Children's writers of a certain age...

I just did a statistic gathering survey and found out that most writers of children's books are women between 30 and 39 years old. This puts them smack in the middle of having school age children at home.

The kids are at school from 3 to 6 hours give or take bus time or carpooling. That gives moms time to do all their chores and write for maybe 2 hours a day. Maybe. And they have loads and loads of research material at home the rest of the time. My hat is off to those women. Good luck.

Now I do not fit into that age range. My babies are grown and since they do not as yet have kids of their own I am in that transitory pause between – I can reflect on my children, appreciate other’s children and grandchildren and observe them all from a 'bird’s eye' view.

I can see the parent’s point of view and the children’s point of view because I don’t have to pick sides. It is a golden time to write for children and about children, children of any age from 0 to 18. I’ve been there and now I can see the essence of who children are, what they want, what we they think they want and what really is: from the shining heart to the black hole.

Surprisingly this essence is not what I would have guessed it to be when I was in that 30-39 range. I plan to take advantage of that perspective and I advise all those women writers to enjoy and pay attention because this is time, the moment of the best research they will ever do. Enjoy it.

Left Brain/ Right Brain

Scattered Brain!

* Too many ideas. Enthusiasm.

* Long lists of to do's.

* Stories to I want to write. Pictures I want to draw.

* Reading many books on how to get my creative life organized when I should be doing it.

* Sidetracked by beauty, opportunity,'what ifs' and of course the chores of everyday life.

* 6 muses sitting on my laptop, grinning at me.

* A studio full of potential.

And only so much time and coffee.
Welcome to my world...

A RoadKill query

Well, I sent out a query today. To an agent who I am sure is too busy. But I did it. My granddad said, "You can't catch a trout unless you put your fly in the water.” The fly is there; I hope I get a nibble. Nothing is as scary as putting yourself out there to be critiqued and/or rejected. But I’ve been telling myself I’m going to treat this like a business. It’s business, not personal.

The story is a long shot story about road kill. Road Kill… you know dead critters in the middle of the highway. Yep, it's a picture book about dead animals. EEeeewwww but "way cool" says a four year old I know. Oh well, their mom’s may not approve of a dead animal story but I’ll bet their granddads will buy it for them. Who needs another dancing pig or Dracula rabbit?

Now I can go to bed on dream of being rich and famous. Or maybe just famous. Or maybe just published. Keep your fingers crossed.

No more 'crinkle and shake' – bye bye newspaper!

Since my hubby and I have canceled the Seattle Times, turned off our Netflix (until the dark days of winter) and cut back...way back on TV...no more "extended" cable programming – just the bare bones TV news and PBS, we have been filling our spare time with other things after work. We watch ships go by, read, invite friends over, create lots and fight a little. I’m finding that a lot of the stuff on TV is available on the internet…if you really want to see it.

Hey, did you know the most newspapers are free on the internet. I don’t understand why anyone, anymore is actually paying for a newspaper. Hard core, curmudgeonly journalists will argue with me (I am married to one) that the world is not the same without the newspaper.

No, there is no nostalgic 'crinkle and shake' as you turn the page but it's all there; science, local and world news, weather, lifestyle and opinions...lots and lots of opinions. And you don’t have to recycle all those ads…just ignore them.

Wading through all this content however, is an exercise in discretion, adventure and discovery. It’s not like it was before and that is not a bad thing. After all "change" is truly the only constant. I kind of like it. The only thing you have to get used to is limiting your daily time on the net. One: the laptop get warm and two: you can lose yourself in ether. Remember how when you were little you could look-up something in the dictionary or encyclopedia and get lost in the next page and the next page and the next...? Well, this is far worse and more compelling and can lead to losing the whole day or losing job, so beware.

I'm also "connected" through blogs and critique groups to a bunch of people I believe have a great perspective on life, living and our reason for being here. They are artists, illustrators and writers of books for children. Thinking like a kid and creating like a kid – they are constantly seeing the world like the sun just came up and no one has yet walked around on the day leaving messy, dirty footprints. Who needs newspapers?

So have a nice day and don't leave any messy footprints!

Six months is not too long, is it?

Six months later Kate finally blogs.
For someone who has a deep desire to be a writer you would think she’d do it more often.
Ah, writing about myself in third person…weird. Weird is “weird” what happened to ‘i’ before ‘e’?

I wanted to continue this blog about becoming a children’s book illustrator and author, however I found much more interesting blog sites to read. And my hands like to build and draw, as much as write so blogging seemed rather two dimensional and time consuming to blog on a regular basis. I may change my mind.

I read in some blogs that editors and agents like to read the blogs of authors to see if they have a ‘following’ that can be massaged into a ‘promotion vehicle’ for the book the editors and agents might want to sell. I would just prefer to spend my writing on writing my stories rather then attract a following. If someone wants to blog as much as write, I think that’s fine. If someone wants to follow my blog – cool, but it’s not why I do it.

Why do I do it? Because I’m trying to treat children’s book writing as a business and a ‘web presence’ is essential. I started my other web presence (my professional site) but it got detoured. My husband, a technical editor, needed his site done and I needed to learn CS3 Dreamweaver. So I did. A perfect mesh of need and…need. His site is “menzelhiggins.com” if you are interested. Not bad for my first attempt.

My site however sits in Dreamweaver waiting patiently for me to do the things that need to done to “go live”. My grandpa said “You’ll never catch a fish until you get your bait in the water”. My fish are hopefully waiting too. Until then, I have my forum here. Will it be six more months? No, I don’t think so. Stay tuned.

A New Year's mouse

Keeping my New Year's resolution to draw and write each day, even if just a little, I began creating a character for a new children’s book I’ve written called "Dru Drew". I kept changing my mind on the size of her ears, her age and height/weight ratio so I decided to call on an old trick: create a model and draw from that.

I make my models out of aluminum foil over a wire armature then cover the whole thing with florist's stem tape. Stem tape is flexible and slightly sticky so it sticks to itself. It is also slightly stretchy so it conforms to the shape and comes in brown, green and white. Sometimes if I need great detail I will cover the taped-over piece with non-hardening clay. Today she only has sewing pins for eyes and nose. Her head arms, legs and tail (which is also removable) are fairly flexible allowing me to pose her.
Dru Mouse KAH 2009
I will now draw her in several positions and from several angles. I will also probably draw her in strong light to get a handle on the shadows that follow her.

Drawing Dru over and over gives me the opportunity to get to know her. And it keeps my characters consistent. I highly recommend this technique. You make a new friend…literally.

Next step will be writing a biography, a family tree and a personality profile. Too much you think for just a mouse? Well, if she has a personality that is well established, her written character will have more depth and be more believable. Even for a mouse.

Thought for the day: No one is perfect, even a mouse. Isn’t that a great concept!

Reading, drawing and judging a book by its cover

I knew I had to prepare for this picture book journey. I needed direction to start this path to a childrens book written and drawn by me. I knew I needed to read and draw and write and read some more. Most of all, I needed to focus. For someone who is known for her phrase “I have an idea”, focus was going to be the most important aspect of negotiating this multicolored road.

So I took an intensive certification class at the University of Washington – "Art for the Childrens Market". I learned much but was inspired even more. I sat on the ferries for hours observing and drawing kids and some adults until I'm sure the parents were beginning to think I was some sort of pervert...that is until I showed them the drawings. It was hard to tell them they weren't for sale.

Drawing ‘ferry folk’ made me think a lucrative business could be of drawing people on the ferry and selling them their candid portraits, but I'd tell myself this was research. Focus Kate.

Billy's cricket KAH 2009

Just reading, reading and reading kid’s books was probably the most important part of this early education. Sitting on the floor of the childrens section in the local library and bookstores, I would carefully list all the books that children immediately snatched off the shelves. “Can I have this one?” they’d beg. I knew then that the cover mattered as much as the content. Hummm, interesting marketing lesson.

What made a great cover? Color, subject and what could be seen clearly and brightly by the child, all added to the attractive mix. Most of the covers chosen were not the ones I thought would be the most compelling.

Lesson one: Don’t make assumptions about what children like. Observe.

Remember this, although what Grandma or Mom chose was very different then what little Jenny chose, the first book the child wanted was usually included in the purchase. Covers are as important as the insides. Who knew? So much for the adage “Never judge a book by its cover”.

The multicolored path

This blog is for anyone who would like to follow me on the picture book path.
I know this path has twists and turns and trips. It has hills and dips and signs that read, "Watch for falling rocks". But it also has great vistas, wondrous bridges and fascinating side roads.

I may meet wicked witches, gorgons, dragons and ghosts. I may also meet a red queen, mermaids, flying pigs and a man with magic beans.

Orville Pig realizes that balloons
are not a very comfortable idea!

I hope to discover muses and mentors. I am compelled to seek out the end of this multicolored brick road. How scary. How exciting!

I do have a map. A worn and magic map that changes it directions and blurs it borders.
Hey look, there a big X! That must be the spot.
Now all I have to do is find my way.

You are welcome to join with me on this expedition. If you want to.
But please be patient, I fear it may be a long trip.