Got Arc?

Darcy Pattison has posted two great pieces about story arc for short picture books, here and here. (Her Fiction Notes blog is one of my writing favorites.)

Dept. of Miscellaneous (Good) Stuff

Hmmm... haven't been posting much art lately. There's just not enough time in each day to do everything, and I've been working on making progress with a new picture book idea. Slow going, this one, with lots of bits and pieces to puzzle out, but it's coming along.

Also still forging ahead with NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo. They've become part of my beloved early-morning-with-coffee routine. I'm up to 11,571 words for NaNo-- way behind the count needed to hit 50,000 words by the end of the month-- but still possibly more than I've ever written on one project in my life, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. More on that another time.

And in the Department of Good News: Can't say too much yet, but I've been commissioned to illustrate the cover and B/W interior of a new middle grade novel! Happy dance time!

New Map! The Iditarod Trail

Here's a new piece for the November/December issue of ForbesLife Magazine.

(Sheesh, how did it get to be November already?)

Dept. of Things I'm Working On: New PB Idea

Who is this new character and what kind of big adventure is she going to have? I'm figuring her out...

A NaNoWriMo Truth...

Via HipWriterMama. (Thanks for posting!)

NaNoWriMoPiBoIdMo

November is:







National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

and





Picture Book Idea Month! (PiBoIdMo. Read more about it here.)

I'm doing both. (Or trying to, at least.)

Why not? I like deadlines. I need deadlines. I especially need deadlines when it comes to writing. We'll see if I can keep it up for the whole month. But even if not, writing something is better than writing nothing. And though I never write nothing, I can always write more. Right?

(Of course, once I committed to giving these two worthwhile activities a shot, a Department of Freelance truism kicked in... lots of good things are sprouting around here. Busy, busy, busy. Just the way I like it!)

Spooky Bridge

While stuck in traffic driving home from Rabbit Hill last week, I glanced up through the torrential rain and saw this bridge. Can you see the spider-and-web design? Oooo... spooky! Perfect timing for Halloween.

(The filter effect was inspired by my son, who has just discovered Photoshop and is trying to scare the bejeesus out of me with creepy effects. As if driving on the Merritt Race... uh, Parkway isn't scary enough...)

Here's a closeup of the ironwork, and more photos of this historic bridge:



















Elizabeth is hosting a collection of Halloween posts today over at her place. Check it out for more spooky fun...

Oldies But Goodies

I'm on another semi-futile kick to clean out my files and came across a whole stack of old tearsheets, so I thought I'd post some oldie-but-goodie work.

This was from, whoa, 12 or so years ago, I think. Again, such fun to work on the detailed borders.

Friday Fun: On Being an Illustrator

With the release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, this video has been all over the internet. It reminded me of last year's Rabbit Hill Festival of Literature because one of my favorite illustrators, Barbara McClintock, told a wonderful story about being a young artist living in North Dakota and just beginning her career. She picked up the phone and called Maurice Sendak all the way in New York City. She wanted to ask his advice about becoming a children's book illustrator. Apparently he was very nice and gave her some good tips. Wow!

By the way, the 2009 Rabbit Hill Festival takes place all this weekend if you're in the area.

New Map. Old Cat.

Here's a map I did recently for AAA Traveler magazine. It's fun to research these kids of pieces, but I have to be careful not to waste all day reading about fascinating places.

On a sad note, Athena, our ancient outdoor cat, passed away peacefully last night. We'd had her for over 21 years, since before my husband and I were married. She was a sweet old lady. She lived in our barn and spent her days catching mice and assorted other critters, though the past few years she mostly enjoyed lolling around the house on a sunny patch of ground.

I think she had some sort of an agreement with the wildlife around here, because despite the raccoons and coyotes (and speeding cars!) she never got into trouble. We fed her a few times a day, and one night, a raccoon mother and her babies scuffled outside the front door gobbling up her dinner. Athena just watched patiently from a few yards away, letting them take their fill. She knew there would be more for her.

The inside cats loved having staring contests with her through the screen.
RIP, Athena.