by Stacy McAnulty When I tell people that I have a mechanical engineering degree and that I’m also a picture book author, they look at me like I’m trying to mate two different species. Like I’m par…
Great way to organize things! Love the spreadsheet idea.
Francophiles and cartographers would probably agree that it’s impossible to adequately convey the magic of Paris on a flat, lifeless map. But French designer Antoine Corbineau has come close in his newest print—a neon vision of the City of Light that resembles pop-art stained glass. With a tangle of streets in white against buildings in bold pinks, yellows, and reds, you can try to use this map for navigation, but you’d probably be better off hanging it on the wall.
Board book humor, amirite?!
this made me laugh
YEAH!!! I’ve got about four, maybe five, ideas that I can’t get out of my head. I can’t wait to write them into stories. What a great event. I’m going to miss the daily emails so much.
Thank you PiBoIdMo!
As the winter rolls into Prague and both Turkey day and PiBoMonth end on a great note, I’m still fighting a lingering cold. During my foggy days of DayQuil and various over the counter products purchased at the pharmacy here, I’ve spent my time listening to webinars, researching issues relating to my picture book MS, and reading blogs.
I’m ready to get back into revising my latest revision of THE picture book. This is the one I’ll be scattering at the intensive on the Friday before the start of the SCBWI conference in NYC.
I seem to always struggle with rolling up my sleeves and rummaging with words, but once I get going it will go on for days. I can tell that this next revision will be good, I can feel it in my bones (that might also be the cold forcing its way through the door near my desk) for a couple of reasons.
Uno: Before stepping away from my MS (due to cold and flu symptoms) it was critiqued by my critique group. They were able to provide me with some helpful thoughts- if they understood that my character was an elephant (whoops, my fault for not including that!) Duo: I recently signed up for the PRO membership at rateyourstory.org (RYS)! I’m feeling rather proud of this decision!
My to do list before February conference:
*Polish and finalize MS
*Submit to RYS
*Create a website ( I don’t know what I’ll really put on there, recommendations?)
*Create and print business cards (yikes)
*Revise based on critique
* Submit for review, possibly, again to Esther
*Find out if I’m missing anything that I’ll need for the conference (recommendations?)
*Ready a query and cover letter for the conference
*Work off all holiday cheer (i.e. do more exercise)
*Research editors and agents (so much to learn so little time)
YIKES! I doubt I’ll be sleeping tonight with worry of getting all of this done in time!
Lonely Traveller on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Illustrated by Lim Heng Swee
Check out my website:
www.ilovedoodle.com
Finally! I located the artist who is responsible for this wonderful work! It feels like Jerome (character from my MS, an elephant that travels around taking selfies) was out traveling without me even knowing it yet.
The Oxford Word of the Year is… selfie.
For more of this morning’s roundup, click here.
Fantastic blog post today!
Oh, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. When you look back at these stories today, they were clearly intended as lessons for kids. But because Mrs. Piggle Wiggle used funny magic (left to her by her dead pirate husband in a mysterious old chest) to cure children with horrible behavior, smelled like sugar cookies and lived in an upside-down house, we loved her. At least I did, and so did millions of other kids, judging by Betty MacDonald’s book sales. Were you one of them? 1. Like a lot of good
Jefferson and Adams love each other.
Madison doesn’t understand.
“I read, I travel, I become.”
“Work until your idols become your rivals.”
As the previous posts indicate I took a break from writing today. I took a recommendation to fiddle around with drawing out scenes from the MS. I have been mentally visualizing this story everyday since around June. When I say visualize, I mean like I see the character moving from page to page scene to scene. Often when I’m in a stump on where to take the story next, I’ll put on headphones and listen to some Mozart and watch a chubby elephant walk around Paris.
My MS is on its third total redo since August. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I eekked to the finish of this third makeover. It felt fantastic. Now, I’m going to let it simmer before I continue the editing process.
I’ve got a need for a killer line in one paragraph during the ah-ha moment. Allowing myself to break out the oil pastels was a wonderful way to work towards that line.
Can’t wait to make the new dummy book and practice my drawing a bit more :)
Now, I’ll be spending my night watching movies and drinking wine. Ohhh the life of an author.
