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So excited to be celebrating the release of Tera's new book, Fins Are Forever. I do apologize that my crazy travel schedule kept me from posting last week on Heather's good news...so a belated "whoohoo!" to Heather, as well.



We're talking about memories that involve water...and I created one just last week. And boy, was it a wonder. One of the wonders of the world, in fact: Niagara Falls.



My fiance, Patrick Burns, and I have his two boys with us this summer and we're always looking for things to do to keep them entertained. Well, we were scheduled for a conference in Illinois one weekend and Auburn, New York the next week, so we took the time to drive to Niagara Falls and take in the spendor and beauty of the natural wonder.



This was my fourth visit, but it never fails to take my breath away. This time was especially memorable because we had the kidlets with us and they had never been there. Also, I have always wanted to ride on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes you literally right up underneath the horseshoe falls. We did it! We were on the front of the boat and got completely soaked, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.



And, you can't take a bad picture of the Falls. The sheer power and beauty of it is overwhelming. It was an extraordinary day--albeit, a wet one--and following a warm cup of tea and reminiscing already, I know it was a day to remember for all of us. A real "family" moment...and that's what counts.



Have you been to Niagara Falls? What did you think? Share your thoughts and memories. Remember, three lucky commenters this week will win a Fins pack from Tera Lynn Childs. Click HERE for all the exciting details. And congrat's, TLC! You are truly blessed by the cover gods! LOL!!

Hugs,
Marley = )

www.marleygibson.com
www.ghosthuntress.com

The next installment of the popular Ghost Huntress series
is out and everything's not as it seems...
GHOST HUNTRESS: THE DISCOVERY

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In just a few more hours, on Tuesday 12, the newest book I have illustrated, LADDER TO THE MOON, written by Maya Soetoro-Ng, will be released in stores. To mark the day my publisher has released a book preview where you can take a look a some of the first pages of the book.
On my side, I have added A LADDER TO THE MOON page to my website with some information and links related to the book. Tomorrow nigh I will be with friends welcoming the new publication. May you join me.

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At last the book that has kept me so glued to my computer, and away from the rest of the world, will be for sale soon on Amazon, maybe next week. There will be a Kindle, and other ebook types, … Continue reading →

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It’s up. DRIVEN is available for immediate download and gifting on Amazon.com. Just click the link below.

Thank you so much for waiting and praying. I hope to see you tomorrow night (December 2, 2010) on DRIVEN‘s Facebook Fan Page. Don’t forget. It’s from 7-8pm (CST). Lots of giveaways to say “thank you” for joining me.

Take care and I hope you enjoy the book.

BTW, if you prefer paperbacks, no worries. You can pre-order a paperback copy at Barnes and Noble’s online site. The paperback is scheduled to release March 1, 2011.

Either way, you can fill out the Christmas Card survey and receive a special Christmas card from the DRIVEN gang. So don’t forget to head on over to the Christmas Card page to sign up for your card.

And again,

Thank you!

If you’re curious. . .DRIVEN Reviews can be found on the Barnes and Noble site and YA_Noveling.

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Floating on Mama's Song written by Laura Lacamara and illustrated by Yours Truly has been released this week. To celebration begins with a blog tour and the chance to win a copy of the book. Here are the details and the schedule:

Monday, August 30 - Floating on Mama's Song synopsis, reviews:
Out of the Paintbox

Tuesday, August 31 - Interview with author, Laura Lacamara:
On Beyond Words and Pictures


Wednesday, September 1- Interview with editor, Katherine Tegen:
Tales from the Rushmore Kid


Thursday, September 2 - Interview with illustrator, Yuyi Morales:
Latin Baby Book Club


Friday, September 3 – Announcement of contest winner:
Out of the Paintbox


How to win a book? Just post a comment on any of the blogs on the tour.

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Over on Verla Kay's, there's a discussion going on about the anxiety and anticipation as the release date for your book arrives. Violet Raines was published end of summer 2008, and The Summer of Moonlight Secrets will be out May 2010.

Here are some true things I've learned:

There will be no big ceremony heralding the stocking of your book on shelves (but you will be exquisitely aware of it).

When you last went to the bookstore, there were three copies left. Your mother just went by and saw only two. "Who could have bought it?" she will say. You live in a town with more than two million people.

Not everyone will like your book. Some of them will post their reviews.

Some people WILL LOVE your book and some of them will post their reviews.

People who hardly know you will ask you for free copies.

You will love those who love your book. They are the best people.

Your family and friends think you are making the big bucks now. They want to know how much.

You will scour the Internet looking for your title, but you will be afraid to click into the Search results.

Young people will send you emails saying that you wrote a perfect book and they are having the same problems as your main character. You will almost cry over these emails.

You will receive handwritten letters expressing joy over your book. Most of these will be printed in pencil. You will buy pretty stationery to write back in your own handwriting.

You will write another book.

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I have been so absorbed in projects that I haven’t had a chance to celebrate that my newest book, My Abuelita, written by Tony Johnston, has hit the shelves this fall. There are many reasons for me to be excited about this book, but the most important one is that it was a challenge to illustrate it, and that I did it.
And so, in the spirit of a little release celebration, I though I would show how My Abuelita was made.
Care to find out?

Making My Abuelita from Yuyi Morales on Vimeo.

Six years. In 2003, when I signed the contract to create the illustrations for My Abuelita, written by Tony Johnston, I didn’t anticipate that it would take me this long to see the work completed. But at the time I had other books to finish before I could begin any new project, and so time began to pass.

Time passing is a good opportunity for daydreaming. Daydreaming is an opportunity for imagining. And imagining is how my illustrations start.

During the years I needed to complete other books, I imagined how the illustrations for My Abuelita would look someday. When it comes to my work, I don’t really imagine things like a character’s features or the colors of skin and clothes. Instead, I imagine possibilities. And so I began imagining the possibility of making the illustrations for My Abuelita not with paintings, as I had done with all of my previous books, but utilizing something I had long adored: dolls and puppets.

When I had just arrived in the USA from Mexico, I fell in love with making puppets. I learned about it from books I borrowed from the library. It was through making puppets that I began exploring the creation of my own stories and characters, which eventually led me to create my own books. Yet I have never stopped loving the wonder of inanimate objects moving, posing, and coming alive to enact stories.

The more imagining I did, the crazier the idea of using puppets became. This seemed like a project that would require many different kinds of techniques: sculpting, sewing, painting, photography, digital work. Could I really do this all by myself? How was I going to make rigid puppets have facial expression? What would happen to the curved lines I like to use in my work? Could I still keep a sense of movement flooding my illustrations if I had to build them rather than paint them? Would I need to hire a photographer, and would he or she be in tune with the vision I had of my work? And more important, what would my publisher think about it? (They scratched their chins. “Let us see,” they said. “Try it.”)

In 2006 I finally started working on My Abuelita, a story of a grandmother and her grandchild living together and bonding through imagination and storytelling. By then I had closed my eyes to my own doubts. I had decided to use puppets and props to make scenes, buy my husband, Tim, the camera he’d always wanted, and finish the illustrations using digital media. There were still plenty of things I didn’t know how I would do, but I trusted that I would find a way of learning—I would study or ask people to teach me, and one way or another I would figure it all out.

The work began with bad drawings, as usual. My first attempts always produce the simplest and roughest drawings. They are stick people without features or details—pure shape and energy. Later, based on the text, I began refining my drawings to conjure this grandmother shaped like a pumpkin, her loving grandchild, and their cat, Frida Kahlo.
As I was establishing the look of my characters in sketches, I began working on thumbnails, small drawings where I concentrate on the compositional and storytelling elements of the 32 pages of the book. While in the past I have used my thumbnails as the road map for drawing refined sketches and ultimately paintings, this time my thumbnails were the reference for creating three-dimensional scenes. In these thumbnails, all of the characters, places, situations, attitudes, and objects in every scene were established.

With my general plan for the book visually laid down, it was time to begin building the characters and elements that would appear in the illustrations. I wrote down a list so that I would not forget anyone.

I have made puppets before; papier-mâché pulp is my favorite construction material. But I knew that My Abuelita needed puppets that would withstand extensive maneuvering. I would need to position them in diverse poses and attitudes, and they would need to stay. So I began studying stop-motion animation techniques.

On a wire structure I built by twisting wire and wrapping silk thread, I sculpted my characters. I used polymer clay, which stays soft and malleable while working, but hardens when baked in a kitchen oven. Because I needed my characters to move, I left bare wire joints for the neck, knees, wrist, fingers, waists, and more. Later I would cover the joints digitally. Once baked and hardened, I primed the figures and began to paint them. I decided then to give my puppets features but not expressions (including no eyes), so that later I could create expressions digitally for the different moments in the story.

For Frida the cat, I mulled over how to make her fuzzy. I found my answer in felting. Using a special needle with an indentation on the tip, I learned to clump felt fibers over my wire cat skeleton and sculpt them into the shape I wanted. The hair of Abuelita and her grandchild were also made with this technique.

Next I sewed their little dresses, pants, and shirts. The boy’s shirt is my favorite because I put it together with fabric printed with motifs based on a Mexican Loteria game. El corazón card became the front; el pájaro card is on the back. For many of the linens and clothes, I bought fabrics and laces in Mexico; many are common fabrics that have been used for generations.

Everything from little bedroom slippers to little toys, beds, spoons, a feathered crown, and more had to be created. I painted the image of the artist Frida Kahlo with my computer, printed it on fabric, then sewed it into a lace pillow for Abuelita. Some objects, like Abuelita’s iron bed, I designed while I was in Mexico visiting my family. There I found a metal worker who, following my drawing, cut and soldered the bed for me. Other elements, like the clay dishes Abuelita and her grandchild use at breakfast, are toy crafts played with by children in Mexico. I bought mine in el mercado, my hometown’s market. To create the metal mirror in Abuelita’s house, I embossed a sheet of aluminum foil in the style of traditional Mexican silver works.

My Abuelita is a story that honors both everyday life and imagination. These two worlds come together in the story, and they needed to come together in the illustrations as well, while still being distinguishable from each other. But how? I decided to depict the real world of Abuelita’s family with my three-dimensional creations; their imaginary world would be portrayed in my paintings.

And so the images began developing through an amalgam of different techniques. In my husband’s photography studio, we propped up the walls of Abuelita’s house, which were boards that I textured and painted. Using my early thumbnails as storyboards, we furnished every scene with the props I had made, and we positioned the puppets as they enacted the story in front of the camera. Depending on their complexity, setting up the scenes to be photographed took from one to three days each.

Lighting played a big role. From illuminating the general scene to adding glow and shadows to each puppet, the process was handled by Tim. He listened to and interpreted my lighting wishes, experimented with different approaches, positioned photographic lamps, and even constructed miniature reflectors and small light boxes in order to concentrate light on the smallest of characters.

Eighteen high-resolution photographs were taken to create the book. One by one I uploaded them to my computer so that I could digitally finish in Photoshop. The list of work to do was long:

Abuelita, her grandchild, and Frida Khalo the cat had to be given eyes and expression. Sometimes whole eyelids, mouths, and cheeks were digitally destructed and reconstructed in order to give their faces a more realistic expression.

Skin was built wherever bare wire joints showed. Fingers and toes were repositioned so that they would be in visual tune with what the characters were doing and feeling.

Some scenes required that new glows and shadows be manually redrawn.

Real food was cooked, photographed, and digitally served in the photographed dishes.

A model car that was smaller than we needed had to be seamlessly adapted to the driving scene.

The alligator clamps, clay, pins, strings, and any other tools that kept the puppets, floors, walls, and props in place had to be erased.

And the list continued.

One of the last steps was the blending of the imaginary world with the real one: my paintings had to be integrated into the photographs. Using my computer, I layered every photograph with a painting, one on top of the other, and blended them together as one. I erased some parts and redrew others. I extracted or copied pieces of the images, grabbing colors and textures, and then moved them where I needed them. In a way this felt as if I were sculpting the illustrations—not much different than my adding, extracting, and moving clay when I sculpted my puppets over the wire armature.

Then, after about three years, I was done!

Illustrating is a series of choices. I give voice to my work by choosing ideas, possibilities, and ways of using art (and not my ability to draw, my painting skills, or how good or bad I am at anything). I hope that the way I chose to tell the story of My Abuelita comes out with a voice “as round as dimes and as wild as blossoms blooming” and that even Abuelita would be proud.

Now that My Abuelita is long finished and is already a completed book, what I keep closest to me is that fantastic feeling of being at the studio, setting the puppets in the scenes. No matter how tired I was or how many times we reset the puppets (which often moved or fell, crashing the whole scene), it always made me squirm with pure delight to have Abuelita, her grandchild, and Frida the cat bring to life a scene I had only imagined. How I had dreamed of this perfect moment, ever since I was a child playing with my dolls.

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Just wanted to give a shout out to Cindy Pon. Her Debut Novel has been released today! Give a little Cyber luv and say Congrats to Cindy! YaY! Cindy!

Head on over to her blog today where she is giving away release day prizes, which is an original art, by her, or a $100 gift car. click here to head on over.

I can't wait to read it!

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Yep. That's right. My critique group buddies are not just hot, happenin' and cool. They aren't on fire. They R on Fi-Ahhhhhh! I'm so proud of them.

Take for instance Ian Sands. Yes. I'm mentioning Ian again. That's because is art is taking off faster than a like a gazelle at a cheetah convention. (Does that phrase make me sound southern?)

In addition to his exhibits, sales and contest wins, he has just released a book called Ligers, Tigons and Pizzlies that gives insight into the inspiration of his latest exhibit, The Newimal Collection, which is based on real life hybrid animals. Give your mouse a clickety-click right here to purchase a copy.



Next is another critique buddy, Kathleen Reilly. This gal knows her stuff. If I were ever stranded out in the wilderness I would want to be stuck with her. Last year Kate launched her book Planet Earth. In honor of Earth Day this month, she is giving away a free copy of this awesome environment-friendly project book. Go on over to her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win. Hurry! Why are you still here? Go on over! But be sure to come back. There's more.

Are you back? Good.

The last thing I need to mention is that my critique group is putting together a schmooze coming up in May at Quail Ridge books in Raleigh, NC. Our guest speaker will be author, Kelly Starling-Lyons. It's gonna be great. More details to come!

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I'm very excited to have author Kathleen Duey join us today for an interview regarding her award winning book "Skin Hunger." Kathleen also offers insight to the anticipated release of "Sacred Scars" due out in the Fall of 2009, and shares her thoughts on writing, reading and advice for aspiring authors as well.

And that's not all! I'm giving away a free copy of Skin Huger! Just leave a comment in the comments section and I'll draw the name of our lucky winner on Tuesday!

I've read over 50 books this year. I lost count. There were some that I read a few chapters at a time. Some I trudged through and eventually finished. Some I didn't even finish, I rushed them back to the library. Then, there are the golden few. The ones that kept me up late with burning eyes because I didn't want to put it down. Skin Hunger was one of those late-night-few.

Skin Hunger is told in two perspectives. At first both characters seem totally unrelated, but little by little Duey brings the reader along and shows us how the two story lines come together. I felt like I was opening a present or getting to be apart of the discovery of the story, rather than just being "told" the story. I'd wager that few authors would be able to pull this type of story line off. Duey does it masterfully.

Let's hear what she has to say to us.


On Writing:

I think one of the most remarkable aspects of Skin Hunger is your ability to blend two seemingly different stories into one book until little by little, the reader discovers how the stories come together.

Q. Did you know from the start that you would use two story lines?

A. The idea for A Resurrection of Magic came to me over fifteen years ago. I thought it would be a single book then. It is the very first novel I ever tried to write—what an optimist. I sank beneath the waves about 300 pages into chaos. It has evolved over time in many ways, but the two-protagonists-interlocking-timelines structure was part of the original idea.

Q. Was it difficult to write both story lines or did it come naturally?
A. Since the story was never framed any other way for me, it felt natural. Structure—as a storytelling tool—has always fascinated me. After this trilogy, or overlapping it, my next two books will have atypical story-delivery-systems, too. One of those is a collaboration I am wildly excited about. The other is a stand alone novel that might be a paraquel to the trilogy—I haven’t decided yet.

Q. What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing the trilogy?
A. The timeline. I just finished the second book, Sacred Scars, so the worst of the timeline wrestling is over. For anyone who hasn’t read it Skin Hunger: There are two stories, 200 years apart. The first story causes the second one. There are two protagonists. One is written in first person, the other in third person and they alternate chapters. In the first story, about 140 years pass by the end of book two. In the second story, about three and a half years will have passed by the end of book two. Book three will be synchronous timelines by the end. I don’t outline, so it could take a turn, but that’s what seems inevitable now.

Q. What was your favorite part about writing Skin Hunger?
A. I loved finally getting the story out. I have been carrying it around in my head for so long! And I have loved readers’ response to it. After years of making a happy living writing my middle grade series, I want to believe that I can write deep, dark, page-turners with at least some literary merit, that teens and adults can’t put down. It is a whole new direction for me. I expected to finish the trilogy and write another few books before anyone noticed that I had changed paths. So the great reviews, the National Book Award finalist’s medal, the Cybil’s short list, etc,—these were all gifts I never expected. I appreciate them more than I can say.


Q. I love how you integrate old cultures in your books and include travel in your research. What were the most crucial items or places that you researched for Skin Hunger?
A. Writing forty-odd historical novels turns out to be good training for building a world from scratch. I’ve read so much about how cultures evolve in response to the people who begin them, punishing weather, immigration, war, sudden wealth (or poverty), the influx of a new religion, a devastating epidemic…When I began thinking about Limori, the pieces fit together fairly logically. I am fascinated with real place names. Limori is a Romany word; its meaning is a key to the story.
Traveling to do international school visits and to speak at writers’ conferences has taken me to interesting places. Some of them have been sources for building Limori. I have borrowed all kinds of things—street sounds, the smells, food, the buildings, especially the oldest ones, more food, the color of the sky, the sound of the wind, everything interests me. I love to travel and it has leaked into my work. At the international schools, I meet kids who speak three or four or more languages and have lived in many countries and I envy their stockpile of settings.


Q. Can you share anything with us regarding your current Work In Progress?
A. Sacred Scars is finally finished, off to the copyeditor last week. I care so much about Sadima and Hahp and all the other characters. It’s going to be odd to be finished with this trilogy in 2009.
Up next, a set of four books for 2-4th graders: The Faeries Promise. It’s a paraquel to The Unicorn’s Secret, set in a world that I created in nightly dreams in the third and forth grade. I would go to sleep there and wake up here. Then go to bed here and wake up there. It was like having two lives, for about a year and a half. It was amazing. I have tried to do it now and can’t. Yet.
Concurrently, I will be working on a really interesting collaboration, setting out to do something very different, using more tools to tell the story than I ever have before. I know that’s vague, but we are just getting off the ground with it. I do think it will be really interesting.

Do you have a regular writing routine?
Full time, almost every day. I am a terrible procrastinator about starting work for the day—but I have learned tricks that work most of the time. Once I get started, I write fairly quickly.

On reading:

What is the last book that you read?
Last: Laurie Halse Andersons’s Chained. (loved it!). Now: The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean. I am also reading a partial early manuscript for a friend who has read both of the Resurrection books for me. It’s *really* interesting, really good, and I can’t say a word about it except I know her fans are going to love it.


What is your favorite book(s)?
This is always an impossible question for me. I have a few dozen favorite books. I am rereading The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake—it was written in the 40’s and 50’s remains a literary milestone for me. I read it in the fifth grade and it changed me forever. I loved Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.


Advice:

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
I have written three answers to this that got so long and workshop-ish that I deleted them all. I would need a few hundred pages to finish what I started. There is so much to say about the art, craft and commerce of writing and so many good books that address all of that.
This is what I wish someone had told me: Patience. Learn the craft. Explore your art. It’s fun and it’s very hard. It will take years, almost certainly. Do not trust yourself or those who love you to evaluate your work—ask others to read it. It will suck at first. Everyone’s does. Keep practicing, like a painter, like an actor, a musician, a magician—it takes time and effort to perform your art well enough to draw a crowd. It just does.

Thank you for taking the time to share with us. Do you have any other parting words to share?
Just thank you, for reading my work. For liking it. What a gift that is!
Here are my online mainstays:
http://kathleenduey.blogspot.com/
www.kathleenduey.com

If you check out Kathleen's blog, you'll be able to see some of the process that she used to create Sacred Scars; her travels and the real life objects that become apart of Sadima and Hhap's world. It's fascinating to be able to see the process as it takes place.


Don't forget to leave a comment so I can enter you in the drawing!

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That busy time is here again. It's making it harder to work on NaNo (and everything else), but I'm doing it. So far I've NaNo'd in the doctors office, in the waiting room at the girls dance class, in the car pool line while I'm waiting, at the coffee shop, library and late at night after the kids have gone to bed and I need tape to hold my burning, red eyes open. Why do I do it? Because next to the kids doing and saying cute things, it's the best part of my day. :0)

I only have a little over 10,000 words til I hit the 50,000 word count goal, but I want to do more than that, because when december gets here, I need to put the new idea's on the back burner so I can send out my current WIP out in early 2009.

On another note. Here's a shout out to my critique buddy and friend Ian Sands. His new book How to Milk a Dinosaur is now available on Amazon. What happens when a middle school boy meets with an accident in his eccentric uncles lab? Read this funny, light-hearted book and find out! Here's a link to the interactive book site.

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Officially available:

“Even better, if possible, than its predecessor”
-- Kirkus *Starred review

“Part ghost story and part alphabet book, this trickster tale transcends both”
--School Library Journal

Want to find it? Here are a few options (including your public library):
Indie Bound
World Cat
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Powells

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We Voted Together! #3 & #4 at the Polling Place! Originally uploaded by teachergal I didn’t care if I am sick. I’m voting today! “What time do you think we need to leave to go and vote?” I asked Marc. “6:50, 6:55…” he responded. “I cannot [...]

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Hello. I should totally be writing as I had an extremely successful writing day on Tuesday and this is my other big chunk 'o time day. But as usual, interesting cyber stuff keeps creeping into my time. (Often thanks to the NESCBWI listserve.) Today it is Mitali Perkins and her amazingly original marketing/political blog written by her fictional main character, Sparrow, who is reporting from a teen's point of view on the 2008 elections. I am a constant supporter of anyway we can enfranchise young people. Register and Rock the Vote! Go Mitali.

Cyber interruptions, beautiful sunny Maine day... I will get chapter three written. I will, I will.

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