On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me:
Ten pipers piping
Nine drummers drumming
eight maids A – milking
seven swans A-swimming
Six geese A-Laying
Five Golden Rings
Four Calling Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
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The Twelve Days of Christmas ~ Birds
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me… Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a pear tree.
A Day With My Mother
Today I am out of school, so my mother is home from work.
I eat breakfast with my mother, get dressed and brush my teeth with my mother, wear my yellow rain boots, not at all like my mother. She scrunches her nose as we get in the car and drive to pick up my Nana. Nana is her mother.
#family #girlpower #diversity
Inktober 2016 ~ Raven
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
2014 Houston SCBWI Conference
Saturday, April 27 I attended the Houston SCBWI annual conference.
I started out early
. Houston is a pretty big city and it takes a while to get across town.
Our keynote speaker was Gary D. Schmidt, the author of the Newberry Award winning book, The Wednesday Wars, and many other wonderful books. His talk was brilliant and his depth of feeling was so inspiring. “Our stories are complicated ones…they are never one dimensional.” His bio reads, ” He lives with his family on a 150-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, and feeds the wild cats that drop by.” I know… pretty cool all around guy, right!
Next….”Qualities of a writer: humility, good humor, grace, patience and gratitude” says Stephen Fraser, literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. That’s good advice you can apply to all aspects of life!
He’s been voted the top agent for both picture books and Middle grade fiction. …and he rocked an awesome bow tie!
Other speakers included Kendra Levin, Senior Editor at Viking Books, “Don’t save anything for the next book, you may get hit by a bus tomorrow” Lol!
Julie Ham, spoke about The Elements of Award Winning Non-fiction.
Jim Hoover, Associate Art Director at Viking books, walked us through the process of making picture books and how the direction of a book can change. Then he lead a very informative illustrator break out session about what makes a good promotional postcard. The following morning he presented a story boarding workshop.
What a fun guy, great personality, and he dances too!
These are some of the postcards I picked up at the conference.
But the best part about the conference…and something I didn’t see coming at all … I was the 2014 Grand Prize winner of the illustrator showcase!! So thank you Jim Hoover, I’m so grateful! And thank you to the SCBWI conference staff, it was one of the best!
Animal Parade
Process: Sketch, ink, digital paint
The Swamp Where Gator Hides
Under the algae that carpets the swamp, near the duck who paddles in ooze, close to the turtle who takes a snooze . . . hides a gator! Still as a log, only his watchful eyes can be seen. But when gator moves, he really moves! What happens to the duck, the turtle, the egret, the deer, and the many other critters of the swamp when gator makes his move!
A great time was had with the kids at The Lighthouse! We learned about the plants and the animals that inhabit the Everglades and studied the layers of swamp water that enables gators and other animals the ability to hide. What a great time we had!
“Here’s a fun tale that introduces young readers to concepts of camouflage and predator-prey interactions. And kids will love searching for the hidden alligator in the beautiful illustrations.”
–Annie Oxarart, Board Member, League of Environmental Educators in Florida Available HERE