Odds and ends -

My crazy work schedule is resuming. I hope to post some more from Breyerfest this week if I get this current cover done. (5 different cover sketches this week! I think that's personal record).

In the meantime, I wanted to say thanks for a couple of awards from the very kind Maddy and Vickie. I'm sorry I can't reciprocate at the moment and pass them on to so many other deserving folks. (My blueberries are needing picked as well!)

And for your other viewing pleasure, tor.com has just gone live. Amazing scifi/fantasy site - with articles, blogs, and galleries and it includes freebie wallpapers and fiction that are downloadable this week (see the great Kinuko Y. Craft cover above). Enjoy!

Catching up - odds and ends:

It's currently snowing outside. Big fluffy flakes that mimic the profusion of blossoms on the trees out my back window... Spring weather is ephemeral and bizarre! (and since shooting this picture, it has continued to fall. And stick. Getting whiter out there by the minute).



Feeling like I need a little break from the painting-grind and also to clean out my email inbox, here are a few tidbits from this past week:

My 'Fairy Chronicles' publisher let me know that "Firefly and the Quest of the Black Squirrel" (book #4) has been acknowledged with a Mom's Choice Award - 2008 Gold Recipient: Distinctive Illustration.

I just finished the covers for the Fairy Chronicles books #11 and #12, so it's easy to lose objectivity on this huge project overall. It is gratifying to see that the effort is being enjoyed.



I was also notified this week that blogged.com has rated Silver Apples "great":

"Based on: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style." (which I find ironic given how irrelevant the current content seems to be as well as infrequent - but there you have it...)

At any rate, there are only a scant three weeks left on this schedule and then maybe I can regain enough brain power to become relevant again...? And to maybe visit *your* blogs once more?

[Project update: Covers to revise: 4. Interiors drawn: 43. Interiors painted: 7. Interiors left to draw:40. Interiors left to paint: 76!!! argh!]

Birthday-day...

' Had a nice, chocolately day -

-filled with good wishes and treats from friends (lovely booty here from Gretel arrived serendipitously this afternoon) and family -

My husband sweetly took me out to a ridiculously expensive, yet fantastically and exotically delicious restaurant called Cafe Juanita - which specializes in Northern Italian cuisine made with seasonal, local ingredients (my husband had octopus (above), pear salad and duck, I had kale soup, citrus risotto and roasted rabbit... Wow! Such amazing flavor combinations! Have a gander at their menu. I wanted to try everything.)

And Roz made *my* day by giving me an ''you make my day" award. (I have been so buried, I have been dismal at responding to these kinds of things - so sorry Chantal and Claire and anyone else I've completely ignored during this time of deadline purgatory...)


To pass it on, here are the details:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make my Day Award” logo
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

There are so many fabulous blogs out there - how can one possibly choose? Here, however, are five that I consistently enjoy (and you five, feel free to ignore being 'tagged' if you can't get to it either! I totally understand):

1. Does Gretel of Middle of Nowhere ever post amiss? I revel in every entry. I want to move in.
2. Maddy over at Whittier on Autism is consistently, bitingly insightful and incredibly droll. Such warm, encompassing humanity.
3. Chantal at Celestine Musings always has gorgeous images combined with perfect quotes or thoughts. Scrolling through her blog is like scanning through a high-end coffee-table-gift book full of nurturing content.
4. Eric of Eric Orchard is a talented, imaginative illustrator who graciously posts paintings and art musings nearly *every day*. (I'm lucky to make it through my email any more).
5. And Andrea over at Colouring Outside the Lines is a must-read for thoughtful, wry insights into art and life (plus is an artiste-extraordinaire)





Now, I'm afraid, it's back to the 'drawing board' - literally. Somehow, I've ended up taking on *another* series with insane deadlines (four heavily illustrated books by the middle of April). Luckily this time they are adding an additional illustrator to help at the beginning of this project, rather than in the middle like last time - but it is still mind boggling. I think it averages about 16 days a book (which on my end includes design, a cover, a couple of full page, full color interiors as well as 2-3 dozen spots of various sizes and complexity, and any revisions needed. Somewhere in here I also have a handful of fairy-covers to do as well... This will be interesting).

I may follow Mia's example and head to bed early as my final celebration today, and that may be the last you see of me, or I see of my bed, for the next few months!

Please send chocolate.

Thanksgivings...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day. I still needed to work some today, so friends of ours took pity on us and invited us to dinner so that we wouldn't need to cook an entire feast ourselves. We *did* contribute butter rolls (a thing my daughter's back is not an impediment to making), my husband's famous cheesecake and fresh cranberry compote. But that was it. For that cheap admission fee, we got to go share in lovely company and eat ourselves silly.

Dinner conversation at one point turned to "The Fairy Chronicles" because our hosts' youngest daughter had posed for some of the fairies in the first couple of books. Grandma was terribly pleased by the whole prospect and we had some fun art discussions over yams and stuffing.

And speaking of the Fairy Chronicles, I've been informed that a couple of them were selected as recommended books by the Association of Books for Children (an independent book sellers organization). If you want to see, you can scroll down the nearly-illegible-low-res catalog to page 10 and they are listed on the right hand side.

Also just sent me was a notice that the Chicago Book Clinic declared the first two of the series to have 'outstanding craftsmanship in design and publishing', in the Children's - Young Reader category. (I don't think this year's awards are posted on the site yet.)

So being that it is Thanksgiving, I thought I ought to express my gratitude that my very kind publishers took a chance on a completely obscure illustrator to take on a project of this size and scope.

As hard as some of the insane deadlines have been, I *am* grateful for how much I am learning - much just by the sheer DOING of it in impossible time frames. I am much quicker at this than when I started. I am also 'seeing' better all the time, which is hopefully also reflected in my work as I go. (I'm looking forward to when I can show you my latest cover. It is so encouraging to be able to visibly track ones' progress...)

I am grateful to be *working*. And consistently. That is a new thing for me, I'm used to a much more sporadic schedule. I've had commissioned work now for over 2 years - *solid*. And although occasionally I think that I would like nothing better than a break, I do realize how incredibly lucky I am to be gainfully-employed doing the thing that I want most of all to be doing.

So, feeling grateful to be able to do so, I am on to book # 10...

Happy Thanksgiving.