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My, it's been a long time since I posted to my blog, you may have thought in fact I'd given up on the blog entirely. Well no, not given up at all - but I made a decision to put things on ice for a while. There are a few reasons for this, one of the biggest being a very heavy workload this year, so I've cut back on a lot of social media until things get a little easier. 

So what have I been up to then? Here's a brief update on activities. 

First and foremost, a cover reveal! 

My next picture book collaboration with Jane Sutcliffe is currently awaiting release in the US in March 2016. Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed the Way You Talk, is published to coincide with the anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1616, and takes the reader through the streets of Jacobean London to the Globe theatre. Dropped into the narrative are numerous words and phrases from his plays that are widely used in everyday speech today. I'm greatly excited about this book, research and production of the artwork consumed much of my workload during the first half of this year. This will be my second collaboration with Jane, (our previous book together Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be was released in 2013).


Currently I'm working on a picture book for Japanese publisher Fukuinkan Shoten, Yozora o Miageyo, with words by Yuriko Matsumura, which follows a child's discovery of the stars of the night sky, culminating in a country trip to see the Perseids meteor shower. This too is due for release in 2016 in Japan. Here's a sneak snapshot of some work-in-progress.



Other book projects thereafter are currently under wrap - all will be revealed in due time! 

Finally, I was recently honoured to be interviewed by writer Kathy Temean for her excellent blog Writing and Illustrating. This is a very full interview with plenty of images, so if you haven't seen it already do please have a look!

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I will get right to it. The update today is to announce the new design of my website.


The goal was to deliver something light and fresh. All of the key points are there and link across a variety of social media. It is an active site which will constantly be updated from the blog, Facebook and Twitter.

One of the most exciting things is the new MillerWords store.


Follow the Order link to connect with the official Square store. Currently, all of my paperback books are available with free shipping and a personalized autograph. We are in the process of adding hand-made jewelry and all of my eBooks. (the link to the store is also at the top right of this blog)

I invite you to visit the links and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. As always, your feedback is most welcome in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Last week, we announced a few updates to the WordPress.com interface, including faster stats and enhanced site management on both desktop and mobile devices.

Our push to make all WordPress.com sites faster and easier to access and manage continues. This week, we’re thrilled to unveil a few brand-new features that allow bloggers, publishers, and business owners to run their sites and manage their content from one central hub, no matter what device they’re using.

From new blog post and page management tools to Jetpack site integrations, we hope you enjoy the latest additions as much as we do!

Centralized post management

You can now access all your posts from one convenient location, whether you write one personal blog or publish on multiple sites. Quickly sort through published, scheduled, drafted, or even trashed posts for one or all of your sites at once!

A visual preview of each blog post lets you scan your content to edit, view, publish, or trash from a single list. Another new functionality we’re excited to introduce today: while “Blog Posts” is selected, you can hop to another blog’s post list using the site selector in the sidebar.

Easy access to pages

For many site administrators, managing pages is just as — if not more — important than post management, so we’ve extended to pages the same functionality that lets you review all your posts from one place.

You can look up any of your pages, and then publish, un-publish, or trash them, all directly from your WordPress.com dashboard. Editing pages is also just one click away, regardless of the number of sites you run.

One WordPress dashboard for all your sites

We also have great news for those of you who have both self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites. The new WordPress dashboard gives you access to all your Jetpack-connected sites as well as to sites hosted here on WordPress.com, and allows you to manage your posts, pages, and plugins from the same central hub.

Tell us what you think!

For some, individual-site management in the classic WP Admin dashboard will continue to be the go-to. That said, today’s updates include some entirely new features that are only accessible in the new dashboard. To tap into multi-site posts and pages lists and manage all your WordPress sites under one hood, we encourage you to try out the new interface.

We want to thank all of you who’ve shared constructive feedback with us — it helps us immensely in our effort to make the experience even smoother. Whichever dashboard you fancy, we hope you’ll take the updates for a spin and continue to share your thoughts with us!

Filed under: Dashboard, Features, Jetpack, New Features, WordPress.com

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Last week, we announced a few updates to the WordPress.com interface, including faster stats and enhanced site management on both desktop and mobile devices.

Our push to make all WordPress.com sites faster and easier to access and manage continues. This week, we’re thrilled to unveil a few brand-new features that allow bloggers, publishers, and business owners to run their sites and manage their content from one central hub, no matter what device they’re using.

From new blog post and page management tools to Jetpack site integrations, we hope you enjoy the latest additions as much as we do!

Centralized post management

You can now access all your posts from one convenient location, whether you write one personal blog or publish on multiple sites. Quickly sort through published, scheduled, drafted, or even trashed posts for one or all of your sites at once!

A visual preview of each blog post lets you scan your content to edit, view, publish, or trash from a single list. Another new functionality we’re excited to introduce today: while “Blog Posts” is selected, you can hop to another blog’s post list using the site selector in the sidebar.

Easy access to pages

For many site administrators, managing pages is just as — if not more — important than post management, so we’ve extended to pages the same functionality that lets you review all your posts from one place.

You can look up any of your pages, and then publish, un-publish, or trash them, all directly from your WordPress.com dashboard. Editing pages is also just one click away, regardless of the number of sites you run.

One WordPress dashboard for all your sites

We also have great news for those of you who have both self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites. The new WordPress dashboard gives you access to all your Jetpack-connected sites as well as to sites hosted here on WordPress.com, and allows you to manage your posts, pages, and plugins from the same central hub.

Tell us what you think!

For some, individual-site management in the classic WP Admin dashboard will continue to be the go-to. That said, today’s updates include some entirely new features that are only accessible in the new dashboard. To tap into multi-site posts and pages lists and manage all your WordPress sites under one hood, we encourage you to try out the new interface.

We want to thank all of you who’ve shared constructive feedback with us — it helps us immensely in our effort to make the experience even smoother. Whichever dashboard you fancy, we hope you’ll take the updates for a spin and continue to share your thoughts with us!

Filed under: Dashboard, Features, Jetpack, New Features, WordPress.com

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In case you missed it, a quick recap of the past week on WordPress.com.

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In case you missed it, a quick recap of the past week on WordPress.com.

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I am tidying up here because it is just starting to feel like Autumn and I was looking at a friend’s website and realizing that not only was their About page out of date, it had them living in the wrong country. Now, for a lot of people a personal website is basically just that, personal. For me since I sometimes solicit or receive work through librarian.net I figured I’d maybe do a little tidying, look professional, that sort of thing. So I updated my about page, am reading through the FAQ, made sure WordPress was up to date and updated my plugins. I also disabled the theme switcher which was a fun thing when I wanted to have four different looking versions of this site, but I’m not feeling that way any more. Apologies to people who enjoyed the other themes. Next on the to do list is getting my Talks page a little more streamlined. I don’t think it has to be an eight year list of talks I’ve given and it’s not really sending the message I want.

So, just a little inward-facing user experience stuff and a reminder that to many people our web presence is an awful lot of what they know about us. May want to make sure it’s looking okay. Otherwise I’m trying to relax in the spirit of the Virgo Month of Leisure and get ready for my teaching and drop-in time to start which is happening next week. The cooler winds are starting to blow in and I am ready to start hunkering down.

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     I've tried so many different ways to keep up with this blog...doing different tags for the week (WOW, BRW, etc.) but my life has become so crazy and convoluted that I've decided the only way I can successfully do this is by talking about my process only.
     I'll still throw in a WOW or a new book review every now and then, but for the most part I'm saving this space for my writing life and what affects it. It may get messy sometimes, but if you stick with me, I promise I'll be nothing if not honest and hopefully entertaining. To those of you who have been following me in the past, thank you!
     I hope my new format will keep up...wish me luck!

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We’ve received a lot of email over the last few months about our long neglected website and podcast. Among other things, the audio files would no longer play. It turns out that was one of many other bigger problems with the site. It’s taken some time and there’s still more work to be done, however, I’m happy to report the site, audio files and feed are back in working order.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll continue to repair the site, add comments that were trapped in moderation limbo and fix an array of bizarre characters that appear in the posts and comments.

I’d be grateful if you could alert us to any problems you find with the site — things such as broken links, missing photos, bizarre characters, etc… Please leave a comment on this post (since you’re already here) and I’ll add it to the list and keep you posted.

Thanks, again, for your continued enthusiasm for our site and amazing children’s books. Some new video content is on its way.

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Left is the original cover for Blue.  Right is the new Blue cover.

 Last December 4th, I wrote about a book called Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter.  As you can see above, Blue has been given a new cover AND now it has a new book trailer. 

And I thought I would rerun the original post, for anyone who may not have seen it.

'If you ask folks around here what they remember about the year 1944,

A child might say, "That was the year my daddy went off to fight Hitler."

A mother might look off towards Bakers Mountain and whisper that

polio snatched up one of her young'uns.

And the Hickory Daily Record will say that my hometown gave

birth to a miracle.' (pg9)

It is January 1944. Everyone in Hickory, NC is focused on the war, including Ann Fay Honeycutt’s family, especially now that her father is off to war to fight Hitler. But even though he is the one going away, 13 year old Ann Fay feels like this moment is the beginning of a journey for her too. Her journey begins when her father gives Ann Fay a pair of overalls and tells her that while he is gone, she needs to be the man of the house. This means planting the victory garden with the help of Junior Bledsoe, a neighbor’s son. It also means looking after her 6 year old twin sisters, Ida and Ellie and her brother Bobby, 4. He tells Bobby to help out, but to make sure he plays everyday.

Things go well until the middle of June 1944. Suddenly, everybody’s focus in Hickory, NC is no longer on the war, but has shifted to their own small county – 12 cases of polio have been diagnosed in Catawba County and the number is steadily climbing. Because Hickory was hardest hit by this polio epidemic, a

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Summers been so good to me. Been really busy. Caught up with old friends. Working on new illustrations (although not enough). Seen a lot of the sea side this summer. So grateful for that. Wish I brought my sketch book in all occasions but it’s nice to just get away from the pencil, tablet, and paper every once in awhile. Will update soon! With visuals. Until then hope everyone is having a great summer. Looking forward to fall!

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I have added my “Japan” piece to my Redbubble shop. You can purchase cards, prints, framed artwork etc. A portion of my proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders. Thank you!

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Just wanted to say hello to my fans and let you know that even though I haven’t posted on the blog much, I am still here and still working hard. I recently completed 4 illustrations for Berry Blue Haiku. They will be online after Dec. 15.  I will post the link when it is available.

I have also been busy with finishing up the Sketchbook Project and PiBoIdMo. I am very happy to say that I will have finished PiBo this year with over 30 ideas!  A few have potential, especially one that I would like to explore making into a comic or graphic novel. As some of you know, I am doing all of this while finishing up my degree at Oregon State University! This week is our final week – busy busy busy!

On the entertainment front, I was happy to read and see a clip of the upcoming George R. Martin HBO series Game Of Thrones. It is one of my all time favorite fantasy novels, so I am very excited to see it come to life. Especially with HBO doing it.  They have not disappointed me yet!  Huge fan here of Boardwalk Empire, Rome, Band Of Brothers, Pacific, and of course, True Blood!

I am proud to announce that my 14 year old daughter won NaNoWriMo this year! A 50,000 word novel is quite an accomplishment. I am so proud of her! She really set her mind to accomplishing the task. It was hard, and sometimes frustrating for everyone but in the end it was so exciting for the whole family! My husband and I are so thankful to be able to share that moment with her.

The illustration at the top of this post is an oldie but a goodie.  I just love my characters doing crazy stuff like…pigs in leotards !  FUN!

Happy Holidays to all of you! I will post soon with more Sketchbook Project pages and the link to my illos on Berry Blue Haiku.

Loni

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Jeez! I turn around for what seems like a moment, and suddenly nearly two months have gone by with no posts! However I have good reasons . . .

Well, semi-good reasons . . .

To start with, I haven't been able to get much writing done lately. Work, my family, and other obligations have been taking away what little writing time I have. Then there's the fact that I got yet another rejection of a short story I had submitted about a month ago. What made this one so hard was not only the particular story that got rejected, but that I had received some confirmation of the manuscript's receipt and I mistook it as a possible acceptance. I obviously WON'T be making that mistake again. Then I had my picture book critiqued, and I was disappointed in that . . .

Basically, I was not feeling very optimistic about my writing life.

This is where baseball comes in . . .

Baseball is one of my passions. I became a baseball fan when I was about 12 and my Dad took me to Dodgers Stadium for the first time. Then I saw an exhibition game there during the 1984 Olympics. When I started dating my husband when I was 16, I became a SF Giants fan. And have been ever since.

Now if you've spent any time following baseball lately, you'd know the Giants won the World Series this year (on my birthday - November 1st - to boot!), so this past month I have been glued to the TV or the radio listening to all the playoff games (not that I wouldn't have even if the Giants hadn't been there, but obviously I was a little more interested than in past years). So there you go.

Now, time for WOW . . .

I know I'm shifting days, but I wanted to use this last week and couldn't get myself together enough to get it done. So the WOW for the week is . . .

SOURCE : The point or place of which something originates.

Now when I looked up the definition, there were some six different ones, but this one applies best to this post.

All my stories have a source. They come from people and experiences I've had either as a kid, or as a grown-up. But recently I sent the first 250 words of one of my novels to a YA pitch contest and the source of the book came from a familiar place . . . baseball.

When I started seriously writing, I wrote down a half-page story of what it was like to be at the NLCS in 1989 when the Giants beat the Cubs for the pennant and chance to go to the World Series. I wrote down the sights, sounds, and my feelings about what it was like to be in Candlestick Park on October 9th, 1989. Even though we lost the series, that was one of the most memorable games I've ever experienced.

Then in 2002 the Giants went to the World Series. I saw game 5, but we lost the series . . . again.

But during that time, the little bud of an idea started. A year later I told my niece the story of a girl, Cat, who had a passion for baseball but because of a series of conincedences and situations, was dangling between playing baseball and softball. The first thing she told be when I finished the story was , "When is it getting published?" My response was, "I have to write it first Katie."

And so I did.

It took me nearly a year and a half to write the first draft. Then I talked to a writing coach about my concerns about the character development of Cat, and she gave me 3 pieces of advice. The biggest one was for my to write it in Cat's voice.

And so I did.

When I finally finished the "second" first draft, I thought about that short story I ahd written all those years ago and realized, I had written about Cat before . . . in my recollections of that baseball game.

I am grateful for (and to) all the sources of my stories. But I hope this year Cat finally catches someone's eye and will some day get into the hands of some girl or boy who has the same passion as I do.

Until next time . . . have a good week.

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