It's been a busy, busy few (like, five) months since I Iast posted, and March is no quieter. There's a lot afoot in my personal life, and I've been buzzing around preparing for the change that's due at the end of the month...you know, the pitter-patter of little feet and all.
Here are a few highlights from my cyber-absence:
This fall, I traveled to Pennsylvania to attend the Highlights Illustrator's Party, an annual bash for the magazine's contributing illustrators. It was a weekend-long affair, complete with a fire hall square dance and a costume party.
(The theme for the costume party was "The Enchanted Forest." You can probably make out the deer antlers on my husband, but you may not quite be able to see that I'm an elf: I've got the curled-toe shoes, and my hair is decorated with fall foliage.)
The weekend also included a wonderful presentation by critic and historian of children's literature Leonard Marcus. His latest book, Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature is on my to-read list.
In January, I attended an SCBWI picture book retreat in lovely Santa Barbara, California. It was hosted at the Mission Renewal Center on the grounds of the Old Santa Barbara Mission. Beautiful!
Everyone who attended the retreat was assigned to a small core critique group, and we all received personal feedback on our stories from guest editors and fellow writers. The best part of the retreat for me was that one of the editors took an interest in my latest book dummy! My agent has submitted it and we are currently awaiting news...
I recently completed some new color art samples, one of which I'll share with you here...
...and I now am a member of childrensillustrators.com, where you can see more of my portfolio.
That's it for now, and I won't be posting for a while. The blog will be on maternity leave, as it were. Happy trails!
