Working

My work this fall is centered on the death of my mother at the end of August. In this picture of her from last year with my daughter Sophie, her oldest grandchild, you can see how full of life she was. She was the one who read poetry to me and taught me to love language. She was the one who was so proud to have an author in the family. She was the one who had been to the library the day she fell to check out books including How to be Good by Nick Hornby. So many people had kind words to say about her life and reach and all of them provided comfort. I'm sustained by her love and grace and reminded of the importance of living my own life fully.

Thank you to all my fellow spuds for your cards, your care, and your support during this challenging time.

Is It Fall Already?

The busy-ness of this past summer has blended right into Fall for me. The only break was seeing my daughter off to college again and waving good-bye to my son as he boarded the bus to his sophomore year in high school. It is all good busy and it will be helpful to make a list here on our Potato blog:
I am in the final stages of my next book, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DAY TODAY, written by the author, Mem Fox. Above is the first spread at the start of the story. It has been a very challenging book to illustrate, which is precisely why I said yes to the manuscript in the first place. Mem wrote a brilliant bedtime story that rings true about a child asking his stuffed animals about their day. It is challenging because it is left to the illustrator to tell the story of the day in pictures and somehow have them all relate. After many months of visual storytelling, I think I am finally there. Left to do are a few edits and the cover. What a journey it has been.
Good-bye Grimm, Hello Wild West! Every summer Circus Juventas presents its most advanced performers in a show with a different theme each year. Last summer's show was based on six fairytales by the Grimm Brothers. This year's theme is going to be the rompin' stompin', cowboy lassoin' Wild West. As the script writer for Circus Juventas's Summer show, I have already been in many meetings with the Artistic Director and her assistant, as well as the Director of next year's show and the clowning coach in order to create a coherent storyline that will run throughout the circus acts. The roles are cast, the outline is almost there, the plot thickens, and I was up at 3:30 AM last night rolling about while ideas for the perfect ending floated in the dark. I love writing the script for these talented young performers. Next, we will be meeting for the set design! I work with another designer to plan and create the set that will illustrate the story. Set design and scenic painting become book illustration larger than life for me!
I have just returned from a visit to Southern California where I was the featured Author at the A.K. Smiley Library in Redlands. The entire day was a celebration of reading! Activities inspired by my books were offered for all the families who attended and I spoke about my process, folded origami with everyone, and signed books! To read more about my experience of the Smiley Library go here. I have already presented quite a bit this fall and right now I am trying to take advantage of a few weeks of quiet for writing and beginning my next picture book: DEER DANCER, written by the author Mary Lyn Ray. I have illustrated two of her books before, MUD and RED RUBBER BOOT DAY. I am looking forward to beginning new sketches. I always love beginnings and endings~ it's the middle where things get sticky!

Potato Update

Hmmm. How do I follow all of Edie's activities? You sure are an active bunch of potatoes!!! I do have a visit to a one room school house in Forest Falls coming up, as well as a speaking engagement for a teaching club on the Cal State campus. While my life is pretty quiet, my books are having a busy life of their own - two are being illustrated presently, and two more are being shopped around to editors. I'm working on another one that seems to have some potential, so the quiet life has not been too bad for me - but, I am eager to get out there with people again. Oh, I'm attending the Southern CA Council of Children's Literature luncheon in November, and I'll be teaching writing classes at UC Riverside in January. So, there you have it.

Fall already slipping away...

It seems only days ago that fall was just on the horizon, and now suddenly we're into October!

In early September, I made a weeklong trip to North Carolina for three school visits and a talk in an Appalachian State University children's lit class. Last Monday night, I participated in a panel discussion on The Art of Children's Literature following the screening of the award-winning documentary film, "Library of the Early Mind" as part of Hood College's annual Colloquium. And what an amazing film it was! This past week I've also been a "visiting" author for an online ALSC course entitled "Connecting With Tween Readers." The students are twenty-one librarians from across the country.

Unfortunately two school visits have been cancelled, due to lack of funding--a sad result of today's economy. I have another coming up in a few weeks and am keeping my fingers crossed it isn't cancelled.

In my other life as a regional advisor for the MD/DE/WV region of SCBWI, I've been busy planning a tri-regional conference to be held in Gettysburg, along with the two Pennsylvania regions over the weekend of Nov. 11-13. We have an amazing line-up of speakers, including Patricia MacLachlan, Jim Murphy, and E.B. Lewis, as well as a number of editors, agents, and an art director. If you're interested in details, here's a link to the conference.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention our family celebration of my father's 90th birthday on September 24th. Seventeen of us gathered at a large house on the salt marshes of Chincoteague Island, Virginia.

I do try to squeeze in writing time around my busy schedule, as well as some relaxing evenings around the campfire.

Pumpkins and Tigers and Ghosts, Oh My!

Like the other Potatoes, I am having a busy fall.

The visiting author season has started and I've already been to several schools, with plenty more scheduled throughout month.

This past week I've been working on some final tweaks to a new picture book that is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2012 from Chronicle, IT'S A TIGER! Jeremy Tankard who creates wonderful images with the computer will be the illustrator.

I've got several more book signings this month to celebrate my latest picture book, THE HAUNTED HAMBURGER AND OTHER GHOSTLY STORIES.

The Children's Theatre in Minneapolis will be presenting The Wizard of Oz and I'll be leading a book discussion after one of the performances.

Of course October means pumpkin carving. I carved my first pumpkin of the year last month at the Northwoods Children's Book Conference in Hayward, WI. More pumpkin carving events are slated for the end of the month.

And I am frustrated that I can't find the time to work on a new picture book that I am both writing and illustrating, ART ATTACK. Deadlines are approaching and I'm starting to panic. I haven't scheduled any school visits for November or December, and having some long stretches of time to work on this book sounds very welcome.

And though I feel overwhelmed, I am also grateful to have so many interesting projects to keep me busy. But the beautiful autumn weather we've been having makes it difficult to stay inside and work on them!

I'm just an URL who can't say no . . .

This fall I'm finishing up illustrations and design for two books soon to be published: Our School Garden! (Readers to Eaters, spring 2012); and The Forgiveness Garden (Fiewel & Friends, fall 2012). I've been in wait-wait mode for almost a year to get going on my next author/illustrator project with Lee & Low, Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building. I'm eager to have this book published, so I hope to hear from my editor soon. I have a few design and art direction projects and a few upcoming author visits, but I need to drum up lots more of everything.

I have no shortage of ideas for stories, illustrations, craft books, classes, presentations, consulting, commissions, curriculum development, and more. However, when I go to pitch my ideas I need a stronger web presence to back me up and showcase my work. Life=URL.

I designed my site years ago, so it is outdated and due for an overhaul. The last couple of weeks I've been refreshing my knowledge of Adobe Dreamweaver, preparing photos and content, creating new template designs, reading forums on specific html coding, and obsessing for way too long about Spry collapsible menus (comparative samples of collapsed and expanded menus shown below). I live in the heart of Silicon Valley where designers must be able to tackle more than print design. I will not be put out to pasture quite yet. I hope to share my revamped site in the next month or so. It's turning out to be an enormous amount of work.

Meanwhile I'm reading about flash fiction, creative non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, while simultaneously trying to write something longer. Go figure.

A Full Fall

I was hoping that once school started for my college sophomore and high school senior things would quiet down for me. Alas, a peaceful autumn was not to be. The past few weeks have been a scramble as:

1. My new novel The Raft went to copy edits, so I had to review those quickly and make any last changes I wanted before the ARC's went to print. I'm so excited that it is just about "done", always a moment to celebrate. The book is due in June, and I got a peek at the cover. I'll show as soon as I'm allowed, and it is FABULOUS.

2. I'm finishing up the draft of what will be my fourth novel with Feiwel and Friends. My working title is The Margin, but that will change. I am hoping to hammer out the end in the next week or so, get it off to my trusty reader, and then get it to my editor before fall is over.

3. I'm working on a synopsis. It is hard and I don't like it. Enough said.

4. I leave tomorrow for school visits in Connecticut, where my novel The Compound is on the 2011-12 Nutmeg Award List. I'll be in middle schools in Orange and Bloomfield. Two weeks after that I head to Colorado Springs to speak at a middle school where my novel The Gardener is up for Book of the Year at their school. I love that there are schools that have a competition for Book of the Year.

5. On a personal note, my college daughter will be meeting me in CO for her fall break. Her boyfriend is stationed in the Army there, and is being deployed to Afghanistan a couple days after we get there. This is not a political blog, but may I say, I wish we were not sending our young men to such a war.

6. The thing on my mind the most this fall? Volleyball! My high school senior is libero on the varsity and they are having an amazing season. This photo was from one of the three tournaments they've won. ( My kid is the white jersey) This weekend, I watched them come back from a 20-8 deficit and win. I had to watch through my hands as my kid started serving when the score was 24-20, which means every serve was game point. But she did it. ( She did not get her composure from me, that's for sure. There must have been ice in her veins.) They're ranked #3 in state, so I will have a full blown case of bleacher bottom by the time the season is over...

Here's to a productive fall for us all.