JUST A DUCK?

So pleased to announce today's release of my latest children's picture book!

Just a Duck? is a sequel to Hey, Duck! (Random House, 2013). This time, Duck hopes to become a cat, the better to play with his feline friend.

The astute Margie Myers-Culver of Librarian's Quest has written a lovely review here.

Frog on a Blog Interview

Lauri Fortino has interviewed me for Frog on a Blog, her wonderful site devoted to picture books! Click here to read.

Excelsior!

Mice like bubbles, too.

HEY, DUCK!

Today is the release of my new children's book, Hey, Duck!

With No Further Ado

I couldn't have done it without them. Please meet Duck and Cat, two disparate souls from my upcoming book, Hey, Duck!.

When Duck Meets Cat

My apologies to all you nice folks for the long delay in new posts to this blog. One of the things I've done since I last wrote here was to finish my new picture book, Hey, Duck!. And now I'm thrilled to announce it will come out next month, on January 22nd.

Kicks

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has added my illustration to their "about" page! The picture accompanies an explanation of "kicks," 7-Imp's Sunday feature inviting readers to "list Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things From the Past Week (whether book-related or not) That Happened to You."

Check out this wonderful site on Sundays and throughout the week. Anyone with an interest in picture books will not be disappointed.

Seven Impossible Things

Hooray for Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, one of my very favorite children's book sites! On Sunday, some of my artwork is being featured there. If you haven't seen it yet, please click on over.

To any visitors from the site, a big welcome!

Update: click here for the feature itself.

Bristling

My new free trial of Corel Painter 11 is a stormy affair. CP can be flighty -- a crazy-making tease. It will dangle a drop-down menu before me like a bullfighter's flag, then snatch it away. Forget the silent treatment -- CP sometimes plays dead. In fact, it saves its biggest tizzies for files from dear old Photoshop. Is it jealous of the other applications in my life? Or does it simply look down its glorious, Sargent-painted nose at my 4-year-old Mac? My cob-webbed CS2?

I know where this is headed: straight for the checkout button. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. . . actually, for quite a bit poorer. But I've tasted real honey now. I've painted with Real Bristle. There's no way I can let this gorgeous so-and-so ride off into the night.

I hope to be posting some of my experiments here soon. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear your own thoughts on Painter. Any tips? Stories? Encomia? Gripes?

Picture Book Perfect II

Imagine the ideal picture book. Now remove the pictures, and leave the words:



They might not make sense. They're still good.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary"

In The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox starts as a sour little girl. Other kids tease her, chanting, "Mistress Mary, quite contrary." Then she finds a hidden garden to care for, and starts to open out in time with the roses. In a nice bit of reclaiming, she plants silver bells like those in the nursery rhyme.

Scene from The Secret Garden

In The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a British robin redbreast first draws Mary out of her shell.

One way to use a nose

Attitude

Emerging Situation

Outtakes from a story tell a mini-story of their own:

Book Cover Practice 2

Great Expectations was one of my favorite books in Junior High. Here, I used a scene with Miss Havisham, Estella and Pip to make a mock book jacket:

Scenes from a Friendship

Competition

Swing Set