've got going on. The large project that has turned into a huge one.


Right now, it's all rubble, broken bricks and raw ceiling beams. But things are finally coming together bit by bit, and slowly we are able to envision what is to come.



For instance, when we started, the second floor ceilings were just over 6 head-grazing feet high. Now, they will be 9 feet high! The added height will make all the difference in the world in such a cozy little space.

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Runner apathy? I read an article about apathy as it applied to ‘normal’ life and as per usual there is a running parallel. It’s reportedly becoming more common that people are stuck in a sort of happiness limbo; they aren’t necessarily depressed but not happy either.

Now, I’m the first person to say, “Suck it up. Seriously, people are inventing diseases and disorders at this point!” So don’t get me wrong, the fact that this article was trying to tell me that apathy should be some new kind of quasi-psychiatric problem just above depression at first made me roll my eyes.

BUT I do think getting into a rut, as a runner, can happen and it’s important to dig yourself out to not only feel better running-wise but so you don’t lose the initial passion that drew you to the sport.

The problem with constantly feeling ‘meh’ is:

1) It sucks.
2) It’s boring.
3) It’s a small step to resenting the run.
4) A short jaunt to quitting…or at least runner slackdom.

Runner apathy is also a tricky one because runners have become conditioned to tune out a lot of signals from their body/brain. We have to in order to dull out the pain discomfort of hard workouts and races. So it’s quite easy for a runner to dig themselves into a little pit of ‘meh’ and not really realize it.

What’s the Deal With a Runner Apathetic

I’ll be straight, there will always be days when you’re not feeling the run. Here is where some tough love comes in and I’ve written plenty on tips for motivation. But start stringing together weeks of needing to talk yourself up and that shouldn’t be the case.

Every time you need to talk/hype yourself up to go run it takes a degree of mental energy, even more mental energy to hype yourself up to do a hard workout, more for a race. A runner only has SO much of that mental energy, think of it like a full glass of water. You take a sip every hype-up session, but keep doing that too much and you wind up dry.

* Health: The first thing is to rule out any physical reasons why you’re feeling more tired, lethargic, or ‘off’. You’d be surprised how easily it is to start dreading your runs if you’re anemic and every step feels like an insurmountable amount of effort.

* Missed Break: Through the course of a racing season, or gearing towards your big goal race, all those hard workouts and ‘smaller’ races take it out a person mentally and physically. Even if it doesn’t ‘feel like’ you need a break or some time away, if you are competitively training for multiple months you’ll need some down time. Even professional runners take breaks, just as much to recharge physically as mentally…you can revisit my article on that HERE. If not, you can go into the next season feeling ‘meh’.

* Season Lull: If you’ve taken your break but still have a long pre-season build-up those early season runs and workouts can lead runners to feeling a little apathetic. I mean there isn’t the taste of a race coming up, so amping yourself up for a hard interval season may not be the easiest thing to do.

* Too Heady: I’ll blanket this to cover getting too wrapped up in the pace of EVERY single run. Stressing yourself out to the point where every workout you’re so focused on the splits that you start to dread it. Comparing yourself so much to what so-and-so is running, comparing to your ‘pre-injury’ self or workouts you used to do. All of this mental energy is SOO life-sucking.

Yo, so you’re apathetic?

Figure out what you’re deal is and then get to fixing it. Easier said than done sometimes, but certainly possible:

* Health stuff, go see a doctor and figure out what your next step is.
* Take your breaks, People. I’m the first offender for wanting to talk my way out of a break, but if you’re competing you NEED breaks between seasons. Even if you’re not necessarily on a racing team, breaks can help keep you excited about running. [By break I mean a 1-2 weeks off/low, two or three times a year...not like run a week, take a break...haha.]
* Long season? Start looking for low-key races to jump into just to keep the ‘taste’ of competition fresh. Some people NEED a specific race/event to motivate them, that’s okay, just find that motivation. Even if it’s a team time-trial.
* All runners have their head issues, so ditch the watch, take a Garmin hiatus if you have to, burn your old training logs so you stop comparing, run like a kid, whatever you need to. Remember it’s NOT worth letting a head trip ruin your love of running.

** Goals: Get refreshed and ink out some goals. Write them down and feel like you are working towards something, that each run DOES count.

Do I necessarily think there is an epidemic of apathetic runners on the loose? No…but I think we can all get stuck in a rut from time to time and feeling ‘meh’ isn’t so much fun.

So if this is you, go find your SPARK, because running is too much fun to feel only ‘meh’ or apathetic about.

1) Ever been in a running rut? How did you get your spark back?

2) How many ‘meh’ or apathetic runs in a row have to happen for you to start getting worried?

3) What do you do after your racing season? What does your break look like? How often do you take breaks?

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I love watching Jonathan Edwards' drawings pop up on my Instagram feed, and this picture of Stuart is inspired by some of the things he's been trying out.



Some diary dates: I'm appearing at Chipping Norton Lit Fest on Sat, 20 April, for a family event with my new book, Superkid: Startling superpowers! Astounding monsters! Madcap battles! Join writer, illustrator and comics creator Sarah McIntyre in designing THE SILLIEST SUPERHERO ON THE PLANET and unleash your creation on the weirdest, vilest, dribbliest baddies you can throw at it. For children of all ages, accompanied by an adult.</i> Free, booking details here. Loads of other fab authors are appearing the same day, including Philip Ardagh, Jo Cotterill and Sue Heap.

And I'm leading a Comics Jam workshop with Philip Reeve at Animated Exeter on Sat, 23 Feb, details here! Lots going on, Philip's even written a whole new short story (set in Exeter) for the occasion and I illuminated one of the letters in the story.

More links:

I was very excited to hear that Viv Schwarz has got her first few copies of her upcoming graphic novel The Sleepwalkers with Walker Books. Can't wait to get my hands on this, Viv's amazing, and from the peeks I've seen of this, the book will be, too.

I always mean to read more science fiction, and Jared Shurin from The Kitschies Awards has just posted his 50 Essential Fiction Novels. I've bookmarked this for further exploration!

Nichola Morgan has posted an excellent article, How much should writers charge for events? (People are always asking me for advice on this.)

Here's a little dinosaur song for you, via Woodrow Phoenix:

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Benedict Cumberbatch

I was showing my class Tuesday about quick studies for portraits and did these in my sketchbook for them. Great fun!

These were from class requests and let's just say Benedict Cumberbatch was suggested with much swooning.

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I had the honor of being commissioned by Author Susanna Leonard Hill to create the email header for her new writing course,”Making Picture Book Magic“. If you have always wanted to write a picture book, or wanted to learn more about creating one, then sign up today for this very affordable four week course. Each day, for four weeks you will receive a lesson in your inbox. Most lessons only take 15-20 minutes, so this is a perfect course for the busy schedule. To learn more, please visit Susanna’s website. But, hurry, the course starts Feb 1!

 

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I'm off for a quick visit to NYC, LA, & SF. I hope you'll drop by one of the events if you're in the neighborhood!  And don't forget to Tune into West Coast Live on Saturday Feb. 9th (or come by the show in San Francisco and see it live).  I'll be talking about the comedy show and mo'. Pal, Dave Barry will also be doing his thing.  It should be fun. (Note the San Francisco Sketchfest show,

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What happens when the great minds of Tumblr and Chronicle Books unite? A unicorn is born! Wait, no. Awesome Tumblrs like F*ck! I’m in My Twenties and Dads Are the Original Hipsters become hilarious books.

And now, it could be your turn.

We’re looking for the next big humor book idea. This is your chance to get your idea in front of our editors.

Here’s how it works. Pitch us your laugh-out-loud funny book idea using Tumblr. You can use text, photos, animated gifs, artwork, videos—just get our attention. Then our editors will judge the entries and choose a grand-prize winner whose idea will be considered for publication. You may use an existing Tumblr or create a new Tumblr to illustrate your book idea. Just remember: we’re looking for humor.

To enter, tag a post “Tumblr Book Search” and include:

1)      The title of your humor book

2)      A written synopsis of  your idea (200 words or less)

3)      Examples of the book’s concept (can be photos, animated gifs, artwork, video, text, or any media supported by Tumblr)

Then, hop over here to give us your basic contact information and the link to your post.

Hurry, the contest ends 2/28/2013. Read the official rules and submit your Tumblr entry now!

1 Grand Prize:

• Book idea considered for publication
• $300 of Chronicle books
• Your Tumblr featured on Tumblr Tuesday
• Feedback session with a Chronicle Books editor
• Feedback session with Rachel Fershleiser, Tumblr’s Director of Literary Outreach and co-creator of the New York Times Bestselling Six-Word Memoir Book Series
• And more!

3 Runners-Up:

• $100 of Chronicle books
• Written critique from Chronicle Books editors
• Feedback session with Rachel Fershleiser

Questions? Email contests@chroniclebooks.com

Talk soon,

Kathy

Filed under: Competition, Contest, opportunity, Places to sumit, publishers, submissions Tagged: Chronicle Books, Get Published, Humor, Submit Book idea, Tumblr

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