More PiBoIdMo

While the writers were busy trying to write a bazillion words in the month of November National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo, author/illustrators of picture books were trying to come up with 30 + ideas for PiBoIdMo: Picture Book Idea Month.

I did it. I already had a substantial list of ideas (always do) but added to my list...substantially. So I signed a pledge to 'parlay' one or some of them into books...which I have found is the hardest part of an idea...making it real. 

The Pledge 

I do solemnly swear 

that I have faithfully executed
the PiBoIdMo challenge, 
and will to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas into picture books 
from the list of 30 I have created.

Get on my mark, get set....go for it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Courage, the Presidentially Pardoned Turkey)

From Kate, Tom (not a turkey) and both my children

where ever they are today.

A Fish Bowl maybe...

My daughter gave me a big bowl. Should it be a terrarium or a fish bowl?
Happy Thanksgiving from Puget Sound!

CedarMoon - My Studio!

The Western Washington SCBWI newletter update blog 'Chinook' requested that we illustrators (and authors) share a glimpse of our studios.

So I took a picture that demonstrates at least a portion of where my brain lives when it is not in the real world. CedarMoon Studio (click on picture to see a larger view) is the greatest gift my husband ever gave me besides a wedding ring and our two children (Tyra-29 and Whit-26).

It is my sanctuary, a place where 'I have an idea!' and a place where messes don't count. Ideas ooze from the walls to the point where it's hard for me to choose which realm I want to visit each day. Here I keep snippets and shavings and sprinklings of inspiration all around me – my own personal cabinet of curiosities.

Welcome to my world, take a peek around. Magic is where you make it happen.

Creative Minds (go back to work)

Wow!  I just found: Skellewag: 110+ Resources for Creative Minds: "http://www.skelliewag.org/110-resources-for-creative-minds-121.htm"

Just following the links contained within each tip will keep you busy...too busy. Unfortunately it doesn't tell you to stop and go back to your work. Tom Edison said “I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.” Messing around on the internet = nothing much accomplished.

Can you imagine where we'd be if there was a resource like the internet during the industrial revolution? Instant information and instant opinions and instant frustration, fear and no work done. Hummm, it's a lesson worth thinking about. There might just be a story there. Back to work.

Hippo Pool and Ideas

I love this National Geo link: Hippo Pool. There is always a story – now I have to figure out what the story is.

I keep a note book (several actually) where I quickly scribble down thoughts and sketches and ideas that jump out at me at the strangest times. I learned long ago that the fleeting ideas don't always seek a permanent residence in my brain so my "I have an idea" notebooks abound.

Get non-spiral notebooks with spines you can write on otherwise you spend time going through pages and pages of good ideas that you are not looking for. Label with the date and a few keywords and try to leave a page near the front to list some of the ideas entered. I'm not suggesting an index, that is far too left brain for me but a tantalizing hint of what's inside is usually just enough to find what I'm looking for...usually.

Mouse Update and PiBoIdMo

It’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). A month where hundreds of authors are trying to finish a 50,000-word manuscript in 30 days. Just trying will get many out of their ruts and off their butts with the intensive self-imposed push to finish or start the novel. However, when you write and illustrate picture books PiBoldMo (PIcture BOok IDea Month) is the way to go. For me it’s trying to get submissions out, working on relevant illustrations I’ve put off and basically get ‘out there’ and it’s working.

Thanks to talented illustrator Ryan Hipp, PiBoIdMo participants now have a badge to proudly display on their blogs. (see on the right) I found this on Tara Lazar’s Blog – http://taralazar.wordpress.com. She has a great day-by-day blog for Picture book writers.

Mouse Update: The mice are gone. There were seven mice not three. Tiny little guys with big ears, big eyes and long tails. I caught them with a live trap called a “Tom Cat” a very easy, very effective way to trap studio mice in case anyone needs one. Now I am finding little bits of evidence all around my studio. They seem to have a very refined palate, it seems they like watercolor papers, handmade fiber papers, satin ribbons, tissue paper and postage stamps. I have found some very beautiful, colorful sleeping quarters in some unusual places; the bottom of my brush holder vase, under the file folders in my roll top desk and even behind my “How to Draw Animals” books…good choice. Next time I bring a box in from storage in the garage, I’m checking the contents for stow-aways before it comes in the studio.

Happy PiBoldMo!

Sometimes life imitates art...

Sometimes it is life that imitates art. I wrote and illustrated a picture book about a mouse that loved to draw and who conveniently lived in an artist studio. Now I have three mice.

They apparently smuggled aboard by hiding in a Halloween storage box filled with past ghosts and bats and rats. A plastic pumpkin was filled with nicely torn and shredded mummy shroud with a small cavity padded with witch hair. I thought the absence of small bodies meant they had abandoned this bewitching abode but they were hiding…perhaps in the papier-mache’ skull or tucked away in a raven’s wing.

No matter how they came, they are here, thumping and scratching and quickly doing the pause…run…pause…run across my studio floor. I hear a scratch and briefly glimpse a tiny grey tail. I look up and that piece of popcorn, carefully placed to sneak-a-peek at my roommates, is gone.

Yesterday I opened a pencil drawer and one minuscule mousey stood on her hind legs and looked at me, “Well, now what are you going to do about it?” she seemed to ask and then spun and disappeared over the back of the drawer. I was so stunned to actually see her I had no idea of what to do.

I am now trying to find mouse sized Have-A-Heart traps so I can let them go back outside. My quandary is that I must keep them alive long enough to catch them alive. So I leave a bit of food and some water on the floor. Tomorrow it will be gone, hopefully by the end of the week my mouseys will be evicted, until then I am living my story.

I wonder if they can draw?