Well the wedding is over, so now it’s time to shift focus and “get down to it”. It is time to drag out my own picture book that I wrote in the summer of 2011 and do something with it. I remember the day I wrote that book. It started with the words and pictures flowing in my head as I was walking the beach. As I moved along the shoreline, I became aware that a book was forming. Oh no! Now what do I do? I’m too far away from home to remember it all until I get back to my desk. And I do know myself – if it’s not recorded immediately, it will be lost. I’ll retain the major concept, but the voice will be lost. Thank goodness for technology! I sat down on the rocks and quickly tapped out 27 pages in the notes on my phone. Once I had the words down, I beat feet home to sketch the pictures before they, too, were gone.
I burst in the door and couldn’t even take time to find proper sketch paper. I grabbed a handful of paper out of the printer, plopped down on my kitchen island (a favorite workspace of mine), turned the paper landscape style, and banged out 26 illustrations, beginning with the cover, in about an hour. When I was done, I was exhausted. Writing and illustrating are like that for me. Pent up emotion and message, bursting out of me, leaving me spent for the day.
Next I spent a few days cleaning up the illustrations and decided to bring it to read to my writers group to see what they thought. It was very well received and the pressure to “do something with it” was on. But for some reason, I couldn’t. I put the book in a box and there it sat for three years. I still don’t know why. All I know is it sat in that box and in the back of my mind – until now.
Just before the wedding I dragged it out and set it on my desk and began to look at it. Not even read it. Just look at it. Then after a few days I read it. Wow. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it would need more editing, but the tips I used from my writing group made it read really smooth. Now I was apprehensive about the illustrations. I’m still trying to find my style with the artwork, so every step in my illustrating is shaky and unsure.
With the encouragement of my dear friend Joan and my husband (who even offered to pay), I signed up to have an children’s book agent review it at the Cape Cod Writers Center Annual Conference in August. Ooh …scary. The first time sharing my work with a professional in the industry. But suddenly I’m ready. Go figure. The book hasn’t changed in three years, but I guess I have. I used to blame it on the book being not ready.
So where am I now? Under the gun. The book has to be submitted by email by next Friday the 25th. The conference is August 7-10 and my appointment is on Friday the 8th. This weekend I have to “get down to it”. The illustrations need to have the text cropped out and be scanned to my desktop, numbered, and set in a neat little row, waiting for me to build them into a book. Then I have to put them in Word and add the text. I’m not a Word pro, so this is going to take all weekend, but I’ll learn a lot.
And so, as another day goes by, the needle of my personal compass once again shifts, and I have not only written, but now I have to just “get down to it”.
Leave a Reply