BookLust

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...It's a Super Conference!

Hey all you librarians and library technicians in Ontario – if you're going to the OLA Super Conference this year, please stop by the Scholastic booth at 11:00am on Friday February 1st, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I'll be there signing my illustrated book 13 Ghosts of Halloween, and I'll be really sad if no one comes to see me. Seriously, you don't want to see a cartoonist cry – it ain't a pretty sight. So please say hello!

I'll also be at the Expo Theatre on the Expo Floor from 12:00 noon 'til about 2:00pm with a great group of CANSCAIP authors and illustrators, doing a five-minute plug for 13 Ghosts. I'm terrified!! So if you see me, please don't laugh. 'Cuz that will make me cry, too....aren't artists a neurotic bunch? Well, I know I am, anyway...

So let's have a big hooray for  libraries and librarians and library technicians! You rock my world, baby!

Silly Poetry Friday 23

Yes, yes, I know – it ain't Friday, in fact, it's yucky Monday. All the more reason for a silly poem, don'tchathink? I was crazy busy with thisn' that on Friday, and then I couldn't find a poem I really liked to post. Until today, that is, which happens to be...yes, Monday. So sue me.

I've been thinking a lot lately about New York again, and, sigh....wanting desperately to go back...must save my pennies, I guess. In the mean time, I'll live vicariously through Dorothy Parker's poetry:

OBSERVATION

If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again,
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much,
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

Do Ya Dig Democracy?

So how cool is this? My pal Liam O'Donnell, a very talented author of kid's books and graphic novels, wrote a hilarious educational book about the history of democracy, and guess who got to illustrate it? Why me, silly! The book is called Democracy and is part of the Cartoon Nation series, which is published by Captstone Press.

Lots of fun to illustrate, and so cool to get to work on a project with someone I know and like! Mind you, it ain't like we really got to literally work together – he wrote the script a while ago, and in the mean time I had contacted Capstone Press with an interest in doing any kind of cartoon work for them, and as luck would have it, I got a job, and it was to illustrate Liam's book! But it's still a wonderful feeling to be able to put our talents together for a book, especially one that has a sense of humour. Here are a few more of my fave pages from the book.

I'm especially thrilled that I got to do a cartoon about Johannes Gutenburg. Thanks, Liam, for stressing the importance of the creation of books in the development of democracy! And doing caricatures of various politicians was a blast!

Though I suppose that Giuliani is really a non-issue now, isn't he? And um...I would suggest that the paragraph below could really be considered fiction as opposed to non-fiction, but hey, that's just me....

I think little bit of Twister in the the U.S. election would jazz things up a tad, don't you?

This Lady Ain't Singing the Blues

A while back I wrote a post about my mom's cousin Georgie Ziadie, otherwise known as Lady Colin Campbell (that's her pictured on the left). Lady Colin Campbell has written quite a few books, mostly dealing with Princess Diana and the royal family. Her latest book received a lot of attention, because it is a fictional story which apparently mirrors the life of Lily Safra (the lady on the right), one very rich and powerful widow. Ms. Safra did not take too kindly to Georgie's novel, Empress Bianca, and so rather than deal with a nasty court battle (libel laws are pretty strict in the UK) the publishers decided to pulp Lady Colin Campbell's book. But that wasn't the end of the battle – I had read in Dominick Dunne's column in Vanity Fair that Georgie was going to sue, but until yesterday, that was the last I had heard of the story.

So yesterday my dad emails me the latest news on Georgie from Page Six in the New York Post – it looks like Georgie's found an American Publisher for Empress Bianca, and she'll soon be coming to New York for a book party to be hosted by her U.S. publisher, Dynasty Press.

Damn, I'd love to go to that party! Hey , we're related – d'ya think she'd invite me?

Author Views

Here's something interesting I found while puttering around the Annick Press blog. It's a site called AuthorViews, and is basically a collection of videos from a wide variety of authors (I believe American and some Canadian) discussing their books. From the words of the president, Steve O'Keefe, "AuthorViews is a nonprofit project to gather, edit, and distribute video profiles of authors and others in the book trade and related arts." Annick Press is one of the sponsors, so I assume that's why there's a smattering of Canadian authors and illustrators in the video collection.

One video in particular caught my attention, because it's the delightful and very talented children's author and illustrator Ruth Ohi. She's illustrated over 40 picture books and novels, and has written and illustrated at least six of her own picture books. She's a Canadian treasure in the world of kid's books, and she's just so darn sweet and giving when you meet her! She also has a very talented sister Debbie, and both these women astound me with their creativity, energy, generosity and zest for life.

In the video when Ruth discusses her career, and the fact that with what she is doing, she is "promoting a lifelong love of books", I think, yeah, that's what I want to do to – I want to make a difference, entertain kids, and share my love of books and reading with young audiences, who will hopefully carry that love of books with them for the rest of their lives. To get paid to do a job like that, for me, would be heaven.

When I grow up, I wanna be just like Ruth Ohi.

Winky War!

A while back I read a very interesting post on the Chronicle Books blog, about a children's book series by Rotraut Suzanne Berner about the four seasons. Apparently the books are bestsellers in 13 countries, but had trouble finding a home in the largest children's book market (yes, that would be the U.S.) because there is (shudder) nudity in one of the books. The salacious scene takes place in a gallery and you can see a small painting of a naked lady, and if you look really, really, really hard, you can find a teeny tiny sculpture of a naked man, and yes, his teeny tiny naked winky.

Can you see it? No? Well it's there, trust me. 'Cuz those trained naked-winky-detectors sure found it! The U.S. publisher Boyds Mills Press had initially requested that the winky be air-brushed out, but the artist refused, so apparently Boyds Mills initially dumped the four-book series. But this week the publisher has relented, due to the outcry it caused in Germany. Anyway, thankfully Chronicle will be publishing an omnibus edition of the four books for Fall 2008, so if you're interested, I'd recommend getting the Chronicle edition myself.

Ah...but the story doesn't end there! You see, this week Quill & Quire picked up the news, and posted it on their wonderful blog. The most fascinating part of this post isn't the news itself – it's all the heated comments from a wide variety of people, all passionate about children, war and, well – winkies. Seriously, can someone please explain to me how the discussion of a tiny penis always seems to end with the discussion of war? Could there perhaps be a connection there somewhere, hmmmmm??

Quite frankly, I just don't understand what all the fuss is about. I thought our pal Maurice dealt with this issue years ago.

Tea Time at Annick Press!

Huzzah! The delightful and innovative Canadian children's publisher Annick Press now has a blog! Why not pop by and see what they've been up to?

I've never visited their office, and I'd really love to – especially because their Toronto address is on Patricia Avenue! That must be the secret to their success, don't ya think?

Thanks to Monique for the tip!

Silly Poetry Friday 22

Yippee! It's Friday, and it's time to get silly again! And guess what? Today I have an extra-special-silly poem for you, written by a very talented blogger! Today's poem was written by the very clever Quotesqueen, who is a collector of all things quotable. For some silly reason, after discovering my site, the Quotesqueen was inspired and resolved to have more fun on her blog. Now why would she feel that way? I'm a very serious person, you know (wink). And so just to prove her point, she wrote a wonderfully silly and downright brilliant limerick:

There once was a blogger who laughed,
(when she found a new blog that was daft)
“I can make this fun
and I will,” whereupon,
she created a whimsical draft.

Ain't that a hoot? Hey! Wait a minute...she called me daft!! The noive! Why I otta...ah...fuggetaboutit. I'm as daft as they come. I'm daft, and I'm lovin' every minute of it!

I Got Posted 20

Yup, it's certainly been a while since I've drawn anything for the National Post. Fortunately I've been busy with other stuff, so I haven't been fretting about it too much. I have noticed in the past year or so that unfortunately they just don't seem to be using freelance illustrators as much; they tend to be sticking with the inhouse artists. Can't blame them if they need to save a buck or two. So it was nice to get the call. Actually, ha – I wasn't contacted by phone; the whole conversation with the editor took place via email. How fitting for this article!

In today's article, the columnist Danielle Crittenden explains why she is an 'ePerson' as opposed to the old-fashioned and so-very-inconvenienced 'Phone Person'. She'd be quite happy to deal with all her communications via email:

I'm done with phones because, compared to e-mail, BlackBerries and instant messaging, they are an archaic and time-wasting form of communication. They are the electronic equivalent of a toddler, pulling at your skirt while you are in the middle of something, saying, "mommymommymommymommy-NOWmommywant-mommyNOW." Whereas eCommunication is like a highly trained personal assistant, neatly arranging and prioritizing messages, giving you the choice to respond immediately ("toilet clggd!! r u comin home???!!") or at your leisure ("hey we were in Grade 9 together, just thought I'd say hi!").

What do you think? I guess I'm not that important – I don't get enough annoying phone calls during the day. But that may be due in part to the fact that most people I communicate with have chosen to connect to me via email. Yes, email is very convenient. And if you are working with a client, and they piss you off, the client won't be able to detect the tone of anger or annoyance in your email, whereas they will if you are talking to them on the phone (For the  most part, I don't like my clients knowing I'm annoyed about something, unless it's something really big. Problem  is, if I talk on the phone, I'm lousy at hiding my emotions). And yes, sometimes you get into a groove while you're working, and the ring of the phone can be really jarring. And sometimes you just don't feel like talking to anyone, because you are in hermit-I-hate-the-world mode. But then there are the times when the quiet of the day (for those who work alone) is just so stifling that the only thing that can save you is the sound of a real live human voice.

Swimming Through That Slush

Oh, and since I was talking about Chronicle Books in my previous post, I thought I'd mention them again, for good measure. They've got a great blog you should check out, which talks about their most recent funky books, and sometimes they venture into some very interesting subjects, such as how their editors deal with the many submissions that they get from all over the world.

Lisa Campbell, an Associate Editor at Chronicle has recently written two very helpful posts for those folks considering submitting a book idea to Chronicle Books. Her first blog entry, written not long after Christmas, is entitled The Grinch Who Opens Your Book Proposal. Ms. Campbell basically writes out a list of all the annoying things that people have done in the past, as a warning to others not to repeat the same mistake, because as we all know (for those who want to be published) you don't ever want to piss off an editor. Kiss of Death. For example, Ms. Campbell suggests that it is not really a good idea to put food samples inside your cookbook proposals:

They almost never travel well…crumbs everywhere. (Plus, taking candy from strangers seems like a bad idea, even though we realize it makes no sense to poison the person you’re trying to woo.)

Good advice, I would think.

In Ms. Campbell's next post on submitting to Chronicle, Skiing Slush Mountain, she gets delves into what she calls her Philosophy of Slush – key concepts which will hopefully guide prospective creators on to a successful publishing path. For example, it's important to have a good base knowledge of who the audience is for your book submission:

When the author says that their book appeals to “everyone” or “everyone who watches Oprah,” I am skeptical. Not even the Bible is for everyone and that’s the biggest selling book of all time! Think it over and give me information I can use. If your book actually only appeals to 20-something urbanites, Don Rickles fans, or suburban moms of teenagers, that’s still a whole lot of people. It’s often easier to publish successfully to a smaller, specific audience–just look at our publishing to see what I mean.

Some very helpful stuff, which could be applicable in many publishing houses, not just one that specializes in art and gift books.

So get going and create some high quality slush!