Summer Five

I’m back with a second post and it’s still 2023. I know, I know - blogging is not what it used to be, right? It’s been hard to figure out what role my blog serves among the hearty stew that is social media. I think since most of my other shares are shorter and more to the point, this is a place where I can go deep. I can take a bit longer to share my feelings about the book news, events, and other creative happenings.

ONE

I am beyond excited to share the announcement for my new author/illustrator picture book, THE KING OF BOOKS. Coming in Spring 2025 from Feiwel & Friends. One morning in the summer of 2020 I woke up with a character’s voice and a full plot in my head for a book. This had never happened before! Thank goodness I ran to get paper and a pen. The story changed many times over the course of two years before sending it out on submission, but if I hadn’t jotted it all down and taken a silly idea seriously, it wouldn’t be on its way to being a real book. So the moral is: write it down and allow yourself to play with silly ideas. I’m really looking forward to spending the fall immersing myself in this book and working with my editor to make it the best it can be.

TWO

It has been a busy summer celebrating the release of the two Mini Doodle books. I had a book launch at Water Street Bookstore, a workshop at the Plaistow New Hampshire Library, a talk at the Weymouth Tufts Library in Massachusetts, and I just came back from the Camden Maine Book Fair by the Sea in Maine. To wrap up the summer, I’ll be at Exeter Library’s Fantasy Faire this Wednesday from 11am-1pm (August 23rd). It’s nice to take a minute and reflect on where I am now compared to when I started doing events. I love having a range of books to share with families - from drawing books, to picture and chapter books. It’s also nice to feel really comfortable with large or small groups and knowing that something will inevitably be a surprise, but I can roll with it.

THREE

What the heck is going on with social media and what does it mean for #KidLitArtPostcard? I don’t really have the answer to this yet. I do think that Instagram has always been the strongest home for the postcard event. I preferred the feedback and action on Twitter (pre-X), but I think realistically, more Art Directors are looking on Instagram. Threads would be the ideal middle-ground if they could make it searchable and have a desktop version. BlueSky is still too new. Substack doesn’t quite have the right flow. I think we’ll just have to stay the course for September and see how things shake out. If anyone has ideas on how to evolve the idea, please let me know here or email me at ginacarey @ comcast.net !

FOUR

While this summer was really busy with a number of illustration assignments, events, and of course being a mom of two kids, I have found pockets of time to play with art. I often slip into routines where the only art-making I do is for work. I love my work, but if I don’t break out to make art without purpose I tend to get too rigid or even a little bored with my style. A few months ago I found Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club through Substack. To join a quiet Zoom for 60-90 minutes and draw timed prompts has been wonderful for me. Beth has also built up this community of really sweet and talented folks. I’m trying to stay loose and play with different materials, rather than just sketching.

I also was able to go hear Isabelle Arsenault speak up in Portland, Maine earlier this summer. She’s one of my very favorite book illustrators and her talk was so inspiring. And, I just enjoyed a day trip to Peaks Island, Maine for a workshop with Selina Alko. I’ve never seen a process for making a picture book quite like hers! She shared her collage sketchbook for I is for Immigrant and then we all sat and worked making our own letter-based collage pages. Sitting alongside lots of other artists was a treat - to chat and share techniques. And not to be missed, I was there with two dear friends who were in the very first children’s illustration class I took back in 2002/2003 and my first critique group. So nice to spend the day with Patty and Ann Marie! Big thanks to Scott Nash and Nancy Gibson-Nash and everyone at Illustration Institute for bringing such amazing talent to Maine and making it available to everyone.

FIVE

To wrap things up, I often like to share what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to. Some of this is what keeps me going when I’m working.

Reading: Above are the picture books I picked up at the Camden Book Fair. Author Fran Hodgkins’ IN A PATCH OF GRASS. I love the illustrations by Dan Tavis and it’s an energetic, dramatic read-aloud with fun bug facts (and informative bug back matter!) THE LOBSTER LADY by Alexandra D. Hinrichs, illustrated by Jamie Hogan. I was holding out all summer so I could get my copy signed by author and illustrator. It’s even better than I hoped - beautifully illustrated, a sweeping story of living a big, authentic life and finding purpose. And A IS FOR APPLE UNLESS… written by Tom Llewellyn and illustrated by friend Mark Hoffmann. Mark’s illustrations are dynamic and cute but definitely appeal to the kids looking for a little bit of ‘ewww’ humor from A to Z. Love that cute monkey!

Watching: KILLING IT, on Peacock. I don’t know how I missed this until the second season aired, but it’s hilarious. Claudia O’Douherty is a scene stealer but it’s a fun ensemble cast. Gruesome Warning - the story revolves around killing snakes competitively.

Listening to: Sounds Like A Cult (podcast) - it’s light and pop culture focused. It’s been out for a few years so I skim for themes that interest me. I enjoyed the episodes on Coachella, Montessori Schools, PTA Moms, and Real Housewives.

Happy 1st Birthday #KidLitArtPostcard!

Next month’s #KidLitArtPostcard marks one full rotation around the sun of beautiful illustrations, new friends, new connections, stronger portfolios and 12 fun filled days of celebrating illustration for children’s books. Thank you so much to everyone who has jumped in with both feet - sharing, creating, and marking their calendars for the first Thursday of each month.

If you are an SCBWI member, you can read my article in May’s Insight here.

And anyone can read this fantastic piece written by Nancy Goulet here.

I haven’t wanted to complicate the monthly event with any restrictions, but it would be extra cool to see birthday or party-themed illustrations for June 2nd.

Mark your calendars (make a wish!) and don’t forget the hashtag!!!

Springing along. But it's not easy.

I was honored to illustrate the banner for the 2022 NESCBWI Spring Conference. I’ve attended this for too many years to count - starting back in the Nashua, NH days! While I wish we could all safely smoosh into the ballroom, I’ll settle for a zoom experience. I’m most excited about Marcie Colleen’s workshops but I expect to walk away full of inspiration and new ideas from lots of lovely authors and illustrators. I also really had fun with the theme “Find Your Star, Let it Shine” - and making art that slants a bit towards middle grade.

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I’ve been busy re-launching my Etsy shop with all of my new collage work. I started experimenting with collage in 2021. I had no idea how much fun it would be to hand-paint papers and design illustrations with scissors and glue. There is so much playtime in this process - just moving shapes around and around. I’m trying to add one or two new prints each month, and hopefully greeting cards by the summer. I’m not sure if it will expand as a business or just be a small side project, but with more time on my hands (thanks for getting bigger and more independent, kids!) and the state of kidlit being a molasses spill, I thought it was time to diversify. More on that molasses below…

Now here is where I get real. I’m sad. I want nothing more than a fun new kidlit project, but I’ve had no such luck for a long time. I generally don’t talk about this type of stuff openly, but I’m not sure it’s fair to keep the heavy things quiet. I wasn’t expecting to struggle so hard to find my place after already having several books published, but here I am. Publishing has never been easy. But it’s gotten so much harder in the past few years. I’m super grateful for the school visits, my kids need mentors class, my steady and smart agent, my ultra-supportive illustrator friends. I know tons of us are in the same boat. But I’m still sad. I keep debating about the need for a ‘break’ of sorts. But that sounds a little like giving up, which isn’t my style. I have a picture dummy that I love immensely going out on submission soon. Another one waiting in the wings. Lots of new ideas brewing. I’m still springing along. But it’s not easy.

KidLitArtPostcard 2022

Are you ready? Here are the dates for #KidLitArtPostcard for 2022:

January 6 / February 3 / March 3 / April 7 / May 5 / June 2 / July 7
August 4 / September 1 / October 6 / November 3 / December 1

This first year of #KidLitArtPostcard was wonderful. I am so thankful to all the artists who’ve participated. Together, we’ve created a positive spotlight on our work each month. I’m also thankful for the support and enthusiasm from editors, art directors, agents, and authors. Below, I pulled a small sample of some of the amazing postcards the #KidLitArt community shared for December. I hope 2022 continues to bring new connections between our communities - and new books born from those relationships.

Artists as shown from start to end: Anna Florsdefum, Brian McLachlan, Courtney Pippin-Mathur, Elio, Elliott Grinnell, Laura Basky, Marie Hermansson, Matthew Rivera, and Mirka Hokkanen

#KidLitArtPostcard Thoughts

Two months down, and I would say #KidLitArtPostcard has been a big success! The initial post was updated with a few helpful tips after the first month’s experience. I appreciate that most people joining in for the second month really looked at those notes. It made yesterday a much nicer event for me - I enjoyed feeling more like a participant and my twitter notifications did NOT explode - hooray!

I would like to share a bit more about how the project has effected me personally. I really wasn’t expecting or looking for an extra large heaping of praise from artists - but you were all so quick to say ‘I love this idea’, ‘Brilliant idea’, ‘So smart’. Considering that I’m part stay-at-home-mom and part work-from-home-kidlit-author-illustrator this is well outside the norm of what I hear. So much of our work as authors/illustrators is in a little bubble - just us, our agents, our critique partners, sometimes readers (less so during the pandemic, for sure). To hear so many lovely things over the course of a few days was just plain awesome and overwhelming. So if you took a moment to thank me or praise the idea - it meant a LOT. Thank you.

I was pretty nervous to put this project into the world but just wanted to make things better (easier?) for our collective lives. As much as I absolutely love the work that I do and the people I work with, kidlit is a really (really) hard career. Covid has made so many things harder. There are some great conversations on twitter this week about agents, editors, and other publishing company pros feeling exhausted and burnt out. And explaining the backlog of books and work that has compounded their work and stress. I absolutely sympathize, but maybe we can have our own little corner to say how hard it has been as makers? That so many of us still managed to put together new proposals or portfolios or query new agents only to face even slower response times and even steeper odds to get a publishing deals - well, it’s enough to break you. Or to make you try something different. Something that didn’t cost a big membership fee or even a stamp.

What I would love to see next are the success stories. Did #KidLitArtPostcard help you get a new agent, a new book project? Did you connect with a new critique partner, boost your Etsy shop sales, find a new style you wanted to try? Did you chat with a new artist who connected you to a great book or class or art director?

For me (other than the huge confidence boost) I gained several hundred new followers between twitter and instagram - including a few art directors and editors I really admire! Please feel free to share any successes here or on twitter!

Again - thank you all so much for making #KidLitArtPostcard a really positive tool for marketing - if you can think of other improvements, let me know. Otherwise, I will see you and your shiny new art on August 5th!

Announcing... #KidLitArtPostcard

I’ve been mailing promo postcards to editors and art directors for many years - it’s part of the core #kidlitart experience - bringing illustrators new work, getting tacked up in publishing offices and filed away for that next book project around the corner.

Since Covid made mailing postcards futile, illustrators (especially without or in-between agents or rep) have to create and maintain huge email lists, or throw their work online and hope for the best. I’d like to try something different.

Using Twitter, Instagram, and a very specific hashtag, let’s meet to share one special image and make new connections.

Beginning June 3rd, and the first Thursday of each month, let’s come together for #KidLitArtPostcard

Artists - here is the schedule of dates in 2021 so you can plan:

June 3 / July 1 / August 5 / September 2 / October 7 / November 4 / December 2

I’m hoping that this idea resonates with my community of kidlit illustrators and we can put enough beauty and enthusiasm into this to make editors and art directors look forward to #KidLitArtPostcard almost as much as our old snail mail postcards.

****UPDATE, JUNE 3RD*****
The first #KidLitArtPostcard event was AMAZING! Thank you all for participating! I’m adding a few great ideas from Debbie Ohi and one BIG request for future postcard posts.

Things you may want to add to your next post:
-Agented/Unagented (seeking representation?)
-Name / Website on your image

Debbie also smartly advised illustrators to reach out and share the dates and hashtag with your art director, agent, and editor contacts.

Here’s my BIG request: Please do NOT tag me in your posts next time. As much as I appreciate the gratitude and recognition of starting this, the math on 100+ posts x 100+likes x 50+ RTs x 10+ comments x forever = a very different twitter than I’ve had in the 12yrs I’ve been using it. ieeee. I did NOT anticipate how quickly it would grow. Even with that growing challenge, I am so thankful for today. I can see that we all really needed something like this. It brought me so much joy and inspiration and lots of new artists to follow on their journeys. So much talent! It was a nice reminder of just how much I love our kidlit community.

****UPDATE, DECEMBER 3RD*****
The dates for 2022 can be found here: https://www.ginaperry.com/blog/2021/12/3/kidlitartpostcard-2022

Behind the Scenes with Aven Green

Aven Green Sleuthing Machine, by Dusti Bowling comes out next week. I thought I would continue the tradition and share a little bit about the process of making the illustrations.

I had a long time to read and think about Dusti’s manuscript (and Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus) before I started sketching. To think about how Aven would move and use certain tools, I was so lucky to find MeSophie’s YouTube videos - she’s amazing.

I first made detailed sketches of the entire cast of characters - with a few options for King Smith!

The cover was the first piece of final art to be created. It’s so fun to see Aven with her red hair and outfit in full color!

Once character designs were approved, I took careful notes about which shoes Aven was wearing in each chapter, or if her friends were wearing the same clothes if it was the same day.

I moved through the story from start to finish with VERY rough sketches. When I hit the end I circled back and tightened up the sketches. Then I made one last check for consistency and other issues. I find this allows me to work faster, but also see the book as a whole and catch mistakes since I’m looking with fresh eyes each time I cycle through the work.

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After a good amount of time, I get notes back on changes that need to be made, and then it’s time to work on final art. I’ll redraw every image and add tone, detail, shading and highlights.

And after much, much waiting - I get a lovely book in the mail. And the art looks a bit different than I pictured but always inherently better because it’s a real thing in the world for kids to read. If you are as excited about young Aven’s new series as I am, be sure to join author Dusti Bowling for her launch day celebration on April 13th at 10am PST on her YouTube channel. You can order Aven Green Sleuthing Machine wherever books are sold on April 13th.

Marching On!

1. Lost and Found: While I’m more than ready for winter to end, I’m grateful for the beautiful and inspiring landscape of the seacoast area. I put together this promotional image a few weeks ago - trying to capture the colors, textures, and feelings of this time of year where new things are waiting to grow and surprise us.

2. WRAD 2021: I know World Read Aloud Day was more than a month ago, but I’m still thinking of how nice it was to connect with so many students. I had more visits booked than any other year, but the sore throat at the end of the day was a small price to pay for all the great smiles and questions and chance to give students a bit of fun. I got a lovely pile of thank you cards from one school the following week, and an unbelievably sweet message from a school who joined a longer presentation I did on behalf of CLiF. And CAT PORTRAITS! I got to see so many amazing cat portraits from kids (and teachers!).

3. Aven Green Sleuthing Machine: I’m excited that the first book in the Aven Green chapter book series by Dusti Bowling comes out in just about a month. Be sure to join Dusti for a live YouTube event on April 13th at 10am PST. And look for some peeks at the illustrations from me coming soon!

4. City of Ghosts: The entire world went quiet as I watched the first episode of City of Ghosts on Netflix this week. (Created by Elizabeth Ito). Everything was mesmerizing - the combination of live action and 3D, the ambient soundtrack, the natural voice acting, the characters, the blend of LA history and fictional story. It’s an absolute masterpiece and I hope every family cuddles up and watches it together.

5. Life?: Outside of working on illustrations for the next Aven Green (Baking Machine!) and my own stories, I’ve tackled a LOT of DIY projects, played many games of Sushi Go Party, visited the Ice Castles, made a delicious mushroom wild rice stew, devoured more Kate Racculia, and enjoyed lots of winter walks. Yesterday was bizarrely warm so we hit the beach with Hank and felt ready for spring and all the hope that it brings.