To thine own self be true

Reading EA's blog about too many cooks. Makes me sick.

I trust myself and look for editor with same.

It is called integrity and trust and conversation. 

I am not afraid to say "no" but I am not afraid to listen, either.

Your mission should you choose to accept it....

is to choose from one of the four manuscipts sent and to sketch one passage from it ( you have one week).
Well, that was an easy process of elimination and I felt an immediate, direct, and personal connection to the Barrio one. And I am not Spanish in any way, nor do I speak Spanish. But I love Spanish art, music, food, people, architecture and I am all about color....and ethnicities and cultures. It has soul. I didn't even have to mull over my decision. I knew it right off the bat. It makes me smile when I read it. It is poetic.

So it is no to the punctuation ms. This manuscript is not what I do.
So it is no to the dog ms. I am not a dog person.
And it is no to bigger, faster etc. ms. I felt like I COULD illustrate this
but I WANT to illustrate the Barrio. And if you want to do something and love it, it will show in the end result. It is like those old manuscripts I wrote...some of them left not impact on me. It is the ones I think about all the time that I won't let go of. I see them. I want to illustrate them. And if you can visualize something as an artist then it is right. I believe that in my heart and soul.

This is going to be an interesting assignment. Sketches first! (No. Research first...)

Finals second. And it will be collage. It has to be collage. And it will be beautiful. And full of life and feeling and honesty.

Drunken Pumpkins

I have the greatest friends.

Always thoughtful, always comedic, always.............sick.

Mission Impossible and dodging arrows

got a response from an agent today. Story sweet (well maybe a bit but not my realization)but not edgy enough. Funny how another agent said my work is edgy. The problem is that my story is not fully realized yet as the illustrations are not done. And to me it doesn't matter if one does not see it as edgy enough. To me it is the story, the meaning, the execution, the voice etc.. This is mission impossible. I have real doubts about any agent connectoin without an editor connection first.

Another arrow in my heart.


Sigh. I EFFING SEE IT!! How do I make you see same???

Casinobankaville

Nibblin on checks blank

Watchin the banks tank

All of those brokers

covered in shame

Betting my nine yards

on Goldman Sachs cards

Casino! It's part of my game

Betting away in Casinobankaville

Searching for my last banker of late

Someone said there's bad credit to blame

but I know this investment is great!

(I always get Jimmy and Warren mixed up. They are so similar.)

I've got to stop messing with perfectly fine lyrics. 

 

Drum role

My son's drum teacher has new student up the street. Converses with his mom. Mom is an art director in children's publishing. (I have a free agent.) He calls me and says, " I am your mole. Let me work on this. Give me a few weeks. (I love you.) I love this industry! Is say, give up the drums and become a literary agent. He says, "I'll think about it."

Why I think queries count.

If you write an effective query, I believe you have found the meeting point between you and your agent/editor. Because you have discovered what your book is really about and can thus go from there. It is kind of like your stance, your theme maybe, where you and story are coming from. Hopefully, your reader will see that and help you take it where it should go... in both of your eyes.

PUNishment

1. The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.



He acquired his size from too much pi.


2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island,

but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.



3. She was only a whisky maker,

but he loved her still.



4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because

it was a weapon of math disruption.



5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder

and got a little behind in his work.



6. Now matter how much you push the envelope,

it'll still be stationery.



7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road

and was cited for littering.



8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in

Linoleum Blownapart.



9. Two silk worms had a race.

They ended up in a tie.



10. Time flies like an arrow.

Fruit flies like a banana.



11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall.

The police are looking into it.



12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.



13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway.

One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'



14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger.

Then it hit me.



15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'



16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital.

When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was,

a nurse said, 'No change yet.'



17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.



18. It's not that the man did not know how to juggle,

he just didn't have the balls to do it.



19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was

a small medium at large.



20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now

a seasoned veteran.



21. A backward poet writes inverse.



22. In democracy it's your vote that counts.

In feudalism it's your count that votes.



23. When cannibals ate a missionary,

they got a taste of religion.



24. Don't join dangerous cults:

Practice safe sects!



Those bolded over bowled me over.

I did it!

I sent my first query with my pb bio, art and dummy to AAL today! I don't think I could have targeted better having read his website content, and meeting and listening to him. This ms has been thru critique and art approval for years, tho the dummy is still loose. So he will have it soon enough...and I will show him Doll Saver when the dummy is done...hopefully not too long.

And my lovely daughter.. the Harry Potter daughter...is ready to eat at the Back Off (her name for the Outback). Must go chomp down some sirloin.

My Dear: Your Query is your Voir Dire!

I love writing queries. Not only because I am telling what my book is about, but because I am getting to the essence of it. It is a fun challenge!!

I can tell why my first manuscripts didn't go. Because I couldn't say what they were really about. Were they about anything? What is the truth and meaning about what I have to say about my character and story?

Today, I use M.T.A's (Manhattan Transit Authority?...I think not) Handel Biography to see how he does it...as mine is comparable... somewhat.

In his jacket copy, his first two lines sum up the man in his story.

Throughout is life, George Frideric Handel always knew what he liked. And he was never afraid to do what he liked LOOKS SO SIMPLE...DOESN'T IT?


From childhood Louis Moreau Gottschalk loved the musical sounds he heard around the world. He mixed them all together in his own musical ragbag, then took them out and shared them.

Has been changed to: Louis Moreau Gottschalk soaked up every musical sound he heard around the world. He mixed them in his own musical ragbag. Then he took them out and shared them. (Better I think...and off it goes.) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we talk a bit about the hardships along the way. And his determination.





Getting there thru trial and error






getting there.

I found the perfect car

for David McKee and Elmer.

Hidden Talents

Picture Number One: Well, Emily did leave the house...sort of.

Picture Number Two: Emily secretly wrote poems. Secretly.

Picture Number Three: Lavinia discovered them. But look carefully at Lavinia. She is as pale as a ghost. She sees somebody in the room...

"There's somebody in the room!"

it's... it's...

"No. I'm nobody! Who are you?"

So You Want to be Vice President

I'm illustrating a YA picture book and looking for a writer. Must like shotgun weddings.

And she locked herself away until she finished her first draft

The first thing you should notice is the note on the very top of the page.

Poor Emily. She was homely. She never left her room. She brooded. But she wrote incessantly and became famous.

Sometimes that is what it takes. I am going back to my room to finish my poem...my book report...my pb first draft. Whatever.

Stay tuned for the art. It will knock your socks off.

An Unexpected Guest and Memories of Summer Stock

My inlaws gave us tickets to this. Unexpectedly. And the Red Barn is just the way I remember it when I was about 10. When dad brought us here for the summer while he directed summer stock. The Barn still creaks, smells musty and boasts great amateur theater. The people still creak too. Photos of actors...all around. People I remember as if were yesterday.

The thing that I love is that every show here is done very well, the speech and acoustics are clear, the artisitic direction is simple yet effective, and the actors are for the most part top notch.

I understood every Agatha Christie bit of dialogue (in quite good Anglo-parle) and was of course surprised by the Christie ending. She is famous for her endings and the way she unravels her plots and characters. And the Whodunnit always makes everyone gasp. Never who you'd expect (well, usually never except for the lady behind me's best friend.... grrrr.... who has to let everyone know how brilliant she is).

The Receiver: But something is not adding up...what did I miss? It wasn't in the middle. It was something that should have paralleled with the beginning and the end. Guess I'll have to read this. I love a good mystery and get antsy when something is not quite right (It is right, but something went over my head and I have to catch it).

The Creator: What does this have to do with illustration and writing? For me, if something is not quite right, I have to figure out why and catch it.


Back to My Accident.