How to use this Page

Seriously, I should be teaching, but mother nature has dumped a massive (like from New Mexico to Michigan) sized storm of the U.S.

Speaking of teaching, one of the skills I've learned as a teacher is how to transition between topics. Try this:

Snowpocalypse Now is a cheeky reference to the movie Apocalypse Now which is based on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness which is the template for my book, Loathsome, Dark, and Deep.

Whew.

Well check out this nice review of Loathsome, Dark, and Deep at Hellnotes:

It’s a cleverly thought out survival novel that turns into a “search for a man who can answer our questions” novel, with Henry taken prisoner by a fellow named Curt who can explain the presence of the zombie-like “Ruined Men.”

Now that's nice. Click above to read the rest (should you want to, of course). Daniel Powell, author of An Autumn Harvest, had some nice things to say, too. Thanks for reading.

This transition isn't as smooth.

I've come to the end of my first "month of experimentation" with Kindle publishing, and, well, have (drum roll please) seven sales! Yes, seven copies of The Bottom Feeders sold in January, and, I'm surprisingly excited about it. Why? Because everybody I know already bought copies before January (I think)--that means seven "strangers" gave it a go. So my "profit" total for 2011...

7 books x $.35 a book = $2.45!

Now, I know I said I was going to donate 10% to a charity each month...I am. At least. 25 cents doesn't seem like much of a donation, does it? So each month I make less than $10 (could be the whole year, folks), I'm going to donate at least $5.

So who should the $5 go to this month? I'm taking suggestions and then will hold a poll.

I'll announce the winner of the review contest tomorrow...stay tuned. We're likely snowed in for a few days...

Guys,

My friend, Stephanie Blake, needs our help.

Over the weekend, her 7-year old niece, Braedyn, was diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). It's been a terrible shock to her family.

She lives in Wichita, KS. The treatment protocol starts this Wednesday with vigorous schedule of chemotherapy. Little Braedyn will probably lose her hair almost immediately. She loves books and crafts of all kinds. Her favorite color is green. She's being very brave, but is scared of what is to come.

Im planning on donating everything that is Fancy Nancy :) Anything will brighten this little girl's day - maybe coloring, crafts, books. They can be old or new.

Brenda Reeves Sturgis, is organizing A Book For Braedyn. Brenda would like to get an author a week to donate a single book (new or used) to Braedyn, to help keep her mind off of chemo and all the yucky cancer stuff she's going through.

Brenda is starting off by sending the picture book, All the World. If you could participate, it would be most appreciated. To sign up to send something, please contact Brenda via [email protected] or feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I'm happy to help gather your stuff for Brenda as well.

Thank you so much, in advance, for brightening the days for little Braedyn.

And please keep her in your prayers and thoughts.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faeriality?alt=rss

These sketch cards will go to Kelly Light's Ripple blog very soon.

Please go and make a donation by buying a card from the many beautiful cards available. All the money goes to save the animals victims of the oil spill. Plus during the whole month of July BIG names in the book world will donate cards and help the cause.

What a beautiful thing and this is your chance to be a part of it.

Hey all y’all!

Just letting you know that the piece you see below (which I did for Ripple (and Illustration Friday) is a 5″ x 7″ print and still available to anyone who wants it by helping the Ripple cause. It was sold once, but it being a print, I have more.  Just follow the instructions given on the Ripple blog’s sidebar and I’ll happily send it your way (card #586). Thus far, Kelly Light & all the illustrators involved have raised over $6K to help the animal victims of the Gulf oil spill.  Check out all the other artists/illustrators’ pieces there as well.  Thanks for your support! : )

I decided to do two more quick sketch cards before I start working on a new book. I'll be sending these cards to Kelly Light's Ripple blog very soon.

You can purchase these or any of the amazing artist's cards on the Ripple site for only 10$ each and you will be helping the victims of the awful oil spill.

Kelly has been able to recollect over 1000$ so far! Woohoo!!!
Help make this number get even bigger. Every little help counts.

With your donation you'll be saving the life of an innocent animal.
Can you think of a better reason to spend your 10 bucks?
I didn't think so. :o)

I don’t know of anyone who isn’t aware of  the oil spill in the Gulf, but do you know how to do something about it?  Though I live off the Gulf Coast, I felt removed from the situation… reading about the oil’s progression and tsk tsk-ing those who drag their feet in it’s resolution. So what can we do?

It takes someone like Kelly Light and her daughter to begin a movement!

They have created a blog called Ripple where you can purchase an Artist Trading Card and the donations will go directly to the cause. Each sketchcard on the blog is $10.00. The $10.00 is a donation to help the animal victims of the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill. Every penny is donated. The two Non-Profits that are benefitting are The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and The International Bird Rescue Research Center.

This crisis is so heart wrenching and it’s the innocent who are suffering! Please won’t you visit the Ripple blog and donate. If you are an artist perhaps you want to donate your work in the form of an art card. The information for doing so is on the Ripple blog.

I’ve created two cards. One will be on it’s way to a kind person in Hawaii on Monday the other, a sea turtle,  will go up on the Ripple blog and will be for sale along with the other artist created cards.

Ripple A small sketch- a small donation-each small act helps!

Last week Kingston Springs Elementary School experienced a flash flood and six feet of water submerged their entire school. There was a crew there today even as we wrote working to clean up and salvage items that were not damaged. Unfortunately, the news from that crew has been grim - due to the contaminated flood water there will not be much saved. Sue's library, for all intents and purposes, did lose the entire collection of books. Due to the damage, Kingston Springs Elementary School will not be re-opening until next year.

Their library had 8500 books and most were destroyed by the water. The only books they have left are the 200 or so that children had checked out over the weekend.

They need books! If you have a couple copies of your own books lying around, or have some gently used books, they can use them. Even duplicates can be used in classrooms.

The Cheatham County Board of Education is taking monetary donations and supply donations. If you wish to make a monetary donation please mail checks to:

Cheatham County Board of Education
102 Elizabeth St.
Ashland City, TN 37015

The checks need to be made payable to Kingston Springs Elementary School and please indicate on the memo line where the donation should be applied (i.e. library, etc)

Donations of books or supplies can be mailed or brought to the following location:

Kingston Springs Elementary Donation Room 23
c/o Harpeth Middle School
170 Harpeth View Trail
Kingston Springs, TN 37082

I will be getting books together to donate to the school. So I'm accept donations and take yours as well :)

Thanks :)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Faeriality?alt=rss

Purdy, Director of Publicity

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Back in August 2009 Oxford University Press, Inc. was approached by producers at ABC’s Extreme Makeover, “We will be building soon in the DC area for a family that runs a nonprofit afterschool program for children. We will be building a new learning center for the program, and were wondering if Oxford might be interested in providing some books for the children.” This is not the first time we’ve been approached by Extreme Makeover, but it was heartening to see that any titles would benefit a community of children, rather than a single family. I quickly alerted my colleagues and we managed to pull together a number of reference books, children’s classics, and bi-lingual dictionaries from our ELT team we thought the kids might appreciate and find useful. We sent them off to a warehouse to await the inevitable demolition and reconstruction of the house/school. After many months I received word that construction is complete and the episode will air on ABC, Sunday, February 14, 2010. A happier valentine’s day gift we could not have hoped for here at OUP USA, and hope the kids of the Fisher School enjoy and benefit from our modest donation.

Time is ticking down and the holidays will soon be here. Still in need of a last minute gift?

Make a donation in honor of someone special and help place new books into the hands of kids in need. First Book offers lovely e-cards or printable cards to let your recipient know about your gift!

Don’t miss the chance to the chance to make your gift go twice as far! Your contribution will be matched book-for-book by Random House Children’s Books until December 31.

Help share the joy of the holiday season by inspiring a child with a new book today!

illustration by Israel Sanchez

The “Hey You Guys” Charity (previously blogged)  is at it again with another wonderful art auction and movie screening. The auction benefits DonorsChoose.org, an organization dedicated to fulfilling

the needs of teachers across the country and their under-funded classrooms and

art programs.

The auction runs from Monday, November 30th through Sunday, December 13th online– check out all the beautiful things you can bid on!

They’re screening the 1984 classic film Ghostbusters at the Rialto Theatre in Pasadena too, what a treat! More details on the event on their site…

Posted by Meg Hunt on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: Art, auction, donation, Illustration, movies

Help save the Bornean Sun Bear! All proceeds from any sales of products with this design on them will be donated to the setting up and funding of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) at Sepilok, East Malaysia, where sun bears rescued from captivity will be housed and cared for in natural enclosures before being released, wherever possible, back into the wild. For more information please go to http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org.

This drawing took me far longer than any one preceding it. Probably because it is to go up for auction, which made me extremely nervous ... the original photograph by Siew Te Wong is up at http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/page/2/.

I'm exhausted. It's been a long and chaotic couple of months and I now have to get down to organising myself and getting back to normal. Whatever 'normal' may be :)

Sun Bear Cub Card and products up at Zazzle.

With the announcement of the Cybils shortlists coming in two days, we talk about our role in the awards process.

We also announce that we will contribute CDN$1.00 to the Raise-A-Reader Foundation for each comment left on our site in January 2007 as part of an initiative by gifter.org (some restrictions apply).