Working on now…

I’m currently working to illustrate a book for an author from North Dakota. This is her second book, and both were written for her grandchildren. I’ll share the link when it’s finished…probably in about 6 weeks.
It’s so much work to illustrate a book!

I love doing it, but some nights it’s just hard to come home and be creative after working a full day as a creative designer…but it’s something I really love to do. Hopefully one day I can illustrate full time. For now I just do it for the love…because it certainly doesn’t pay the bills.

Advertisement

Inspired by my youngest daughter…

Presley made this with her self-proclaimed "best friend" (and nanny) Jessica. I get inspired by their fridge art.

As you probably know, our youngest daughter has Down syndrome. My new book, “Aaaaaaagh! Spider!” (which should be out in a couple of weeks), was totally inspired by Presley’s obsession with spiders. She will check out books about tarantulas from the library, but refuse to open the books. It’s a funny joke, I think. She will also seek out spider videos on YouTube, then hit play and run to the far corner of the room to watch as the video plays. Absurd.
I included the url for http://www.r-word.orgr-word.org on the dedication page of my new book. I think it’s a great movement. I would love to see language and attitudes take a positive shift in our lifetime. She is the reason for that nod and this whole book.

Bug illustration from Aaaaaaaagh! Spider!

Meet August Bug…

Preview of a page spread from my new book I’m currently working on!

The new book…

I am hard at work and in a heavy production cycle for my newest book called “AAAAAAAGH! SPIDER!”. I will hopefully be completed by early February 2015, and the book should be available about that time.

A first-draft of the cover

I am thinking that maybe I should do a kickstarter.com campaign. The hard work is done, now the rest is just having a budget to get out and promote it; making a media kit and sending it out. It might seem like no big deal, but everything from printing to postage costs money…money that is hard to scrape together yourself sometimes on an artist’s salary!
Maybe I’ll do the social media thing for awhile, hope it takes off, and test the waters.

I am really proud of this book. I think it’s funny and clever, and hopefully other kids and parents will like it. It features a spider, which is my youngest daughter’s (Presley, 8) obsession.

A children’s book…

I illustrated my first book for children, by loving grandmother and author Merrie Rolland. It’s available here on amazon:
Carter & The Deep Blue Sea

Check it out! Merrie is a  very sweet lady and happens to be the mother of a dear friend of mine!

WDAZ interview

I finally got a copy of my interview from earlier this month uploaded to youtube. My very first time on television–I ended up not being as nervous as I thought I would be! I’ll be ready for Leno before you know it…

The proof is in the puddin’!

Very excited to have received my first proof copy of What I Want You To Know. The illustrations inside look great. I’m happy with the paper and everything in general. I wish the cover had a better spine to it; apparently my spine is too thin to have the title on it. So booo, but what did I expect?
Still hunting down the folks who said they’d review the book and give me a line to use on the back cover. Or media kit. One thing I’m learning, I need to be more aggressive I guess.

This evening I ran out of work at 5:00 on the nose. I had to stop at the grocery store for absolute essentials for Presley’s lunch, and something to eat for dinner. On the drive, the NPR discussion was about traditional publishing houses vs. the new surge of independent writers now publishing their own works. The gentleman representing the “major labels” of the publishing world has his work cut out for him. I see them going the way of the old-time record label execs. Maybe following cues from the music industry, they can start suing everyone for copyright violations and charging for authors autographs.