In the summer of 2013 I was sitting in a picture book writing class at the Cape Cod Writers Center annual conference. The assignment that day was to write a complete picture book in which someone loses something and someone finds it and they have to make a decision whether or not to give it back. We had 15 minutes to complete the assignment and then we read our work aloud to the class. Behind me a lady started reading an adorable story about a little starfish (really sea a star) who set out in the ocean to find a birthday present for his mom. He finds a beautiful pearl and happily scoops it up to take it home. On the way he happens upon a tiny oyster sitting on the ocean floor crying. He asks her what is wrong. She sobs that she lost her pearl. Uh oh…
While she was reading the story, the images of the sea star and the oyster jumped into my brain and I quickly sketched them as she read. At the end of class, I turned around and held up my drawings. She was taken with them and naturally a friendship and a collaboration was born. The author was Sally Suehler. She was from Minnesota and we had never met before. Sally was a brand new writer and wanted some help and coaching. We spent the last 3 years rewriting and editing the story. Sally read every book I suggested on picture book writing and worked very hard studying and perfecting her craft.
I, in the meantime, spent countless hours painting and creating the characters that kept popping up in the rewrites. I built the storyboard that I would spend the next few years working off of.
I built a workspace, began paging the book and experimenting with mediums.
I painted the backgkrounds for all the pages.
During this time Sally and I were going back and forth with the manuscript. She made two trips out here to Cape Cod – one to discuss the final manuscript and the other to see what the illustrations were morphing into.
These paintings were done in acrylics and took days. This book was going nowhere fast. I get home from work at 7:30 pm and did not feel like mixing the colors all over again, it was hard to save the pallet and I was constantly having to buy colors I didn't have. Not to mention that last year I was rehabbing a frozen shoulder for 10 months after a fall in January. Really, I thought the chances of publishing this book, even as ebook, was going to take a few more years.
Then this Christmas my husband saved the day! He gave me an iPad pro and the Apple pencil! Oh my goodness! I could come home at night and paint in my armchair with every color in the universe available with a click! During January I did all 19 paintings in under two weeks and it was the most relaxing fun I have ever had. I dedicated my portion of the book to my husband, because it would not be on Amazon right now if it weren't for him.
I also got the keyboard for the iPad pro and that is enabling me to write my blogs again. That pencil is an amazing tool. It has a thin tip resembling a pencil and is made of a material that provides drag just like a real pencil. Every dollar of the $99 it cost was worth it.
You can also rest your hand on the picture while drawing and the iPad pro doesn't pick it up. For anyone who wants to draw and paint and use their own artwork for projects, this is the way to go!
I dreamt of the day I could write this story for three long years. Today the book went live on Amazon and Sally is now a published author. She and I are both ecstatic. She called me from Germany today after I texted her: “You should put your name in the Amazon search bar….” I was happy she called so I could congratulate her in person. There is no better feeling than seeing your first project on Amazon. Check out Alistar & Octavia The Perfect Present. If you have a young child, they would enjoy this sweet story about making a hard decision and ending up with a new friend.
And so, as another day goes by, another dream has come to fruition and…I have written.
*I would also like to give a hug to my daughter's boyfriend, Chris Whiting, for adding the text to our cover!
*My next project is to do a print copy – hoping to have that available on Amazon soon.
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