How to use this Page

Exactly 21 years ago doctors were telling me I was not in labor, go back to sleep and wait for induction in the morning.
The baby was two weeks overdue and I was anxious to hold her.
But they were wrong. I was in labor, and the baby came so fast she caught everyone by surprise, especially her daddy who was running down the hospital corridor toward our delivery room when he heard a baby cry... his newborn daughter.
Katie has been surprising us ever since.
When she was three, she was that kid who'd take all her clothes off and dance on the picnic table at camp.
She chewed out Santa Claus, telling him he was too fat.
She helped unpack Christmas ornaments, held up a cherub ornament and called it a "kid butterfly with no clothes on."
I captured all these moments in cartoon cards I sent to my ailing grandpa. He died when Katie was four, and the family gave me the big box of cartoons I'd been sending him since Katie was a tiny infant. There it was, all of it: Katie's hilarious early childhood in cartoons.
I thought this meant I had a future in comic strips, but after two particularly heart-rending rejections I gave up and tried kids' books instead. That worked out better.
Maybe someday those letters to Grandpa will be a book.
I'd also like to do a book just on Katie. Here's one idea that hasn't panned out yet:


There will be more; Katie's a very colorful character.
For fans of Ellie McDoodle, Risa is absolutely Katie (right down to one of the surprises in book three, coming out in August, where Risa sneaks an evil pet into the house).
Happy Birthday, Katie!

Life has changed a lot for me in the past month.
The biggest change: I'm not working day and night on the second Ellie book anymore (although I do have copy edits due in a few days). Now I'm working day and night on a picturebook about a drama queen. I've been writing and rewriting and drawing and redrawing this book since April when the idea first hit me.
My agent saw it a couple times, loved it, asked if I wanted to tweak the cover art, and I took it back and tightened the writing, redrew the whole thing, showed it to a famous author during a conference portfolio review...
She loved it too, made a few little suggestions, and I took it back to my cave, tightened the writing again, started to redraw the whole thing again, and am trying to finish before jetting off to NYC for the SCBWI Conference there in a couple weeks.
My agent wrote a few days ago, asking if I take on these punishing tight deadlines/long work hours on purpose, since they seem self-induced.
I suppose I do. For one thing, I'm deadline-oriented. Nothing like a deadline to scare the bejeebers out of me and make me achieve something I think I can't do.
For another, I most certainly have A.D.D. (Took a test and found out the only indicator I *don't* have is I am not male) Having so many distractions makes it tough to stick to a task unless it's critical.
Here's another thing that's hard for me: Staying loose under pressure. It only took about 5 redrawings of the first page of this third book, to get me back to the normal, loose line I so easily produce in my on-the-spot sketches. I think that's because it's a different genre than the Ellie books -- I'm more uptight about it.
Which reminds me - here are more sketches from my trip to Santa Fe:If all goes well in the next couple weeks, I'll finish the Marcella book *and* be in another airport, sketching planes.

It's a great day to be alive, I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes, There's some hard times in the neighborhood but why can't every day be just this good. --Travis Tritt song

For me, a great day is when I've gotten a lot of art and writing done, and the kids are nearby and safe and I know exactly what work I need to do the next day. Throw in some music I love or my favorite tv show ("The Office") and it's hard to imagine being happier.

Today was just such a day. My new character, Marcella, still needs some work before she's submitted to a publisher, but she's almost there and I know exactly what to do next. Ellie McDoodle's sequel, The New Kid in School, is progressing well. The kids are nearby including one visiting from college. I just rediscovered all my digital music files so now there's music on the jukebox. Life is good.

Most of us were together at my house last night for Family Night. Tornado warnings kept everyone here a bit longer than they wanted (on a school night) but it felt good to know they were all safe while the thunder crashed around us and the tv weathermen kept announcing new threats.

We woke up this morning to news and photos of the destruction just 10 miles up the road. The last time a big storm ripped through here, it took out our screen door. But just a few houses away, power lines and huge trees were down, everywhere, and one neighbor lost his garage.

We've been pretty lucky. It's a great day to be alive.

Sebastian Smith is a student at Platte County High School in Missouri and a member of the National Forensic League.

Listen to this special edition of Book Bites for Kids, as he gives a humorous interpretative reading of Green Eggs and Ham - by Dr. Seuss.

Unfortunately, the sound quality of this recording isn’t as good as it should be. Still, you’ll be amazed at how Smith is able to make the characters in this Dr. Seuss classic come alive.