Covers - The Wind Dancers

After reaching temperatures of 111 degrees yesterday (insane! This is Seattle! The highest temperature recorded here *ever* previously was like 96), the intense heat and air stagnation have tangibly broken. It is still supposed to be warm for the foreseeable future, but in a much more reasonable, mid-80s sort of way (our norms for July run more in the mid-70s, so this is still hot for here). With the temperatures finally more bearable, I'm able to resume working rather than just sitting in front of a fan panting... :-)

If you have followed this blog at all, you will have noticed me mentioning the series I've been working on for the past couple of years, The Wind Dancers, written by Sibley Miller, co-illustrated by myself and Jo Gershman and published by Feiwel & Friends in association with Breyer. The first four came out late last year (for which we've done promotional videos, presentations, book signings and TV appearances at Breyerfest. I've also discussed the vagaries of color matching here). It's been quite a fun ride.

The next couple of books are listed on Amazon for pre-order.

With the next pair to follow shortly after...

Currently, we are working on the final four books in this series. Even as I type, I am working on the next four covers, which I've gotten permission to post WIPs as I go, so watch over the next little while and I'll try to post the process and thinking behind covers in an ongoing series.

Til then, it's cool enough that I think I can even sleep tonight!

Happy St. Pat's Day!

'Had a very enjoyable St. Patrick's Day evening with some of my fellow POBLites who were having an arty evening.

A few of us went to dinner at a very atmospheric, old and renovated firehouse-turned-restaurant. In one of the dining rooms, Jo Gershman is having a mini-solo-show of her lovely still lifes (is that the plural of still life? lives? life's?) this month.

After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to the independent book store down the street where Kathleen Kemly was being featured in a holiday book event -reading "Shannon and the World's Tallest Leprechaun" -

- followed by Irish step dancers, gold and green treats and a shamrock hunt.

Then she got to sign books for her admirers (which include all of us. Way to go Kathleen!).
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And since it is St. Paddy's day, I will end here with my absolute favorite Celtic musician for your viewing and listening pleasure. Enjoy!
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(and a patched together Bonny Swans - I don't know if a complete version of this exists? I adore the visuals on this though:)

60 Seconds of Fame-

At the end of the summer, co-illustrator Jo Gershman and I filmed a brief little book promo for our publisher, Feiwel & Friends in honor of the newly released Wind Dancers. You can now find it on Youtube.

And here.

(Biggest-dork-EVAR-on-film-alert):



(I am ONLY posting this, under duress I might add, because it has been strongly requested. Let us never speak of it again).

The Inside Story -

Book event for the day: This fall's Inside Story.

Some of my long-time readers may recall me writing last year's presentation during my daughter's bone scan. This year, I am presenting with my friend and co-illustrator Jo Gershman on our experience illustrating the Wind Dancer series together in, ah, a very...ambitious time-frame.

If it goes well, I'll post our presentation tomorrow.




(*You can click on the image for a larger version if you'd like to actually read the thing :-).

Lights - well, Camera and Action at least -

You may have noticed that 'book trailers', podcasts and other uses of audio and video are becoming more common in publishing. The current series I'm working on (Breyer's "Wind Dancers", for Feiwel & Friends - an imprint of MacMillan) is starting to post little one minute videos of authors and artists promoting their books. (this is NOT for a children's book, but if you've not seen an example you can view this trailer ... wow... :-),

For the fall, we were asked for: a one minute clip of yourself. We believe that everyone loves pets, so our idea is for the authors to talk about, or incorporate, their pets into a video introducing their book.
Since my good friend and POBLmate Jo Gershman and I co-illustrated these books, we decided to do it together. We have any number of pets between us, but since these are books about horses (albeit twinkly, fairy horses), we decided to film with a horse instead of our assorted animals.

My husband, the corporate video producer, agreed to be our director (in this case though, we just used the video option of my digital camera. Very high end. See our 'cue cards' behind him? :-) It was amazingly difficult to try to sound intelligent for 60 seconds - especially with a horse tossing his head between us. It took a few tries to get over the giggles and to make it through our lines...


We managed to get through it, but I am going to try very hard to not watch or ever speak of it again (can anyone really bear seeing and hearing themselves on film? ugh!!! We'll see if Feiwel uses it.)


My son was also on site [working lad - pressure washing the fences in prep for painting] - here, striking an 'anti-paparazzi' pose. For awhile this may be my relationship with any camera pointed in my direction as well... At least until the horror wears off...

Off again -

- heading out in the morning to Lexington, Kentucky for a 2-day book signing at Breyerfest (a thing that I was previously unaware existed.) Breyer ("Home to the World's Finest Model Horses") is collaborating with Feiwel & Friends (imprint of Macmillan) to produce a series of books called "The Wind Dancers" (the first cover of which is above) coming out in November.

I worked on the first four in illustrative collaboration with my good friend and POBL mate, Jo Gershman (again - too many illustrations needed in way too short a time to do them all myself). We finished the first four early this year and are now starting into the second batch of four.

Anyhow, I'm off to the horse-center of the universe to greet horse-model collecting, horse-book buying little girls. If you don't read about my demise-due-to-humidity (I was unaware that this was an *outdoor* festival. In Kentucky. In *July*. There is a reason I live in the Pacific Northwest!), I will be back on Sunday.