Archive for the ‘building my website’ Category

It sometimes feels like it’s all hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature is on the art director’s desk. We’re hoping to see a layout by the end of the week. In order to make the anticipation a little more bearable, we’re turning our attention to some of the other stuff we need to do — like new publicity photos. I figure that since we’re photographers we shouldn’t allow our publicity photos to get too out of date. My goal is to update at least once a year — especially in the years we have a book coming out.

We took these on the screened porch. The day was overcast so the light wasn’t too bright. I decided to wear my glasses this time. Last time I was worried about glare, but we managed to avoid it in this shot. As you can see Richard decided to go with a silly an expressive face.

We’ll be ready with the new portraits when the Boyds Mills Press marketing folks get ready to put together the spring catalog.

G came out to see what we were up to so we put him on the hot seat, too. I have made faces at my mother’s camera over the years and she always said “you’ll be sorry.” As will he. Of course, he owes the blog a review so maybe he’ll want to negotiate. I could always post it to my facebook page. Hmmm.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Geisel Ceremony. Mo Willems made a truly funny speech. My boys particularly appreciated the line: “Screw you!” He suggested it as his preferred comeback to the dog in ‘Go Dog, Go” who keeps saying “I do not like that hat.”

Richard and I received nice plaques with our certificates mounted on them. My friend Hester Bass (author of the forthcoming title The Secret World of Walter Anderson) led the “whoops” section. By happenstance, we ended up sitting not in the section reserved for honorees but among the various selection committee members. This made it easy for me to thank the Geisel committee members for noticing Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator.

It was fun to hear Kadir Nelson talk about his first meeting with Hank Aaron, who would write the forward for his multiple-award-winning book, We Are the Ship. Nelson was accepting the Siebert Medal.

We went back to the exhibit floor to sign books for an hour. The boys, meanwhile, worked on restaurant selection. We ate a late lunch at Giordano’s and then Richard and the boys took off for the suburbs. I went back to sign for another hour.

Visitors to the booth continued to express interest in Growing Patterns. I gave out a bunch of business cards to librarians who expressed an interest in my website‘s supplemental material for Wolfsnail — especially the teachers’ guide and slideshow.

A lovely package came in the mail from Great Salt Bay Community School. The students in first and second grades we met during our school visit wrote us letters, drew pictures, made cards, and made flip books. It made us so happy to get them. This drawing is by Ellie and she wrote: “Thank you for reading Wolf Snail. What made you want to be an author?” Well, Ellie, the first answer is that  I love, love, love to read and sometimes when I am reading, I think ‘Wow! I want to be able to do that.” The second answer is that I like to write. I do all kinds of writing — letters, like the one you wrote to me; newspaper articles; and journals. The third answer is because I love to make things. Writing and illustrating books gives me the chance to make a wonderful thing that people can read.

The flip books are wonderfully colorful! Here’s one page, made by JoJo. As you can see, it asks “What protects a wolfsnail? Flip up the flap and you’ll see: “Its shell.” The questions in these books ran the gamut — including “Where do wolfsnails live? what do wolfsnails eat? What part of the wolfsnail comes out first? How do wolfsnails walk? How many feet does the wolfsnail have? Does it eat worms? How does a wolfsnail find its food?”

I love seeing what teachers and students do with Wolfsnail — to extend the learning process. Please keep sending us letters, cards and books. We love them!

My new website went live yesterday. Let me know what you think.

Gardening Update
We harvested our spinach yesterday and made a delicious salad. Overnight, the central stems had shot up and were looking like they were going to flower. I thought I had waited too long and that the spinach would be bitter. Not at all!

After consulting our friendly nursery manager, we pulled the broccoli and cabbage. Though they grew like gangbusters, she said they likely wouldn’t produce nice heads. We got them in too late. I salvaged four small bunches of cabbage and two tiny buds of broccoli. Richard put them in a minestrone soup. I can’t wait to eat it.

On Monday, I was a guest on  Book Bites for Kids, a talk radio show hosted by Suzanne Lieurance, director of the National Writing for Children Center. During the half-hour interview, we talked about how I wrote Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator and how Richard and I took the photographs that illustrate it. You can hear the entire interview here. As soon as the new, improved website is ready to “go live,” I’ll post a link to the interview there. We had less than a minute to talk about Growing Patterns (the Fibonacci book); the half hour flew by.

Speaking of Growing Patterns, I checked in last week with my editor. We talked about a few small changes and then he sent the text on to copy editing. The art department has all the photographs. As soon as the copy editor finishes, the art director will design and layout the book. I can’t wait to see it! This flower is called a Spiderwort. I love the color of the petals and how it contrasts with the color of the stamens. This is my photo Tuesday offering; it’s from the new book.

Notice the new look? Richard and I are in the process of making a new website. We are using a new type of software that should make updating the website almost as easy as updating the blog. We’re both enjoying learning this new way of working. We’ve added a few new bells and whistles — like rotating images in the header at the top. I spent time this morning in the garden. (Do you remember what this cabbage looked like a few months ago?) I tied two trellises and started weaving our tomatoes, beans, melons and peas into the netting. I pulled some broccoli plants that we think we got in too late to make room for more peppers and eggplant. The broccoli had gotten so tall, it was blocking sunlight to some of our pepper transplants. I kept two broccoli plants and several cabbages. The cabbages look like they’re heading up. The heat may get them before they’re really big, but I plan on eating baby cabbage anyway. Does anyone out there know if you can eat broccoli leaves? How would you prepare them?

It’s showtime for the Davis second graders. On Wednesday morning, parents and others in the school community will gather in the auditorium to view a narrated slideshow of the 49 photographs that document the Davis neighborhood. For those of you who cannot be there or who want to see the photographs again, I have put a gallery on my website. Click on the photographs tab and then the Neighborhood Student Project. We are printing and matting 8 x 10 copies of the photographs for an exhibit next month. I’ll keep you posted on that.

I spent a wonderful two days at the Children’s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. In addition to the presentations, signings, and speeches at the festival itself, this week was the debut of Storybook Look: Illustrations by Southern Artists. The exhibit was hung at the beautiful Saenger Theater in downtown Hattiesburg and I was joined during Wednesday evening’s reception and signing by two other exhibiting artists: Rick Anderson and Daniel Powers. In addition to local folks from Hattiesburg, the exhibit drew from the festival-goers, a wonderful group of school and public librarians from across the region. Diane Shepherd, owner of Main Street Books, handled book sales and took care of many important details.

This year I delivered a new presentation, “Seeing is Believing.” I talked about the power of photography and the importance of storytelling in children’s nonfiction. I was delighted to reconnect with librarians I had met for the first time last year and who have embraced my book.

I heard stories of students finding wolfsnails in their yards at home and protecting them from being killed by gardeners wanting to protect their plants. A college student studying creative writing told of seeing a wolfsnail in New Orleans during a Spring Break work trip — and how fascinated she and her friends were with its lip extensions. In my sessions, I shared a draft copy I’ve made of the new book (Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature) and I got good feedback.

I always learn from the other writers, illustrators and storytellers. This year’s group included Judy Blume, Ashley Bryan, Diane Williams, and Yuyi Morales. After describing herself as an anxious, shy, and fearful child, Blume said her first favorite book was Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. She admited to having hid it at the back of her toy drawer in the hopes her mother wouldn’t return it to the library. As she wrapped up her speech, Blume said this about writing: “If everything is going well, I can leave everything in my life behind and spend a few hours in that other place…It’s the place where I can be fearless. It’s the place where I can be as brave and as strong as Madeline.”

Ashley Bryan urged anyone engaged in the process of teaching kids to read to use poetry. Out loud. His speech was peppered with poems by Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni. Holding a book (he said he always holds a book — even though he knows the poems from memory), he did a lot of call-and-response with us to demonstrate the way putting voice to poetry turns it into irresistible language that is connected to the words on a page. Use poetry, he says, and you will grow readers. I was convinced!

Yuyi Morales had the unenviable position of presenting after Judy Blume’s keynote address and after a two-hour signing (which many festival-goers spent waiting in line(s)), but she was well up to the task. She brought her bag of surprises and led us through her creative journey with her books. Yuyi is a native of Mexico and Spanish is her first language. She does extremely well in English and she sprinkled lots of Spanish into her talk. She ended with a terrific tribute to longtime children’s book ambassador, writer, and teacher Coleen Salley, who died last autumn.

Yuyi read Salley’s Why Epossumondas Has No Hair on His Tail. It was beautiful and fitting. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Coleen Salley celebration and the final day of the festival because I had a prior engagement back in Jackson. What a wonderful festival! Congratulations to Catharine Bomhold, director, and Karen Rowell, assistant director, and all the others who make this event possible — including Ellen Ruffin, director of the de Grummond collection at USM.

SCBWI’s Southern Breeze region wrapped up its SpringMingle’09 with advice from Caitlyn Dloughy, editor of the Simon & Schuster imprint Atheneum. Dloughy urged writers to develop characters with action: “If you find yourself starting with a few paragraphs of physical description of your character, you may not have developed your character enough.” She asked the audience to name memorable characters from children’s books and then say why the characters were memorable: Lily (of the purple plastic purse), Eloise, Max (the wild thing). Each was noted for something they did; not what they looked like. In particular, Dloughy cautioned writers to avoid descriptions such as “twinkling eyes” and “blond hair.” Recommended reading: Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos, Shift by Jennifer Bradbury, and The Underneath by Kathi Appelt.

Our keynote speaker, award-winning author Kathleen Duey, explained that writers need to work on three aspects of the writing life: “art, craft, and filthy commerce.” The bottom line, she said, is always “write the BEST book.” She suggested that beginners should attend conferences, join critique groups, and take writing classes. Start submitting only after you know your work is really, really good. Otherwise, you crowd the mailboxes, desks, floors, and closets of editors who are getting busier as the industry downsizes. In order to feed your art, she said: “spread your wings, read poetry, read literary novels for adults.” If you stare at children’s books all the time, that will help your marketing knowledge (filthy commerce), but it won’t help your art.” She cautioned against trying to write to trends; write what you absolutely MUST write — from your heart. Recommended reading: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

Note: I will post more about the conference in the coming days. Check back for more from other speakers: Abigail Samoun, Daniel Powers, and Liz Conrad.

Shelli Johannes-Wells, one of our own Southern Breezers, launched the conference with a great talk on marketing. She made a convincing argument for writers to begin marketing during their “pre-published” years. I couldn’t agree more. She explained branding (including the often overlooked shadow brand.) Her talk was funny and full of good tips. You can find more of the same on her blog called Market My Words.

Mary Kate Castellani, an associate editor at Walker Books, cautioned writers against trying to write to trends. In her talk titled, “Young Adult Fiction: What Works?” she explained some of the characteristics of YA books: immediacy (everything for teens is happening right now; not much perspective of past or future) and offer some hope. To keep up with what’s being published and finding success in the market, she recommended a newsletter. I thought she said YA Pulse, but the only thing I could find with a similar name is the Check Your Pulse newsletter from Simon & Schuster. Anyone else find the YA Pulse? Recommended reading: Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher; Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson; What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell.

Nathan’s Pet Wolfsnail.

I have been planning this post for some time, but several things (scanner down, computer down) conspired to keep it from going up until now. And I’m glad. Earlier today, I learned that Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator had been named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book by the American Library Association. The award recognizes authors and illustrators of beginning readers “for their literary and artistic achievements that demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading.” Here’s the committee’s description of Wolfsnail: “An exciting nonfiction look at the carnivorous wolfsnail trapping and devouring its victim, this science book uses bold block type against a white background to enhance the ease of reading. The magnified, detailed photographs and playful, informative text will amaze and attract readers.”

The above picture shows a young reader, named Jackson S., who read Wolfsnail in the first months after it was published. He sent me my first (and only) fan letter. I will quote from it here, keeping his invented spellings:  “I like your book because the plot helps me learn about woulfsnails in a fun way! Are you going to write any more books? Maybe you could write about spiders or lizards. I would prefer lizards.” He also told me about the wolfsnail he and his older brother found in their yard. “I let go my wolfsnail because I was afraid it was goining to die. It ate about one snail evre two days. I got its food off our brick wall! It staid in its shell about an hour and then it would come out and search for food. We named it wolfy!”

I telephoned my editor, Andy Boyles, when I heard the award news and he suggested one of the reasons I won was the fact that I take children seriously. I do. The chair of the Geisel committee, Joan Atkinson, told me the panel liked the fact that the book had a story arc, that it included some suspense. Though some of the language seemed at first glance a little more advanced than in your typical beginning reader (“toothy tongue”), it was appropriate to the story and well supported by the photographs. The above photograph shows me signing my book for a beginning reader who at age four negotiated “toothy tongue” and the rest of the text just fine. (This photo was taken at the 2008 Children’s Book Festival in Hattiesburg. See previous post.) I am so glad these kids are diving into books like Wolfsnail and discovering the wonderful world of reading and the joys of nature.

Update I visited St. Therese Catholic School in the fall and the librarian wrote a tribute post today. I feel so honored.