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As a follow-up to my last post about Queen Anne’s Revenge, here is the man himself—the terrible Edward ‘Blackbeard’ Teach. I show him in close-up so you can see the slow-match fuses he used to weave into his whiskers and set alight before attacking a ship. You can find him in P is for Pirate, now available in bookstores—or drop me a line in the comments for an autographed copy.

Pirate captains were elected by their crews and could be voted out. To keep his crew in line, Blackbeard constantly showed himself to be more fierce, more outrageous than anyone else on board. Seated with his rogues during dinner, Blackbeard fired a pistol underneath the table and wounded one of the crew, just to remind them who he was.

Blackbeard had to be mindful of his crew’s appetite for liquor—for rum, an ardent spirit distilled from molasses. Without rum, a crew would mutiny, as this excerpt from Blackbeard’s log attests:

‘Such a Day, Rum all out: – Our Company somewhat sober: – A Damned Confusion amongst us! – Rogues a plotting; – great Talk of Separation. – So I looked sharp for a Prize; – such a Day took one, with a great deal of Liquor on Board, so kept the Company hot, damned hot, then all Things went well again.’

Bible wins Gold at the Independent Publishers Moonbeam Awards!

Very pleased that the bible I spent a long time illustrating has won an award, (click below to read more about the awards). This coincides nicely with the book's 2nd print run, which brings the total number of books in print to 61,000!

Independent Publisher Moonbeam Awards

The Jesus Storybook Bible has moved up to number 4 on the Christian Marketplace Best Sellers chart, this is great news as this is based on only the first couple of months of sales. If it keeps going at this rate we'll be at No 1 by the end of the summer (the current No 1 has however sold over 5 million copies in total so it maybe be a tough one to beat!).

I'm typing in the air conditioned comfort of an old, high-ceilinged, civil-war-style house in downtown Atlanta, GA -- have you ever seen Gone With the Wind? It's like that, only instead of Rhett Butler, it's just us inside. The house belongs to our friends Ayesha and Dave, but they're not here either--coincidentally, their already-planned vacation coincided with our visit (at least they told us it was coincidental…) so they're off in parts unknown. Still, they let us use their glorious pad in their absence. Thanks, guys!

Here’s a picture of us in Frisco, NC, before we left. Also, a picture with Leslie Ann Lanier of the wonderful bookstore Books To Be Red in Ocracoke, NC. A must-visit if you're a bibliophile on the Outer Banks.  The 'Red' in the store's name comes from Ann's hair.  Isn't that cool? :-)

), a Mecca for weary travelers of Interstate 95. There we had a fabulously fun 24-story elevator ride up into a giant Mexican sombrero. Que barbaro! :-)




I love Atlanta! Such nice people, such nice weather, good coffee--it's got it all. And Evan, Lucy, and Zoe are fascinated by the GIANT bugs we see everywhere here in the south. I need to take a photo. They really are somethin' to see!

Yesterday we were given the royal treatment by the Barnes and Noble in Alpharetta, GA. Before I spoke to readers, they had a 'dragon' -- a big ol' lizard -- as the opening act.  I never opened up for a reptile before. :-) Here’s a picture with Cindy Rittenhouse, who runs the amazing children’s/young-adult section and Rachel, a high school junior and future star critic.



The Little Shop of Stories, a fantastic independent book store in Decatur, GA, did an absolutely amazing window display about our road trip. See the pictures below -- although they don't actually do justice to it. Still, can you believe this? In the last photo I’m also shown with store co-owner Dave Shallenberger, who did the artwork, and Terra McVoy, store manager. Thanks, guys!




Here are Elle Race and Regan Foster of Storyville, a lovely book shop for younger kids in Duluth, GA. They served lemonade for my visit--a very nice touch.  They're a new bookstore in the northern suburbs of Atlanta -- Good luck to them! :-)

Some fun news: Check out the Publisher’s Weekly Web site – we’re the lead article! :-) Here’s the link:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6457079.html

A Note added by Karen:  A highlight of our stay in Atlanta was that we met up with one of my best friends from high school, Karen Sytsma and her family!  I haven't seen Karen in 20 years, and we hit it off as if we see each other everyday!  Karen and her sons Josiah and Caleb followed us to all the bookstores, and we got a chance to visit her husband Mike at work!  Josiah showed the kids a dragon lizard called Beowolf...a relative of the giant iguana we saw earlier.  All these lizards in Atlanta, is it a requirement to have one?  What a great visit!!
 

Tomorrow we’re off to Jackson, MS, via Birmingham, AL. :-)

Happy travels!
--Mark
www.markpeterhughes.com

World Magazine has reviewed The Jesus Storybook Bible under excellent christian children's books in Noteworthy Books (Susan Olasky, June 9th).



via Sally Lloyd-Jones

The bible I illustrated has made it to number 7 on the Christian Marketplace bestellers list for June. This list is based on sales for April which was the first month of sales for this book....

Huzzah!

The author of the bible I illustrated, Sally Lloyd -Jones has just e-mailed to let me know that the book was spotted on CBS News: Sunday Morning, in a segment on the history of Bible publishing, highlighting how many different types of bible are available today. Ours was used to illustrate a "bible for kids", pretty impressive considering how many children's bibles there must be to choose from.

This is the last of them, although it's only a small selection of the 180 illustrations I produced over 9 months for this 352 pg book.