PiBoIdMo Day 5...

Rain, rain, go away . . .

And I have four more ideas and titles:

Idea #2 "Weather or Not" What can you do when it's raining and pouring or snowing and blowing?

Idea #3 "Little Brother; Pest and Pal"  The pros and cons of little brothers as seen from the little brother's POV And the big sister's POV.

Idea #4 "If I Had a Tiger"  What Eli would do with a tiger for a pet. Revenge? Intimidation? Run for president? NOT clean his room?

Idea #5"Come and Get It!" Lucy's family works and plays and dances and creates. When they home for dinner to share their day with interesting results.

Picture Book Idea Month 2011

I figured this was a good way to get back to my blog and back to my art after a fairly long hiatus doing all the things life throws at you.

You know...stuff. Stuff that has to be done so you can eat.

So to start off my PiBoIdMo this year.

IDEA #1:
"Where Are They Going?"
An expose' on where geese, ants, bees, turtles and squirrels are going when they head out on migration. Or just in search of nuts.

The Creative Mind and Magic…

I firmly believe magic exists. Take for example the case of the magic wand. The wand amplifies and directs desires and intentions you focus your mind on. It is creativity manifest.

Hand a plain stick with a star on it to a child or even an adult and tell them it is magic. They will take it in their hand and possibly point it at a friend (or an enemy) and wave it around a bit, fully intending on turning them in a toad, or a duck or a tree.

In that instant they believe it might, just maybe, possibly… actually happen. Most people will agree that it won’t happen…but for the briefest moment in their minds they believed. And magic lived.

If you handed a billion people a wand and they also believed for only a second that their will could manifest itself into a toad (or a duck or a tree) then for a billion seconds magic would exist.

One billion divided by 31,536000 = 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes and 40 seconds = 31,709.79 years. And there are about 6 billion people on this planet. That’s about 193 years of magic. 

So I firmly believe magic exists...even if for just a moment.

What I did on my summer vacation...

After a summer filled with new grand baby and vacation I’m eager to start blogging again and thanks to Janet Reid, literary agent I have a great reentry in the blog-o-sphere.

Janet ran a word challenge contest, she actually does this often but this time she forgot to name the winners. She does not forget often. The challenge was to write a story in 100 or fewer words.  Post the story in the comments section of her blog (http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com) and use the following words in the story: lyrical, angst, conspiracy, reluctant, swoop.

I wrote this: 
"The old sideboard was painted with stories. Minutely detailed life marched up drawers and across shelves. A tiny war folded around the doors, a carefully wrought conspiracy hid in the corners and a love affair gone wrong erupted over the intricately carved headpiece. Rendered mostly in browns and greens, a fragile swoop of red would brightly proclaim a birth…or a death.

This furniture was too precious to sell, too detailed to interpret, too disturbing to keep as is. I dipped my brush in generic beige and reluctantly began to extinguish 87 years of lyrical angst."

I checked her blog today (I had promised myself no internet while on vacation) and I won her latest word contest posted on Sunday, July 31. What a surprise to come home after 12 days in the mountains of Idaho to find my name after the word “winner”!

Winning is a great motivator to keep writing…humm…let’s see…I have this idea….

I've been kind of busy...

... interviewing my new model for future illustrations. Introducing my first grandchild; Elynn (E-lynn), 9lbs 5ozs. My daughter is tired but happy and doing fine.

I am already teaching Elynn to stick out her tongue and she actually does it. Brilliant and talented child...just like her grandma!
It's amazing what someone who has only been breathing air for a few days can do.
I'll be back to blogging soon as I put her down...oh, what's that mommy?...you want her back?
Being Nana Kate is going to be great!

SCBWI-WWA: I want to do it again!

The 2011 SCBWI-WWA was held this last weekend in Redmond (near Seattle). Two exhausting days that went by too fast. Too many things to learn but I tried. Too many new ideas generated in my little brain.

And too many notes to transcribe before I forget what I wrote. My fast-mode long hand is a bit scribbly but I wanted every writing/illustrated gem of wisdom down on paper. Can anyone tell me what a word that looks like ‘rebraration’ means…or maybe that was ‘nedarfacted’? Thankfully there were many live blogs and synopses of almost ever breakout session so I can get a good brain jolt from them and relive those wonderful sessions.

One of the creators of the original Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Lin Oliver, called it the ‘Mercedes’ of local SCBWI conferences. In the end we wanted to be called the ‘DeLorean’ of conferences because it was fun, fast and not like at all like your mother’s ride. And sometimes it even comes with a Flux Capacitor!

Now back to the future to revise my stories and refine my illustrations…

What’s in an SCBWI Author/Illustrator’s portfolio?

Sorry I haven't blogged for a month but as they say "Life gets in the way when you are making other plans".

I've been busy getting my portfolio ready for the portfolio showcase at the 2011 SCBWI-WWA (Western Washington) Spring Conference in Seattle next week.
 
However author/illustrators are a strange creature consisting of a talented (hopefully) mix of words and pictures. What do they put in their portfolios? Pictures or words? Or both?

Good author/illustrator are highly sought after because it means the agent, editor or publishing house only have to work with one person, one ego and one royalty. Finding advice and mentorship for an author/illustrator is hard work but after searching and researching I came up with a plan for my author/Illustrators portfolio.

This is my author/illustrator portfolio plan:

1. My portfolio pages will have a text from one of my own stories and the illustration that goes with it, hopefully highlighting my aptitude for both. I will use only those illustrations that show character, diversity and a unique interpretation of my words.
2. I will divide the portfolio into two parts: black and white and color. Divide the color and black & white sections into picture book and chapter book illustrations.
3. Aim for 10 to fifteen pages with content only on the right hand page. The left hand page will be left black.
4. Choose the illustrations and words the propel the reader to turn the page or wonder what will happen next.
5. I will use only two or possibly three of styles of illustration. Style is equivalent to the illustrative ‘voice’ agents and editors are looking for.
6. Composition, emotion and lighting will be as important in my illustrations as spelling, voice and continuity are in my writing.
7.  I’ll show off my skill depicting people, especially children and my skill with portraying common animals like bunnies and aardvarks.
8. I will include a couple of completed spreads from my own dummy books complete with illustrations and text to show layout and use space.
9. I will then lay all my choices out on the floor and put them in order from best to worst. I will ruthlessly toss out the worst regardless of how much I personally love them. Only my best will do even it’s only 8 or 10 pieces.
10. I’ll print out my final portfolio cover and composed pages (including my name and contact info on each page) and have it all bound at a local print shop. I will make it look as professional as possible.
11. I will also print out post cards for the interested agents and editors to take with them so they won’t forget me or my talent.

And I will update my website and my blog frequently!

Right Side of the Brain Exercise #12...

OK, back to creativity, nonsense and purple lemons…

I used to teach creative problem solving to grade school kids, prisoners, continuing education paralegals, moms, family and some private gathering. I did it through drawing and imagery and challenging what is real, normal or the correct, conventional way of seeing, doing and thinking. It never failed to get some interesting results. I think I learned more than they did! So I thought I’d share:

Creativity exercise # 12:

Have you seen a purple lemon? A lemon can be purple if you use your imagination you can see a purple lemon. Now imagine biting into a purple lemon, what do you taste? Now grab a #2 pencil and a piece of paper and draw a purple lemon.

What’s that you say? You can’t draw a purple lemon with a black pencil? You can’t??? Why not? There are a number of ways to draw a purple lemon. Here are two:
Draw on purple paper (note I didn't say the paper was white did I?). Or draw with your eyes closed in a very dark room so you can’t see the color. No one else can see it either so it can be purple if you say it is. You can also paint a lemon purple and just draw what you see.

Which brings us to Kate’s Creative Rule #1:
“Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it’s not going to.”

 I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong
end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you
to laugh at life's realities.  ~Theodore Geisel