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A big weekend for me is approaching! I have a SCBWI ( Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators) Conference this weekend. I am very excited because it has been at least three or even four years since I attended one. The New Jersey Chapter has seemed to have expanded quite a bit because they added a day. The Friday session will be an illustration intensive where I get to meet the art director fro Sterling Publishers. We were preassigned a project where we were given several choices of narratives in which to illustrate from. The story I chose was from a manuscript Sterling will actually be publishing in the near future titled Cecily Beasily. I wanted to do a montage of Cecily doing all sorts of mischievous things. I had a lot of fun with the background, too. It seems to be that getting hands deep in a messy paint splattering fiesta is my new thing. :) I am very excited to see what the other group of illustrators bring to the table and then actually get a chance to look at the work from the actual illustrator from the upcoming title visualized.
Saturday will be a day full of workshops and seminars. It is also a great networking day because we sit and eat lunch with agents, art directors, editors, and others like me in the industry. I will also be showing my portfolio this day to the art director of Simon and Schuster as well as an agent. There will be a portfolio display this year supplied with our business cards so that when people walk by they can view our work and take a card. I was also asked to bring in a print of one of my best pieces for an art contest they will be holding as well. As if this wasn't enough, SCBWI has us coming back Sunday for a few more workshops, another luncheon, and then followed by a book signing where those of us who have been published can sell books to one another. I am very excited and hope to get a lot of feedback, and hopefully some more insight how to better succeed in this industry.
Just when I couldn't think this weekend can get any more exciting I also have a school visit on Tuesday at an elementary school in Jackson, NJ. I get the opportunity to read my book A Bailar!/ Let's Dance! to three first grade classes. After I do the reading I will be showing them how to make their own maracas and teaching them a few salsa steps. I hope to take some pictures of both events and post them to my blog some time next week :)
I was happy today to find this review linked to the Barnes and Nobles site.
Children's Literature
You can't help but tap your feet as you read this book. The words make a beat throughout the book and by the time you reach the end you just want to dance. Marita's dad and his salsa band are performing in the park tonight and as she and her mom make their way through the town friends follow along. Reminiscent of a Gloria Estefan song you can feel the rhythm as you read along. Though fun and upbeat it's hardly the story to read when you want to calm the little ones for bed at night. But if you are in the mood for an upbeat fun time that requires no thought whatsoever, this is the book. The illustrations are as lively as the rhythm that urges you to move and the Spanish is so well woven into the story that bilingual readers don't even notice the shift from one language to the other.
Reviewer: Mandy Cruz
I am so pleased with the turnout of my first book launch party. So many children came as well as many adults shopping for gifts for the holidays. Children had a great time getting their book signed, running over to get their faces painted and get a balloon animal. They were also able to make their own maraca at a craft table and then learn some salsa moves! It was a very exciting day and I don't thin
k it could have been any better!
Sorry I have been so busy the past few months I have neglected my blog!!! I have been working on my first picture book ¡A Bailar! and handed in the final paintings at the end of November. It is written by Judith Ortiz Cofer and will be published by Arte Público Press's children's division, Piñata Books and is scheduled to release October 30th of this year!! The very first thing I did when I painted that last stroke, put down the paint brush, and rubbed my sleepy eyes was scatter all my paintings on a table and take this picture. "Whoa I did it," I said with a big sigh of relief, "my first book, all finished."
I have also been working on a few paintings recently for a possible new project I will hopefully have some details on that in the near future.
