I am thrilled to have been asked to mentor on the celebrated Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program this year. I was part of the program as a mentee back in 2010/2011. It's pretty special to be asked back and to work with 2-3 mentees myself. The program was probably the one thing I did that really set my career on it's way. The friends and contacts I made are still strong and very much part of my life. Ellen Hopkins and Suzanne Morgan Williams did a marvellous job starting this program and it's as great as ever! Check out the line up of mentors for yourself. Maybe I will see you there? Applications are open ... spaces are limited. What are you waiting for?
http://nevada.scbwi.org/nevada-scbwi-mentor-program/
It's been a while. A lot has happened. And I felt that the blog needed a Spring clean, so I created a new header. What do you think?
So, first, goodbye to an old friend ...
Dessie passed away a couple of weeks ago after many months of suffering with congestive heart failure. She beat us to the final vet visit by passing peacefully the night before, and for this we were happy. No one likes to have to do the deed. Oddly enough it was the same night Liz Taylor trundled off this earthly plane, with the same condition. Who knows? Perhaps they're out there somewhere snuggled up on pillows.
We called Dessie the 'Pillow Princess', because she'd roll all the pillows on the sofa together and crawl into them ... or get up on the bed, as you see here, nesting contentedly. Although it is nice to have all our pillows where I put them, I can't help seeing a tidy sofa and filling up with tears. She had a good, long life - 20 years old. She was rescued from a trip to the pound by hubby, long before I arrived from England. Her favorite trick (apart from the pillow antics) was to dig out of the garden (typical beagle) and trot down to the store in the village and beg at the deli. The phone would ring eventually and I'd go and collect her. For the last year or so she was my constant shadow, curled up on the futon behind me with her pillows. I still expect to see her when I turn around.
The other dogs (3) are grieving still. Takes them a while to adjust. Sleep the cat however is disturbed, because Dessie was his favorite dog to ambush. He's started accosting Sprout, but as she's blind and doesn't see him until he is upon her the thrill is not the same and the attacks are half-hearted.
Onward.
NEW friends! Pretty much a couple of days after Dessie passed I left on a trip to attend the final weekend washup of the
mentor programme I've been part of for the last six months. (My mentor was Priscilla Burris.) It was good to get away. The last three weeks nursing Dessie had really drained me, with the constant worry of whether it was 'time'. The warm days in Virginia City, NV, with a whole bunch of writers and illustrators were just what I needed. Here's the view from my window ...
I will be sharing 'Doing's in Virgina City' in another post (sounds a bit Alan Bennett-ish). So you have that to look forward to ... with more photographs.
Meanwhile, back at the artist's desk. The layouts are all finished for the 'Hidden New Jersey' book for Charlesbridge (wipes sweat from brow) - '
How to Talk to an Autistic Kid' is on sale - and I have begun the project with the very enthusiatic 4th grade at the local Corinna Elementary School - 5 weeks till we have to have a
BOOK produced ... yikes!!
On the horizon -
New England SCBWI conference in May, Fitchburg, MA. For this conference I will be entering the Poster Showcase - recreate a loved cover from a picture book or novel ... hmmm.
I also submitting for the Boston Library Association's Art
Virginia City and the NV mentor (NOT MENTAL!!) programme is a distant memory already. OK, not really, missing all my new found writery friends very much. I won't go on (again!) about what a fab time I had, in case I make you jealous and I would. It just got better though. 2 x's winner in the raffle and I won a review with senior editor Cheryl Klein at Arthur A Levine Publishers in NY. Don't know who they publish?? Google them! Have to tell you it is a wonderful opportunity to make it to the top of their slush pile.
This is a great goal I can now set myself to get my YA in shape. I wrote furiously on the plane and am beginning to see it come together in my mind. Whether I will get it together on the page is another thing ....
Here is a quick sketch of Reno I did in the airport (really!) I had hope to draw more when I was in Virgina City, but, alas not enough time. And the altitude did get to me, like they said. And they were right, this Nevadians.
Since I got back I have been working hard on the first go round of revisions for Free Spirit Publishing, done some late nights, finished yesterday. So a breather before they come back to me ...
Waiting for the contract with Charlesbridge ... yippee!! More on that soon I hope.
I am in earnest now in search of an agent (just in case any happen to be idly reading this blog in their free time .. right ....). So although the math concept PB's are now at dummy stage I am not sending them out to editors until I here back from agent query.
Meanwhile working on new ideas and thinking about APPS. Emma Dryden gave a very informative talk on the way forward with IPAD, she is working with Ruckus Media.
PIXEL SHAVINGS!! The new GLOG is launched (Group Blog for the uninitiated.) Myself, Russ Cox, Sheralyn Barnes, Carrie Clickard and Fred Koehler will be posting every few days our sketches and art. Come along and join at
http://pixelshavings.blogspot.com it's going to be a lot of fun. We are all author/illustrators.
The leaves are falling here in Maine and we have had some good North Easter's already. So it looks like winter is nearly with us. But I am good with that because I have a heap of ideas to keep me warm.
In my breathing space today, going to be working on a piece for the 2011 Tomi de Paola award for NY SCBWI conference. The theme is Heidi ... so I am researching Alpine views.
Lastly, thank you to Teri Sloat. She gave me permission to create. Sounds crazy I know. So I will be doing it Teri!
And my fellow mentees from Nevada I love ya and I miss ya and I can't wait till April!!
Hasta la Vista
Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit
PS. NOTHING NEW ON THE BEDSIDE TABLE!!!! Going to visit my long suffering library this morning.
Yes, yes I can never resist a good pun. This weekend ... NV SCBWI mentor programme and conference in Virgina City. I have been looking forward to getting here, and it is so much more than I hoped for. First ... the location. Never dreamed I would be out in the Wild West. And Virginia City has more than enough charm and authenticity left. It's a little rough a round the edges, but so much the better. It was worth the 3 plane hop to get here. It was even worth the anti-English abuse from a lady of the 'Southern' persuasion, who informed me on the plane in Los Angeles that 'You will find in THIS country we do things a little differently', (This because I was already in the aisle of the plane disembarking, and hadn't immediately thrown a cloak in front of me so she could join the queue. Not at all sure why she chose to berate me in particular when about 1,000 Americans had already walked past her. Perhaps a grudge from the revolutionary war?)
This is a special weekend, and one I will remember for a long time during the cold winter months to come in Maine. On Friday the group of 30 mentees gathered in an historic old hospital, (now an arts center) and met with our mentors. Great energy ... laughter, sharing, it is totally like coming home. The faculty is wonderful - Harold Underdown, Priscilla Burris, Emma Dryden, Terri Sloat, Emma Hopkins, amongst others.
Such fun to just sit at the big old kitchen table and chat with aspiring and published authors and those with such a knowledge of children's books. For me this feels like a home coming. I have been to several conferences this year, and all have been inspiring. But this is truely like being with family and I know that there will be friendships forged here that will last for a lifetime.
The city wraps you up in it's old charm, and good humor prevails. In between meetings and lectures we have wandered up and down the wooden-sidewalked streets, giggled at the shop window displays, popped into bars that have seen gunfughts and bawdy dancing (but none of that this weekend right!) ambled around the tombstones in the cemetry on the top of a hill, gazed over the ranges of sienna frosted mountains into the aquamarine distance. We have considered our dreams and desires for the future. In the morning the sun shoots up surprised and blazing and pierces the soul. It feels good to be alive and part of something that takes no account of money or position.
Today the conference begins proper with workshops and so forth. Portfolio showcase this afternoon, and tonight an evening of reading and music. After the last few weeks with nose to the grindstone it's nice to relax, be away from the computer and have a real good laugh!
Yesterday I had my first mentor session with Priscilla Burris. Really helpful. She is very intuitive and I feel she really understands were I am at right now. It is so amazing to have someone to talk to about all the niggly questions and fears. My main question at the moment was whether it is timely for me to seek an agent. With everything that I have going on right now, and after discussion, that's going to be my main coal when I get back to real life. Exciting!!
Also an informative and validating portfolio review with Terri Sloat. I put the pieces I most like in my portfolio and I think it showed. So I felt really validated with her critique and ready to stop worrying about my style amd have more confidence. I am going in the right direction. Just what I needed. Sometimes you just need to hear it from the mouths of others! Also great advice was to give myself a 'retreat' occasionally and create art just for me with no purpose other than exploration and to feed my soul. Thanks to both Priscilla and Terri.
So there we are, it's all about feeding the soul. Otherwise we all whither inside.
Did I tell you my good news? Email last week with the offer of a book to illustrate for a Boston publisher. Whee!! I am excited ab
Nice header
Love the header Hazel. It can be taken two ways. :) They could be headed home, or they maybe embarking on a journey, or just a simple birds eye view of a great place to be. Think it is a great piece of art as well, because they have there backs to us, the art forces us to become the characters eyes.
Have a sweet day today.
sytiva