blogging about blogging

The author and wonderful person Tara Lazar invited me to write a guest post for her super popular blog.

Here it is.

Also, I just got an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and it's all thanks to Tara!

100!!

This here was my 100th etsy sale!!

Thank you so much everyone who's bought or liked my stuff!

SCBWI nyc conference notes

Here's some of my notes and drawings from the scbwi (pronounced skeeb-weeee). Just kidding, it's the society of children's book writer's and illustrators.

On a side note, illustrator can be pronounced (ill-us-truh-tore) to make it sound dignified and impressive.

It was awesome and frightening at different times, with an aftertaste of mostly awesome.

The 2nd page from the top with the little zebra donkey thing and the flat top is an example of the frightening. Flat top is a lady. She was the most joyless person there. You're in the business of children's books! Come on! She kept saying, and I quote "It's a bestseller business, make no mistakes about it." Holy crap was she a buzz kill.

Fortunately she was part of a panel of industry pros, and the lady next to her said, "Well not really, we publish books like Harry Potter, to give us the ability (money) to publish the quiet books."

Such a rollercoaster.

Another frightening part of it was the talent, holy craps! The portfolio review was saturated with serious talent.

The first page features a drawing of author Chris Cutcher who I had never heard of before. His speech almost brought me to tears, and had me laughing out loud. I'll definitely be checking out his books, he's a cool son of a gun.

The words 'Beeee kiiinnnnd, baby be kind' are from the excellent song at the bottom which was in my head most of the weekend. The conference was fri-sun and filled with lots of activities starting from 730am and going till 7pm on saturday. It was a little stressful. And my new stress technique is focusing on being nice to myself when I get anxious and stressed. Don't stress about being stressed, or beat yourself up for being stressed. Kindness makes it a lot more bearable. So that's where the song came from. It would come into my head spontaneously all weekend.

And the stress was good. I'm glad I did it. The adorable and righteous Executive Director of SCBWI Lin Oliver quoted the famous bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman thusly- "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but don't nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights."

The latest tiny drawing.

Tiny drawings!!!

I have a tiny 3.5"x5" spiral sketchbook and I love it. I make a drawing and tear it out, and if it pleases me than I date it and put it in chronological order in a tiny envelope.

The sketchbook is perpetually on it's first page.

Also this song and band are perfect for making tiny drawings of your imaginary homestead.

doodle

Doodle doesn't like when I take pictures of her tail-wang while she's trying to nap.

super sweet jewelry and super sweet dogs!!

Hi guys, here's Dana Holscher's awesome etsy shop where she sells these cool earrings (most of them are 10 bucks!):

http://www.etsy.com/shop/botny?ref=pr_shop_more#

She's donating a bunch of her sales to a dog shelter in Fargo. Here's the story:

Help raise money for the 4 Luv of Dog Rescue in Fargo, ND by purchasing Botny earrings Tuesday, December 20th!! Rescue animals have always had a soft spot in my heart, and being that there are SO many dogs in the shelters right now that would love a forever home this Christmas season, 50% of all sales made on December 20th will go towards sponsoring the dogs that have been in the shelter the longest, and lowering their adoption fees so they can hopefully find their forever families this Christmas!! Spread the word and show your animal love this Tuesday!! :)
http://www.4luvofdog.org/wp/

A Treasury in honor of those pets we can help:http://www.etsy.com/treasury/ODMyOTI0NnwxNTM3MDE0MjAw/help-a-dog-in-need-this-christmas-season

FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING THROUGH DECEMBER!!

reading-ass hound dog

reading-ass duck

Happy holidays!!

This is a print and card at my shop.

Chris' Birthday

For my brother's birthday. He likes cats.

Dog portrait

The owner of this beautiful chihuahua asked me to make a portrait of the two of them. The chihuahua is a bit of a monster, so she had me draw it in the same way I drew this blue monster. It was a really fun drawing.

Unfortunately I haven't gathered the patience to learn anything at all about taking pictures, so here's a bunch of crappy pictures of it.

Also, here are two wonderful songs that melted my heart-balls.