Drawing Horses

September 6, 2010September 29, 2010 / still a dreamer / 6 Comments

What to do when you’ve been too long away from one’s children’s book illustrations? Get back in! And sometimes how I get back in is to wade in – so to speak – with a totally different subject matter than that of my current children’s book.

I’ve just been thinking of horses for a number of reasons, so started to look through some reference material, deciding on a color photo of 2 mares and their foals. Simple pen and ink, something that I always enjoy working in and is a very relaxing medium for me.

The result – tada!

Blue Diary – Alice Hoffman

September 5, 2010September 6, 2010 / still a dreamer

I may have written this elsewhere on my blog about Alice Hoffman, but I will say it again. She never disappoints as an author, and she is a master of the well-crafted, cannot-put-it-down novel.

Blue Diary is the latest of Alice Hoffman’s that I’ve read – just finished it, in fact, and I feel like I want to pick it up and read it again; I didn’t want it to end, and I feel like another reading will further enrich my experience in Monroe, MA. Hoffman’s characters are so real – so relatable. They are people you know, flawed, struggling, yet with their own — sometimes surprising — depths of strength.

A family man with a wife and child who adore him, a worker in the small town relied upon for his excellent services, and a volunteer fireman honored because he is often the first to go into a fire fearlessly and rescue someone trapped. Yet on one morning the police arrive – his own friends – and take him away in handcuffs for a crime he allegedly committed 13 years ago in a different state under a different name. How has this happened?

I suppose in a way you can say this is a murder mystery, but it is so much more than that. It is an examination of the hearts and souls of the people whose lives Ethan Ford has touched, and those of their friends and loved ones as things start to come apart at the seams, and also of those whose lives he has ruined. It is a mystery that needs sorting out by many different people. Over the course of Blue Diary, the mystery is revealed, played out through the many characters we get to know and care about.

The second chapter in Part One, simply entitled “True,” is from the POV of Kat, neighbor and 12 year old friend of Ethan Ford’s son, Collie. She says, “The first thing I noticed was that he could walk past a mirror without casting a reflection. My grandmother always told me that a mirror can shine back a person’s dishonesty, but what did it mean for a man to have no reflection at all?” This is not a tale of vampires, or the supernatural, but an insight of a child who can appraise a truth. Something no one else has quite been able to grasp, though past inklings come to light for some. Masterfully woven into the main plot are several sub-plots, all wonderfully intriguing.

And then there’s Hoffman’s writing itself. Her writing has been described as “lush” and “luminous” and these are accurate. Her way with words is so incredibly rich, I never want to leave her world – whichever book’s world she has enticed me to enter. Perhaps it’s why I’m inclined to want to read this again immediately after just finishing it. Her descriptions of place, of experience, of emotion are so compelling that I am there. It’s an amazing gift, and I don’t know of that many authors I’ve read that share it so consistently, novel after novel. Blue Diary is a terrific read.

So what next? What can follow such an engrossing story? Or should I just enjoy it again?

Illustration Saturday – Featuring … Me!

August 29, 2010August 30, 2010 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

I am honored to be featured this Saturday on Kathy Temean’s blog – Writing and Illustrating – her wonderful blog all about the children’s book industry. Kathy is the Regional Advisor of the New Jersey Society for Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, (NJ SCBWI), and blogs daily about every aspect of the field, writing in general, etc.. (And yes, I realize this is one day late, but sometimes this is how life just goes!)

Not too long ago, Kathy introduced a new feature on her blog called Illustrator Saturday in which she showcases children’s book illustrators, information about them, examples of their work, and a peek into their drawing process and where they create their masterpieces. I was honored that Kathy asked me to please be this Saturday’s illustrator feature!

And it’s quite exciting to see my artwork shown off on someplace other than my own web site, too. If you are involved in or a fan of children’s books illustrations – or just children’s books, (or maybe just a fan of my own work), please take a look at Kathy’s blog about children’s books and check out what I’ve been up to. Hope you like it!

The Book That Disappoints

August 27, 2010 / still a dreamer

It happens to all of us, right? We’ve selected a book that seems as if it will be really good, and it’s just a disappointment.

I loved the title of this book; I liked the premise of the story; and it got some great reviews. I also liked the jacket art. But what happened? I know what happened. The author failed to make the characters truly come alive for me. (Obviously not so for some of the reviewers.) Pearl Tull was filled with rage at being left by her husband, but although it was described, the elaboration of it and the emotions of her children in response were thin. If a mother is flying into tantrums and calling her children scum and nailing them against the wall when she is so incensed, shouldn’t I feel it? I didn’t.

The author follows each child’s life, but again, somehow, I felt a distance from all the characters. Sometimes the writing was good, but I just wasn’t engaged. I liked Ezra the most – he seemed the most real to me, but at the end of the book, when the children and their families were gathered after the mother’s funeral, and the father who abandoned them shows up, it’s the oldest son who becomes the focus. Not Ezra, the son who was so devoted to the mother, or the daughter at all.

I kept on reading in the dutiful way we sometimes do – either sure it’s going to get better anytime soon, or because it’s just not that bad to stop entirely. But disappointing. Have you found any books lately that left you feeling the same?

I’ve picked up one of my favorite authors – Alice Hoffman – as a balm to my disappointment, and am looking forward to her usual good writing. I’m ready for the book I can’t put down.

Fabulous Farmstand Food

August 11, 2010 / still a dreamer

For those of us living in or near agricultural counties, New Jersey is a cornucopia of gorgeous fresh produce, pouring in during a long growing season. It’s absolute heaven.

And it’s a shame that so many people think of New Jersey – the Garden State – as a series of networked, ugly highways thorned by uglier power plants and factories. While a small portion of eastern New Jersey may look like that, so many more parts of the state are lush, green and abundant. In Hunterdon County, small farms and farmers’ markets abound, all offering an assortment of delicious fresh produce from early spring through November.

The other day I went berry and peach picking with a friend and her 3 kids at Phillips Farms in Holland Township.

The blackberries were outstanding, but I had really gone for some white peaches and Jersey tomatoes. I suppose many states lay claim to having the best tomatoes, but I’m still sticking with New Jersey.

Same for Jersey corn! Phillips Farm also had a great assortment of flowers – sunflowers plus many other kinds in bouquets, and some plants and herbs at $5 apiece.

Now if you can imagine, we have all this for months on end. Inside there was corn picked just that morning, gorgeous string beans, zucchini, kale, radishes, onions, cucumbers and more.

This same friend had come back from a trip to Colorado – a somewhat isolated city, (as they called it – a suburb to New Jerseyans), where the food was … well … pretty poor, as she described it. And then I realized how enormously fortunate we are to be sitting right next to our food sources for so much of the year. I sure am grateful!