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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Unveiling...

Click picture for a larger view

After months of cryptic working, I can now finally talk about the project that has taken up so much of my life for the past 6+ months.

Above is the full-page ad that appeared in the February 16th issue of Publishers Weekly, showing the first four books in "The Fairy Chronicles" series. These are books about contemporary, real little girls who are also fairies and go around solving problems and occasionally, saving the world. Aimed mainly at 7 year old girls. They are heavily illustrated chapter books (20+ illustrations per book). This has kept me quite thoroughly busy for months, of which I have a couple left to go!

The first two books are completely done (on my end, at least) and are coming out in May. (You can see them here and here).

So - ta da! There you go.

21 comments:

Merisi said...

Congratulations Tara,
I am in awe, so much work and so beautiful!
You mean you still have a couple of months of this kind of work pressure ahead of you?
I hope with spring your workload will become of a more human scale, otherwise you might have to get a second life as a fairy, don't you think so? (Or a third life, seeing that you already ARE a fairy.)
Spring greetings from Vienna
(It's going to be in the fifties all this week, the birds are chirping loudly since four in the morning),
Merisi

Gretel said...

Hooray! Your illustrations are so lovely, I don't see how anyone is going to resist them. :)

Chris.P said...

Finally you have let the cat out of the bag Tara. Congrats on finishing the first two books. At least now you can look behind and see your progress instead of just the workload ahead.

andrea said...

If *I* was 7 I'd be all over this! How does it feel to think you'll be impacting young lives maybe forever!? I know that I have a couple of books I had as a child that I still love to look at. One of them is done in just such an illustration style ("Pookie") and it was always the pictures in this particular story that I gravitated to more than the words.

Congratulations -- they look beautiful.

tlawwife said...

How exciting for you. I'm putting them on my wish list just so I can admire your work without looking on the internet. I am constantly amazed by your talent. My mind can't even wrap itself around how you begin to do what you without even thinking of the tedious making sure every little thing is right.

natural attrill said...

Well done Tara! I had a look at your links, I love the colours of the bird.
Penny.
x

cindy said...

yay for you! those look great! i have granddaughters...they might have to have those to look at when at 'nana's' house!

Unknown said...

Incredible! Awesome! How wonderful to have made magic come alive. Excuse me for gushing but you are GOOD!

LDahl said...

Well worth the late nights and bleary eyes!! Super, super job!
I'm so impressed!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely incredible! So lovely and fairies are very popular at our house, so I'll be looking for those books. My daughter is 9, but loves all things fairy - she builds fairy houses, writes letters to her personal fairy "Maeve" and has many fairy books, but these look especially amazing - thank you for spending such an incredible amount of time on these beautiful, detailed illustrations - knowing the care and love that went into them will make the books all the mores special when we get them!

Sarah said...

brilliant Tara, I am wish listing these too, well done and I hope you are ok after such a mammoth project.

Daisy Lupin said...

Tara, they are wonderful I want to be seven years old again. I would have adored these books and would have acted them out around my garden. The illustrations are beautiful. I would have looked at them for ages and imagined other tales to weave round them, I was that sort of little girl.

valerie walsh said...

Congratulationa! How exciting for you!! Well done!!!

Anonymous said...

Very exciting. Congratulations! This project, with your illustrations looks so fun and beautiful. You are an amazing artist!

Tom Kidd said...

Yes, let me congratulate you as well. This will be a very nice collection. I'll have to order the complete set. It will go next to my Cicely Mary Barker books. Even though my assignments are more likely to be guys with guns, aliens with guns, monsters and scenes of conflict, I like pretty things too.

I wish you continued success over the next couple of months on this project. When done you can bask in that great feeling of accomplishment. Momentarily. And then . . . on to the next project. The illustrator's life.

Donna, The Decorated House said...

Congratulations Tara! The books look so beautiful. It really shows all the hours of work you put into them.
Donna

Bendtherulz said...

CONGRATS !! Thats wonderful , all your hardwork, meeting the deadlines culminating into such magical books.
Once again best wishes - will check these out on my next trip to US ( I suppose they will not be available in India...??)

Soozcat said...

Yay! Go Tara!

I have been very tempted to show your illustrations to everyone I know, but I've had to be patient. No more!

Naturegirl said...

Congratulations for a job well done!
How exciting for you! You are certainly gifted! I will have to get the collection for my grandaughter only 4 right now but she will grow into these books! So happy for you!
hugs NG

studio wellspring said...

wonderfulness! i can't wait to buy them for my niece!

couragetocreatewriteandlove said...

Congratulations!!! I am going to buy them for my daughter and myself and I will tell her(my 10 year old daughter that the artist illustrating the story sent my awesome and beautiful looking soap! YES!!! I love it! I thank you so much for it! And I am so honored knowing someone hard worker and famous like you. Congratulations again! So much to learn from you, I will come to check your blog from now on! You rock!!! Blessings.