It’s been about 4 months since I’d last posted anything on this ‘ere blog. With back to back deadlines and prepping for the arrival of our first newborn, the end of 2014 throughout the beginning of 2015 has been at the least to say chaotic and life changing..

If you follow me in any of my social media accounts you’ll notice an exorbitant amount of pictures {I apologize by the way..new mom syndrome you know..} of this little peapod,

Meet the new little addition to our growing family, Aria {yes we’re Game of Thrones fans} Rose. Born March 25th 2015 at 3:15 in the morning. It’s been a whole month since her arrival and aside from being sleep deprived, the late night feedings, milk vomits and spit ups, and her constant need to shriek at the top of her lungs..like ALL THE TIME…she hasn’t stopped putting a smile on our face since then.

she finds this all too amusing..

Now to top all that off I’m officially back to work! Hopefully the transition from old schedule to new schedule won’t be too bad

…who am I kidding!?..

..Ah well..wish me luck!

In the meantime here’s the artwork I did for Highlights this past month!

Happy Monday!

Yay! I finally received my copies of the January spread I did for Highlights Magazine! Love love LOVE how the colors came out on this one.

I hope you guys get to pick up a copy! 

So for those that don’t know yet, we’re expecting our first baby!! Yipee!!! I’m nearing my final trimester, there are two books in the pipeline with very tight back to back deadlines so I’m trying my best to beat the 3rd trimester fatigue and getting as much done as I can while I CAN!

I’ve been so wrapped up with work lately it’s been challenging to find the time to indulge in any holiday fun. But this weekend I put my foot on the breaks and was finally able to let myself indulge in some seasonal goodies. It was a nice and much needed break!

All the while I was working over the weekend on sketches for them, I received this little fun card from the team at ABDO. Thanks ABDO!

We finally found time to actually buy a tree (his name is “Monty”) and make some christmas cookies for the postman and a few of our dearest and nearest…I wrapped them fast this year, or else they’d all end up in my belly..hee hee. I tell yah, there’s nothing like taking in some holiday music and the smell of cookies and pine to get you caught right up in all this season cheer!!

Happy Holidays!!

It’s been quite a busy weekend full of baptisms and weddings and creative events. So exhausted, but it was all worth it.

This past Saturday we attended the Carousel for Kids event at Dixon Place (NYC) which was hosted by R. Sikoryak and Neil Numberman. It’s a yearly event where these wonderful writers and illustrators read their zany comics and other creations to kids of all ages! It was pretty entertaining!

The best part was when they picked some kids in the audience to help them read their comics. And most of the kids were so gung-ho about volunteering.

This past Sunday I attended my first ever CBIG portfolio review where we were all given the opportunity to speak with 2 editors or art directors of our choice and share our work with them one on one. What a great experience!

An editor from Penguin Group suggested I venture into drawing for older kids and experiment more with lettering. It’s actually something I’d been meaning to explore a bit more so you might be seeing more tweens  and tween themed illustrations in the coming months.

My favorite part of the afternoon was seeing other peoples work and book dummies. It was all so inspiring. Here’s hoping I get inspired enough to write a story myself soon!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the December issue of Highlights for Children to find this little dittie I did over the summer!

Wishing you all a Happy &  Creative Week!!

We have joined the Kid Lit Giveaway Hop hosted by Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews again this year to celebrate children’s book week and give away some awesome prizes.  This year we are giving away two great prize packs containing four children’s paperbacks and a $10 Amazon gift card to each winner.

You can enter by going to our Facebook page and entering during May 12-18.  There are over 80 other bloggers participating with lots of other prizes that include children/teen’s books, gift cards, cash and other prizes so check out the list and get your entries in.

ENTER NOW -a Rafflecopter giveaway

Powered by Linky Tools Click here to view the complete list of participating bloggers and authors…

Are you a children's book or teen literature blogger, an author, a publisher, or a publicist looking to share copies of a fabulous book? Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews are joining forces to provide you with the opportunity to take part in a Blog Hop featuring links to giveaways for fabulous children/teen's books, gift cards, cash, or other prizes. What better way to celebrate Children's Book Week?

How Does it Work?

Dates: May 12 to 18, 2014

• Posts must go live at 12:01AM (EST) on May 12, 2014
• Giveaway must end on May 18, 2014 @ 11:59PM (EST)

Cost: FREE!

Prize: Children/Teen's Book and/or a Gift Card

Posting Requirements:

Posts must be published no later than May 12, 12:01 am, 2014 ~ Posting early is ok. Posting late is not ok.

• Event Button
• Giveaway Details
• Links to the Hostesses (Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews)
• Giveaway Linky List

Adding a Link to the Linky:

Deadline for Sign-Ups: May 9, 11:59 pm (EST), 2014

Promoting the Kid Lit Giveaway Hop

Questions?

Sign-Up Below

* Like our fancy event banner? We used designbox1 from Fiverr to create it. Ask me about it!*

The Dreaded Intent – Food Fight ’14

Julie Rowan-Zoch has started an interesting story in honor of WORLD READ ALOUD DAY. The story, beginning on her website, is about a food fight, but she needs your help to get it to the end. Bring your best food and a good arm. To read more, including the story thus far, go HERE! Or here: http://julierowanzoch.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/the-dreaded-intent-food-fight-14/#comment-6582  And for more on the WORLD READ ALOUD DAY go HERE! or here: http://litworld.org/litworldorg/2014/1/31/the-world-read-aloud-day-2014-banner-is-here.html

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THE DREADED INTENT

“It was a lunch hour like any other at Bacon Elementary, when a chill ran up Mateo’s spine. His hair stood at attention down his bony arms. Cautiously he lifted his gaze, millimeter by millimeter. He dreaded the worst. And sure as a pop-tart is sugary, there she was, staring straight at him. Priscilla Weatherspoon – the meanest, leanest prankster this side of the Mississippi. Her eyes grew smaller as they locked onto his. Slowly, slowly but sure as a mosquito bite, she drew her chin towards her chest and that’swhen Mateo saw The Intent, right there under her thick, dark caterpillar eyebrows knit between her tightly pulled braids. Those chesnut-brown peepers were. not. cute. He knew then and there. He had just become her business. It was a speck of a second, but felt like slow-motion sickness. As the sweat started to gather in his armpits, and a heat rose to his ears, he lowered his sandwich with his left hand as he went for the juice box with his right…” continue reading . . . 

(Check out comment #3 – Erik, our friendly kidlit kid; and #5, me, your wanna be writer of all things humorous.)

Thank you Julie Rowan-Zoch for the great illustration of Mateo. I think Julie’s illustrations are fantastic!  Okay, now what are you waiting for? Go! Go on and continue Mateo’s story and remember to READ ALOUD TO SOMEONE TODAY! Preferably a book.

For more food fight sotries in honor of WORLD READ ALOUD DAY, go to WriterOutline. Or start your own story and add it to the list.

Got kids on your Christmas gift list who like, love or need books?

Allow me to hook you up with the 4:00 Book Hook, a fantabulous e-newsletter dedicated to children and YA literature. The latest edition features their annual holiday book gift guide and I’ve gotten the okay to post that section online :).

The holiday gift guide features author reviews and recommendations of some of their favorite children and young adult books on the market. With the wonderful variety of books for kids and teens, you’re sure to find something for your selective young reader.

For your convenience, I’ve uploaded the entire Holiday Gift Guide section of the 4:00 Book Hook–just click on the page links below:

4:00 Book Hook Page 2

4:00 Book Hook Page 3

4:00 Book Hook Page 4

BTW, my recommendations for three of my favorite recently-published picture books are on page 4.

Oh, and please don’t forget to buy your books from your local brick ‘n mortar bookstores or at independent bookstores online–not that nameless shameless one using books as loss leaders :(. This holiday season especially, let’s show support and love for true book-loving booksellers… just sayin’. :-)!

Happy gift giving and reading!

P.S. 4:00 Book Hook is a free e-newsletter for people who share books with kids: parents, home-schoolers, teachers, grandparents and librarians. Contact the 4:00 Book Hook at this email address for your free subscription: [email protected]

(The above image came from this article).

I’m a bit behind on everything theses days. Can’t believe I forgot to brag that I finished the PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) challenge, which makes me a winner!!

Winners get this cute-as-a-lightening-bug’s-ear winner’s badge, created by Bonnie Adamson and also a notebook full of at least 30 picture book ideas!

Myself, I have exactly 30, no more and no less and I am thrilled! This is the biggest cache of ideas I’ve had in… well… ever! Thanks to Tara Lazar, creator and host of PiBoIdMo and all the participants who became quite the community of cheerleaders for each other.

Due in large part to all these terrific folks I now have at least 5 ideas that I am pretty excited about, another 5 or 6 nuggets that have potential. The rest I consider “seedlings” or “meh” ideas that might possibly turn into or perhaps lead to ”aha!”  ideas somewhere down the line.

So now, just to keep the ball rolling, myself and several others will be participating in 12×12 in 2012, clever brainchild of Julie Hedlund. We’ll be taking our 12 favorite picture book ideas from the 30 and drafting them out through the year. One a month is the goal.

Can I do it?

That remains to be seen. But my guess is, I’ll have a lot more done by the end of this year than I would have without these challenges and the wonderful support of the kid lit community participating.

Weeeee! It’s going to be a productive year, I can feel it!

Photo courtesy of: http://media.pennlive.com/

This summer has been packed with loads of great soccer games. The excitement generated from the Women’s World Cup in Germany, and our U.S. Women’s National Team making it to the finals, resulted in more people watching the Women’s Final on ESPN than for any other soccer broadcast in their history.

I know of so many parents who sat and the watched the games as a family. No doubt this interest will result in more children (especially girls) wanting to play soccer. I think this interest can also be used to get kids into reading. There are many excellent soccer books available for young readers. I’ve reviewed plenty on Book Dads and thought it might be a good idea to recap some of these books and share the reviews again with you.

Here’s a list of soccer books to add to your summer reading list:

PICTURE BOOKS:

* Big Kicks by Bob Kolar - Biggie Bear lives in a quiet corner of a busy little town. He collects stamps, plays jazz, and enjoys being by himself. One day, the town soccer team knocks on his door, and they need BIG help. But Biggie’s never played soccer before, and once they are out on the field, they realize that maybe there is more to soccer than just being big.

* Goal! by Mina Javaherbin - Goal! is the story of Ajani and his group of soccer-loving friends who live in South Africa. Ajani earned a brand-new federation-size soccer ball for being the best reader in his class. For Ajani and his friends, once chores and homework are done, it’s soccer time. However, the boys live in fear from the bullies in their unsafe neighborhood, and are worried about losing their new ball.

* That’s Not How You Play Soccer, Daddy by Sherry Shahan - Mikey takes his duties as captain of the Hot Diggity Diner soccer team very seriously. After a tough

Little Johnny Brown could not touch the ground, but he will go to Beijing and try to get published.

The time has come for Becky and I to head off on our Summer travels. The weather is so darn hot here in Zhejiang province that we have decided to head north and look for cooler climes, and some book deals. Our first stop is Beijing where are very happy to be meeting with some publishers to see if any are interested in publishing all of our Moo-Cow Fan Club work to date (all 16 issues of the magazines and the two books). While there I’ve also decided to pitch my two new picture book ideas to them. The image above is a concept illustration from one called Little Johnny Brown Could Not Touch the Ground. 

Regardless of how the pitches go, I’m very excited to get an inside look at the way the publishing industry here works (we’re getting some tours too). As with everything in China, it is growing extremely fast as anyone who has been to a mega-bookstore in a major city here can tell. You walk into one of these stores and it’s like someone’s made a high-rise by stacking a Barnes and Noble, Borders and Books-A-Million on top of each other. SO - MANY- BOOKS!

Here is a Airport sized bookstore in Nanjing. Photo Credit: John Meckley

The major problem with the industry here is not that people are not reading (there are more literate Chinese people now then ever before in history) it’s the seemingly futile struggle against piracy. Downloading whatever you want for free is just how everyone gets pretty much everything in China. Even official government organizations will just download software, movies, books, etc. The biggest web company in China, Baidu, actually offers a place for people to download books that have been uploaded by users. There have been a lot of recent moves against this kind of thing lately, even Han Han, China’s biggest and most influential blogger and writer, has gotten involved, but it will be a long time before piracy is not the norm here for all entertainment industries. 

Luckily for us, all over the world kids books are something to be physically held and read by the child, so I’m not so worried about all of that. 

The kids are alright. Photo Credit: Stian

So, our first stop is Beijing and then it’s off to Inner Mongolia! I’ll keep you updated and share some pictures throughout our journey. 

Last Saturday I attended my first Kid Lit for Adults session at one of the beautiful Charlotte-Mecklenburg regional libraries. It was wonderful! Two talented library staff members prsented the material, the coffee was hot, and the price was perfect--FREE, absolutely free. Most of the attendees were teachers seeking new ways to get their students involved with reading and writing. But there were a

I LOVE this post and this one, too, about query letters. Actually, I love this blog period. The blogger sounds like a really sensible blogger/agent/person all the time. Enjoy.

The Hospital of Wild Sorrows


Dossy 1


Friend of Dossy


Dossy 2


The Heavy Men

My friend Sean Hurley (aka Sherwin Sleeves) is an incredible writer and storyteller, both on the page and in the traditional vocal sense. He has written and produced a podcast called Atoms, Motion and the Void for a number of years and he now is working on a YA book called The Rulebook and Calendar of Kittery Embers which he has been serializing as he finishes chapters. You should really give it a listen and if you are in the publishing world you should get in touch with him because he is now looking for an agent and publisher for this story. 

The above images are character and style idea sketches I’ve been doing purely out of love for the Kittery Embers story. I of course would love to do illustrations for the actual book as well if it ever came to that (ahem). 

It’s been a while, folks. In February, I traveled abroad on family business and since returning I’ve been occupied with playing catch up. Life is gradually returning to “normal.” For starters, I am involved in a fun spring event—the annual childrens book illustrator show at MOCHA (Museum of Childrean’s Art) in Oakland, Once Upon A Time. Come to the Artist Reception tomorrow, March 27, 2010, 2-4 pm. For location and more info, visit the museum online.

The following image is a pencil draft of a page in my picture book, Can You Catch A Coqui Frog? written by Vera Arita and illustrated by yours truly. If you’d like to see the actual finished illustration, then do come to the show which runs until May 7.

…we started a new year: Twenty Ten! Yay!

In honor of 20th day of the new year, here are twenty news bits and random observations. (Um, that four month gap since my last post was well worth the wait, right? ;-))

1. My geeky self is thrilled at the speed and beauty of Snow Leopard on my new Mac Mini.

2. Donated to Haiti which suffered a 7.0 quake that caused ten times more devastation than our 7.1 Loma Prieta quake.

3. Purging old stuff from my studio including books.  Making room for more.

4. Went to an amazing SCBWI Cyber Promotions retreat in Santa Barbara. (More to come~cross my heart…)

5. Started up Hula again.

6. Tackling my To Do list with some friendly help.

7. Shifting priorities with a smile.

8. Pleased that Project Runway is back in the Big Apple.

(more…)

Early August, I attended the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Summer Conference in LA. All the fun and excitement took place at the Century Plaza Hyatt hotel. Below, and in the next few posts, I’ll share the highlights of my trip, a few observations and then some..:-)

I decided to modify a version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus around the time I quit pursuing publishing. That was close to ten years ago. I spent several years prior with a very strong focus on picture books but that gradually gave way to frustration.

The industry was changing. While I was repped at the time, I had a hard time with the change. Externally, things looked all right. Internally, I was at odds with myself. I painted my heart out—pouring all my feelings onto canvas. I took three years off. When I returned, I was able to look at the painting with a “fresh” set of eyes.

Finding Your Path in Kid Lit

Sometimes I’m approached by people who want to write and/or illustrate children’s and YA books. I might sound like a broken record but I always utter the initials: S C B W I. It stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

One  thing I did upon returning to children’s books was join the SCBWI. It has been instrumental in helping me reach my goals. I do the work, stayed focused, yada, yada. However, the SCBWI provides a ton of resources and has helped me make important connections. I can’t speak highly enough of it.

Check out the SCBWI here.

Happenings this Month

The School Visit Front ::   I celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and Children’s Book Week with the students of Earhart School of Alameda, CA where I appeard for a full day of assemblies, a family evening presentation and some kinder book readings.

Above photo: Teaching the kids a sitting hula. * Special thanks to Principal Joy Dean and Media Center Teachers, Ana Soria-Kevy and Jeni Marr. I had a fantastic time at your school!

The Internet Scene ::  My interview with editor Tarie Sabido of Into The Wardrobe, a delightful children’s and YA literature blog is up now. This month, Tarie highlights kid lit authors and illustrators who have a unique Asian Pacific connection. She posed some excellent questions that I hope I answered well. FYI, I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, typing out my answers to the best of my ability ** note: bleary eyes but full heart** I am honored to be part of this month’s festivities. Please check out the interview and blog here.

Here’s a picture book written by Vera Arita and illustrated by yours truly. This 24-page PB features a fun romp with animals in the Hawaiian islands. It’s due for release in Fall ‘09.