WPa SCBWI conference results

I have to say that the conference was wonderful. Bruce Colville, a terrific author, gave a wonderful presentation. I got to spend a lot of time with Kelley Cunningham, art director of High Five magazine. She was very frank and quite helpful in her critique of my portfolio, yet very easy to talk to. She seemed surprised that I had done my illustrations entirely in Painter 11. That 's a good thing! And she thought a lot of my work was very strong. She and editor are now reviewing a submission I sent them recently. Cross you fingers.

I also got to spend some time talking with Steve Meltzer, editor of Dutton and Dial Books for Young Readers. What a great guy. But he liked my surrealistic oil paintings (pictured above) much better than my picture book illustrations. He suggested working up some redo's of novel book covers done in the same manner. I'm thinking about it.

WPa SCBWI conference

In one week, I will be attending the Western PA Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Fall Conference. I really look forward to it... it is a great place to network with other writers and artists, meet editors, art directors and published authors, and get your work critiqued by the best. For the last two years I have won the Illustrator's contest. My winning design from 2007 can be purchased on T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, tote bags, etc. at www.cafepress.com. Last year's design is being silkscreened on tote bags that are being distributed to the attendees of this years conference. 

I encourage anyone interested in writing or illustrating children's books to come to the conference, Saturday, 8 am to 5 pm at the Greentree Radisson, Pittsburgh PA. For details on the guest speakers and workshop presenters go to www.wpascbwi.com.

Here's Lyddi

It's a wonderful feeling to develop a character... after months of writing the story, to finally know what she really looks like! I've had images in my head as to how she wears her hair, but until I actually drew her, I didn't know what her little pixy face looked like. I haven't put all the line detail in this yet, and this is only a portion of the first page of the book, "Lyddi and the List."

The character, Lyddi, is characterized after me, but modeled after my beautiful granddaughter, Makana. And the name Lyddi comes from my newest granddaughter, Lydia. So, I've really kept it all in the family this time!

Our children and grandchildren give us a rich source for stories and characters, so long as we writers and artists realize that some of our fascination lies in the fact that the children are related to us! Some serious scrutiny needs to take place before you try to publish those stories. One of the most difficult decisions to make is changing something "real" to something "invented" in order to make the story or character work. Makana was a tiny  bit miffed that the character Lyddi bore her sister's name. In the other story, "Kana and the Missing Kio", she was disappointed that her name was used, but not her image! Poor Makana just wasn't "Hawaiian" enough.

Lyddi and the List

Lyddi and the List is my latest picture book story. I'm illustrating it in Painter 11. This was meant to be a promo postcard, but I rethought it. While I love the aerial view and the worried look on the squirrel's face, it really doesn't give you a good sense of who Lyddi is. I need to turn her around so you can see her face. (Lyddi is actually based on ME, as a little girl, who could not remember anything. The whole story actually happened to me, sort of. I AM a writer and allowed to embellish the truth!)