Morning Visit to Paris with Johnnyswim

Virtual SCBWI

This year is the first year in many that I have not attended the Annual SCBWI LA Conference. An extremely busy schedule and the fact that I have seen many of the speakers before brought me to the decision to stay home this year. I have been following the action via the SCBWI Conference Blog and through friends who are there. The big meeting of our tribe- as Linn Oliver says every year. Miss all you so much! Next year :) 

Dear Mr. Watterson

Dear Mr. Watterson Teaser Trailer from Dear Mr. Watterson on Vimeo.

Thank You Children's Illustration Blog for the heads up- can't wait!!

Around the Studio

Spending lots of time in here this year...I think my yearly total for book illustrated (one illustrated AND written by me) will be seven- a record. Next year I hope to keep it to just 4, but we'll see. Fun stuff.  

A Day or 2 Ago. Here.

Animated flight through largest 3-D map of the Universe

Just...wow.

Scenes from the Studio

Sunset gardening

Hello- it has been awhile. Lots going on- books, books, books. I'm very pleased with them all right now, especially my picture book. 

Here I am in the garden where I go to unwind- other than Bikram yoga. The garden is gorgeous right now- lots of color and lush. The way I work  (mostly), is that I set my phone timer for 1 hours, then I focus on some book task. When the timer goes off, then I get up for 15 minutes and stretch or head out to the garden or do some little chore around here that requires some kind of moment. Then back to the studio and B.I.C. (Jane Yolen's butt in chair acronym ) for another hour and so on...seems to work well for me. 

Anyhow- now it's time for some hot yoga. 

Tomi Ungerer Interview on Fresh Air

Interviewed by the guruess of conversation, Terry Gross, Tomi Ungerer talks about his life, his work and the new documentary about his life. The film is called Far Out Isn't Far Enough. 

San Francisco for a Short Visit

We had cars that needed fixing so we drove up to a Mini dealership up north. We made it into a little break for ourselves. Fred booked a hotel room in the place above. It was on top of a big hill in San Francisco. We had a night on the town and then the next day...

Fred discovered this exhibit in the Presidio of some of Maurice Sendak's original work. 

What a treat. His the work has much more detail and intensity than comes through in print.

Some Inspiration for Today: Soo Sunny Park: Unwoven Light

Sharon Lovejoy

I just popped over to my friend Sharon's blog. Sharon is a  multi-talented, tour de force. Check out her last entry. 

Finished!

I love the feeling of completing a book. Here is the one I finished today. It is called Princess Posey and the Christmas Magic- which should be in italics, except that button doesn't seem to work right now- I don't know why.

 I went through my little ritual I do after completing a project, which is to clean my office and make way for the next project. This has been a neglected one during this final crunch to get the last book out. I have been thinking about it quite a bit and am ready to seriously dig in tomorrow. 

Here is a stick bug that was climbing up our back door last week or the week before. Look at those little dots it has for eyes and those fabulous little feet. Nature and its endless variations- so amazing. 

It was time...

Over the last few weeks I have been rereading the posts. The beginnings were mostly surf reports and sketches from books I was working on. In those days I was struggling to find enough illustration work to make a consistent living. Now I have almost the opposite problem...I have had so much work over that I only had a few days off in 2012 and this year, I haven't had one off yet. 

You may have noticed, this blog is missing over 1,400 posts, beginning from 2005. A number of months ago, I made the decision to  copy the content and eventually, delete the older posts- almost all of them. 

The reasons I did this range from not wanting to have so much personal information here to wanting to revamp the blog and my website for the next stage of my career.

So far on my plate for this next year are completing the first book that I will have written and illustrated (a BIG deal for me), beginning a new book series, continuing with the Princess Posey series and re-learning French.