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I’m in Austin at the Texas Association of Library Administrator’s conference where I enjoy meeting new people and reconnecting with colleagues from all parts of this great state.   We went to dinner tonight with the Mackin group where we heard Chris Wood speak. He is the Library Director for the Genessee Valley Educational Partnership. This is an educational service agency in western New York. Chris is a national leader in the school library community so I was very interested to see him at this dinner and hear what he had to say. Chris announced that tonight was the national launch of Here Be Fiction. He said that Mackin and the Big 6 publishers have reached an agreement and a limited beta release of their new fiction titles is underway.

He said the Big 6 have agreed to provide discount access for multiple users (you may have to buy more than one title), agreed to provide off line access with no Internet needed and can reach our special needs readers. Kitty Heise, co-owner of Mackin, said that School Library Journal is helping to sponsor this new program by having their reviewers review some of the titles they will offer. We librarians are anxious to see if our expectations are met.

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SAN MARCOS, TEXAS – Maggie Steele cheered herself hoarse Saturday, June 15th, at one of the biggest pole-vault festivals in the nation, the Texas River Vault Championship! “It was one of the greatest things that ever happened to her,” said … Continue reading →

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I haven't updated this blog in a while. Sorry. Here are some things I have been working on via Instagram pics.

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Didya hear the BIG news? Maggie is headed to Texas! The fictional pole-vaulting farm girl from Grain Valley, Kan., will be ridin’ high atop the awards stand Saturday, June 15th, at the Texas River Vault Championship. As many as 300 … Continue reading →

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Speaking of books, nice segue huh?

It’s going to be beautiful when it’s done. I’m really proud of what it’s shaping up to be, but sometimes you just have to take a break and sketch a bunny.

A bunny with a floral head dress. Because…. well she’s what popped out of my pencil!

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Grandpa dropped his glasses once
In a pot of dye.
And when he put them on again he saw a purple sky
~Leroy F. Jackson

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The conference was great!

The speakers were informative and friendly, and did I mention funny?  I love it when a speaker infuses their presentation with genuine humor.

The critiques filled my head with new possibilities and directions.   This year, there have been so many changes in my career, with having an agent and several books in the works, that the conference held special meaning to me. Where once I faced a critique with a case of nerves, causing me to forget everything said to me, this year I knew the questions I wanted to ask. I heard what they had to say.
This was the time to ask.

So this year those nerves were but a case of the butterflies…..

Then to top it off, I got to meet fellow illustrators in the real, that I only knew from Facebook. It was so much fun to hang out with friends who “get” why you do what you do!

So tomorrow when I start back to work, I have renewed outlook, but today…. I’m just going to chill and let all those ideas bouncing around in my head settle and form complete paths.

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At the Houston SCBWI conference, we were given a homework assignment. A choice of one of two prompts that we as attendees could choose from. One was a double page spread from a picture book and the other was a YA cover.  I started both prompts and then went with the one that appealed to me the most.  The sketches were sent to the Art Director for comments and direction, then we all brought back a full color illustration with the changes suggested. Above is  my sketch and  then my finished illustration.  Later, I was decided to finish the other prompt on my own. Below you see  a “Mock” cover for a young adult novel that is currently out. This is just a mock cover.

Mock cover

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Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.  ~George Eliot

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I just returned from a couple of days at the Texas Library Conference in Ft. Worth where I had the opportunity to meet new people, renew long distance friendships and learned so many best practices covering a myriad of topics that I was sorry it was over. Even though our state had standardized testing that week, it was a very well attended conference and continued through Saturday to accommodate the many school librarians who could only make the latter part of the week. One tip I know I will repeat is how to make learning about Boolean searching actually fun. Seriously! We were up and moving as we learned the difference between “or” and “more” and how the different words returned different search results. Clever and useful for any level.

I was also a presenter for two sessions and want to let those of you looking for the handouts that they will be posted on the TLA web site soon.

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Oh, how I would love to work in YA novels.  I hope one day to get the chance.

 

But until then,  I’ll keep practicing. Here’s a sketch, I started while waiting in the car for my daughter. Such fun inspiration  to draw… and those tween kids are rich in expression!

 

www.robertabaird.com

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If it looks like things have been a bit wonky here… well they have. The website, the blog have had a complete overhaul.

www.robertabaird.com.   Even my Twitter Page is all shiny! https://twitter.com/robertabaird

Now it’s all matchy like a new box of stationery. Check it out!

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Gurggggggle swish…. slluuuuudge glump.… thorp…. bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop…..

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Proof that cats do indeed watch television.

After his people watched the entire “Mission Impossible” weekend marathon, Miles, wanting to get “in touch” with the wild feline within and sneak up on his food, took the matter into his own hands.

If only he hadn’t miscalculated the height from the kitchen light to the floor, he’d be in kibble heaven right now!

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Happy Gnu Year!!

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Once a year the eyes of the nation turn to this tiny hamlet in western Pennsylvania, to watch a master at work. The master, Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous weatherman, the groundhog. Who, as legend has it, can predict the coming of an early spring. So I guess the question we have to ask ourselves today is, does Phil feel lucky?

~Ground Hog Day

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Every time it rains, it rains…… pennies from heaven.

Don’t you know each cloud contains…. pennies from heaven.

You’ll find your fortune falling all over town.Make sure that your umbrella is upside down!

 

Hmmmm…..She doesn’t look like she’s singing the same song as I am! Oh well, it’s still my favorite song!

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Let the good times roll!

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Revenge of The Girl With The Great Personality. Elizabeth Eulberg. 2013. [March] Scholastic. 272 pages.

I have enjoyed Elizabeth Eulberg's work in the past--The Lonely Hearts Club and Prom and Prejudice--so I was hoping that I would enjoy her newest YA novel. It didn't work for me. But I think it may still work for many readers.

The heroine of Revenge of the Girl with The Great Personality is Lexi. She is the girl with the "great personality." It's a label that she has difficulty letting go of, in a way, because she believes what she hears or overhears about herself. What should you know about Lexi? Well, she has a seven year old sister who's into beauty pageants. Her mom is obsessed with putting her sister into every pageant possible--no matter the cost, no matter the drama. Lexi is part of this lifestyle--like it or not. And her favorite thing about the pageant life is spending time with Logan. (Logan has a girlfriend, Alyssa, who's in pageants.)

Essentially Lexi hates not having a boyfriend or a life and one day she's dared by her gay best friend, Benny, to do something about it. He dares her to wear make-up for a week, to do her hair, to wear dresses, etc. She then dares him to start talking to the guy he likes, to ask him out, etc.

What will happen when Lexi transforms into the most beautiful woman ever? Will she get attention? The right kind of attention? Will everyone suddenly think she's worth knowing? worth talking to? worth eating lunch with? worth inviting to parties? worth dating? What will people start saying about her and her new look? And dare she go back to her old self?

I did not like this one. Lexi's obsession with Logan prevents her from taking the one guy who might actually like her seriously. Though it doesn't stop her from dating him [Taylor] for most of the book. While I am glad that Lexi did not get a happily ever after--with either Taylor or Logan--and that she eventually realized how silly she'd been over Logan once she caught a glimpse of the real Logan, I still found most of the book annoying. 

Revenge of The Girl with the Great Personality has plenty of drama and conflict. Lexi's family is certainly dysfunctional and broken. Lexi struggles to have a good relationship with her mom and her sister. And there is even a love triangle, of sorts. For those that like YA books focusing on popularity and fitting in or not fitting in...it may be right for you. But. It didn't work for me. 

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Ethel was always a little bit different than the other sheep.

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Title: Betting on Texas Author:  Amanda Renee

May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

Once again, I am drawn to a cowboy book.  Betting on Texas by Amanda Renee even has horses.  Bonus!  Surly Jesse is a horse trainer, and they are actually featured predominately in the story.  Yeah!  Unfortunately, Jesse knowingly puts Miranda in some hazardous situations, which did make me think less of him.  A horse trainer of all people should know better to put a horse and a human at risk like that. 

Miranda Archer is embarking on a new life.  Having won the state lottery, she purchases a ranch in Texas, loads up her meager belongings in her brand new pickup truck, and heads for greener pastures.  What she finds isn’t exactly the solitary haven she’s expecting.  Instead, she discovers that she also owns several horses, a small herd of cattle, and some chickens in addition to the farm house and acreage.  Oh, yeah, and there’s that angry, angry cowboy, Jesse Langtry, in residence, too.  Jesse has sacrificed the better part of the last 15 years  working on the ranch, training sought after cutting horses and managing the property for the former owners.  They had a hand shake agreement that Jesse would buy the ranch when they were ready to retire.  Unfortunately, the older couple is tragically killed in an accident, and the ranch is placed on the auction block by.  Jesse is outbid by Miranda, and he is pissed!  How could this rich, city-slicker from DC just stroll into town and take away his  dream?

I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, but the story didn’t gel for me.  The adversarial relationship between Jesse and Miranda turned me off.  Jesse completely and unfairly misjudges Miranda, which makes him hard to like.  They are constantly bickering about the ranch, which is legally Miranda’s, and Jesse blames her for buying it from under him.  He is so bitter that I just couldn’t buy into their relationship.  He puts her at risk several times with the horses, and I couldn’t get over that.  Horses are large animals, and when handled by inexperienced people, they can be dangerous.  Heck, they can be dangerous when you know what you’re doing!  To leave her to load a horse onto a trailer after getting mad at her; I just can’t imagine a professional horseman doing something risky like that.  After getting dumped off of my mare the same day I read a majority of the book, for no other reason than she was feeling frisky, I know how quickly things can go wrong with horses.  This probably won’t be a major sticking point for most, but it was for me.

I did like Miranda.  She put up with Jesse’s sullen behavior and tried not to let it bother her.  She met his dismissive treatment of her head on.  She didn’t let him alter her plans to have the home she had always dreamed of.  When life bit her in the behind, she quickly made adjustments to ensure that the animals and the people who were now depending on her were taken care of.  Her initial poor reception in town was entirely due to Jesse spreading false rumors about her and her plans for the ranch, and she acted forcefully to try to counteract the gossip he had spread about her.  Even though he did this before he met her, it’s hard to forgive a guy who would try to sabotage a complete stranger like that.

To settle things between them, Miranda and Jesse make a bet, and the winner ends up with the ranch.  Because of Jesse’s determination to win the bet and get his dreams back on track, it was hard to buy into his sincerity when his feelings for Miranda started to change.  I wasn’t sure if he really did like her, or if gaining control of the ranch was playing into his change of heart.  In fact, it wasn’t until the last two chapters that I even started to like him. 

Betting on Texas was a mixed bag for me, and I blame the confrontational relationship established early in the story for my tepid respond to Jesse.  It was hard to look beyond Jesse’s desire to own the ranch, and his less than chivalrous behavior rankled at times.  Even though Betting on Texas didn’t work for me,  I am looking forward to getting to know Jesse’s brothers better in Home To The Cowboy, the next book in the series. 

Grade: B-/C+

Review copy provided by publisher

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Call me, don’t be afraid you can call me,

Maybe it’s late but just, call me.

Tell me and I’ll be around.

www.robertabaird.com

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