Big News: I Have Two Bunnies, Kindle Edition....Edition

L-R: Bunny Matumbo Smith, Eric Butternose Bunny,
and Francis McGill Smartypants III
have undergone a little freshening up in preparation
for the new Kindle Edition of "I Have Two Bunnies".

The first legit Kindle Edition of one of my books is in the review process at Amazon and should be available in a few days. It started off as an "I wonder if..." and here we are 24 hours later having freshened everyone in the book up a little with the Kindle Edition done and in the can as they say.

Update: You can purchase the Kindle version of this book now at Amazon!

Work is proceeding on I have Two Chickens and the goal there is to be done and published before school opens in a few weeks.

It's an exciting time here at Plossville!

Big News! Visiting Author and School-wide Book Walk

Big News!

I will be the visiting author at Miller-Driscoll School this week. I'll be presenting to 1st and 2nd graders in live sessions throughout the day and to Kindergarteners via a group zoom session in the afternoon.

I'll be sharing how I started, what my process for writing and illustrating is (hint: It's still a work in progress), and the dreaded word "editing".

In addition to the talks my book, "If I Had a Gift", has been disassembled and recreated as a book walk in 13 different 24x33 inch posters posted around the school with the illustration and text from each page along with a QR Code that links to a video of me reading that page!

Big shout-outs to Kathryn Coon our principal and Jeanine Hussey one of our library media specialists for giving me the opportunity and helping make this happen!

"Chickens" Work Update

Work proceeds and is, in fact, speeding up ahead of some big news coming in April/May (no I don't have a book deal). The checklist follows.

• The backgrounds have been updated and are, as far as I am concerned, complete.
• Sketches for all pages have been completed.
• The book has been trimmed of what, upon review, seemed like undeeded content and has gone from over 40 pages to a reasonable, and industry-standard, 32. 
• Character style, process, and colors have been finalized.
• The inside front cover and page one artwork are complete.
• Moving ahead on the rest.

Betty Jane McPhearson is, in fact, a chicken.

Francis McGill Smartypants III

Mamba Kuku

New Quickies Coming!

One of the things that's different at school this year is that teachers are always looking for different things to make the day, which is by need and design unfun, fun.  One of the things that a couple of teachers in my school do is to show my Quicky Drawing videos of which there were three.

That has prompted me to dedicate myself to making more videos. There are a total of eight "in the can" set to premiere on Sundays and Wednesdays and more are in the works. I've even purchased a new rig to get a better view of what I'm drawing!

So here is the first. The Unicorn.

Out and About: Other People Reading My Book Edition

It's been an amazing school year this year so far.

First, this is my 15th year in my school. That fact brought the realization that "If Picasso Were a Fish" and "If I Had a Gift" both turned 14 this year.

That, in turn, sparked another couple thoughts.

• The students who first saw and reacted "Picasso" are all neck deep in college or military service or the start of their 20's.
• The young woman on whose birthday sheet "Gift" was based, is also deep in college (she was in second grade at the time).

Then also the realization that I have not finished a book in a while.

So, I have six new books in a restarted pipeline. 

Now as to the title of this post...

The administration in my preK-grade 2 school reads a different book to each grade every year. This year, I'm blown away by this, they chose If I Had a Gift as the official book to read to every second grader in my building. 

I'm humbled beyond belief. 

I'll keep you posted on the pipeline.

Recovered Treasure: Cleaning out the basement edition.

One of my projects this summer is going through all of the boxes downstairs many of which have been moved to several houses without having ever been opened. This has led to my downstairs office/studio looking like a cross between a residential street after a tornado and the hanger that the FAA uses to reconstruct downed aircraft.

It has also, however, allowed me to rediscover artifacts from the early days of my children's book author "career".

These include:

A 10 minute sketch of what a Saurat picture might look like for If Picasso Were a Fish.

The first parts of If Picasso Were a Fish. Interestingly, the goat sketch lead
to a whole bunch of "What?" designs that I put on Cafepress items.
They are returning to Cafepress now.

and the end of "Picasso" showing that the ending never changed through development.

The original "Picasso" sketch.

and a copy of the original birthday sheet that led to If I Had a Gift. Grace was in second grade, she's a sophomore in college now.

I Get All Good Morning Wilton-ized

Good Morning Wilton is a local digital newspaper that has, some would argue, surpassed the regular print newspapers as the source for news in town for any of us with an internet device. There are a lot of us here with internet devices.

So when Good Morning Wilton contacts you and asks if they could do an interview with you about your books...you say yes.

This past August founder, editor, lead reporter and all around doer of nearly everything, Heather Borden-Herve Facebook messaged me to set up an interview. I said yes of course and we talked for about an hour an 45 minutes about my books and how I get my ideas and execute the books I've written. We had a great time talking and the interview came out yesterday.

A big thank you to Heather for the great article.

Read it for yourself here.