Writing

Working with An Illustrator

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Yes, my book has a dog! But it didn’t always have one.

“Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?” – 2nd Edition’s text brought the reader into the rich imagination of the little boy who has fallen asleep dreaming. But during the illustration process, Stella asked if we might have a dog. Hmmm. After a not-terribly-long discussion about it and an inquiry as to what kind of dog, I was good with it, and now we have an adorable Beagle pup guiding the young reader throughout the book.

As an illustrator myself, I have a process when I write a picture book – I start the story, visualize it, continue writing, visualize that, and so on. By the time I’ve finished writing the story, I have completely illustrated it in my mind. So one of the challenges in working with an illustrator is that their images, no matter how gorgeous, often contradict what’s already in your mind!

It takes surrendering your own ideas, and trusting someone else to imagine your story. And what a wonderful job Stella did on that. And the Beagley-boy is such a perfect touch.

“Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?” – 2nd Edition is now available on Amazon.

Where Do Butterflies Go at Night? – 2nd Edition

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It’s here! ”Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?” – 2nd Edition is now available. While newly designed and formatted, the book still has the same heartwarming story with the lush and magical illustrations of Stella Maris Mongodi.

Why a 2nd Edition? Due to “Butterflies” first publisher unfortunately closing their doors, my beautiful picture book would disappear or … I could save it. I wanted kids to be able to still read of a child’s rich imagination as to where butterflies went at night, and also how they could help them. I decided to purchase the illustrations and acquired permission to use them to self-publish my book.

The challenge? The dimensions of the original book are not offered by POD publishers. This meant a new size and gave me the opportunity to do a re-design. As a graphic designer and an artist, myself, I was able to re-create “Butterflies” in this gorgeous, new book.

Please consider welcoming “Where Do Butterflies Go at Night?” – 2nd Edition into your home and share the magic with a child, available on Amazon.

The Middle of Winter

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Nature will do her best to never fail us. She will shine in her own way, in her own season, in her own time. Grateful.

And a poem that just came to me. It seems fitting. By Donna Ashworth.

UNSTOPPABLE

Unstoppable they called her
but I saw her stop
I saw her stop many times
sometimes I thought she had
stopped for good
but no
she always found a way
to rise again
to resurrect
not the same, never the same
unstoppable they said
but I think it was in the stopping
that she found her power

– Donna Ashworth

Don’t Hesitate

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Don’t Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Mary Oliver

The Quote that Inspires …

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My new copy of “The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle (mine is old, beat-up and yellowed.) Why this book now? I have not been able to concentrate well on a novel – just too much to do. Until …

I stumbled across a quote I love from this book in one of my own posts here on stilladreamer.com

“It’s a rare man who is taken for what he truly is. There is much misjudgment in the world. Now I took you for a unicorn when I first saw you, and I know that I am your friend. Yet you took me for a clown, a clod, or a betrayer, and so I must be if you see me so. The magic on you is only magic and will vanish as soon as you are free, but the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes.

“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream. Still, I have read, or heard it sung, that unicorns when time was young, could tell the difference `twixt the two – the false shining and the true, the lips’ laugh and the heart’s rue.”

~ Schmendrick the Magician
 from “The Last Unicorn”

Sometimes all it takes is a few words, and we’re back in a book.

This magnificent and well-known tapestry: “The Unicorn Is in Captivity” (1495-1505 ) is one of the “Hunt for the Unicorn” tapestries, housed in The Cloisters, NYC.