Ahhh, To Be Published!

/ still a dreamer

As the big annual NJ SCBWI June Conference approaches, I am one among many who is beginning to stress out. I’ve had discussions with several friends, not all fellow writers and illustrators, trying to determine what exactly it is that gets us all so wound beforehand. Editors and agents have been wonderful and helpful at the various conferences and mentoring workshops we’ve attended; there is a convivial and supportive attitude among all participants; it’s a vast learning opportunity. So why so stressed, kiddo?

One of my friends felt it was performance anxiety which tends to hit creatives especially hard. I can buy that. I was thinking perhaps it’s because we all go with such high hopes. Pick me! Publish my story, and yes, thank you for accepting me as its illustrator, too. Who doesn’t bring her dreams wrapped carefully in an elegant velvet scarf or tucked jauntily into her portfolio, waiting for the moment to reveal what some unsuspecting editor or agent has been just waiting to be wowed by – the best story and illustrations ever!

I was following a few links to blogs about children’s books before I wrote this – what some editors and agents say they’re looking for, great hooks in your stories, and then on to the blog of Jay Asher, who wrote Thirteen Reasons Why. I haven’t read the book, but I believe a friend of mine has. What struck me in visiting Jay Asher online was that first, he had his own blog … which detailed his book signings, event participation and school visits. Then I see his book has its own blog AND his MC has her own blog. Holy Moly!

I was both daunted and excited. Could this happen to me? Of course, it could! And the joy and wealth of experiences it will bring to my life when I get there are just glittering on the horizon.

Breathe in. And exhale. And again. Ahhh, to be published!

French Bulldog Art …. Applied

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

It was most recently my pleasure to do a small portrait for a woman in Walla Walla, WA who inquired about my doing a drawing of one of her French Bulldogs for a new business card. Between running my own Graphic Design business and applying myself to my writing and illustrating of children’s books, I didn’t know if I wanted to do a portrait. It’s something I have put aside in the interest of focusing on my future in children’s books. But I felt called to do this and felt I was getting a nod from the Universe. It somehow seemed significant that Toni Myers lives out by two of my current favorite authors, Sherman Alexie and Patricia Briggs. Plus I knew it would keep me refining my French Bulldog art and drawing skills.

Toni sent me a baby picture of one of her French Bulldogs, Truman. Toni and her family have show Frenchies and a small, conscientious breeding program, We Be French Bulldogs. She asked if I might incorporate her favorite flower, a purple pansy, in the image. I accepted the work, and we had a great working experience. I loved doing the work – both the portrait and the business card incorporating it  – and she and her family loved the results. What’s more, I had the opportunity to work with a truly delightful woman who now will be a part of more of my own French Bulldog work in children’s books.

Such an arrangement had never crossed my mind; in fact, I wasn’t quite sure why this iniitally seemed such a good thing. But I do believe in synchronicity —  things align in time and space for a reason. Surely this was one of those events, and it put smiles on two faces clear across the country.

You can order Frenchie cards and other items here!

Note: All illustrations, drawings and photographs are © Jeanne Balsam and may not be reproduced in any format without written permission. Thank you!

What IS That in Your Shopping Cart?

/ still a dreamer

How often do you go food shopping and find yourself looking at someone’s shopping cart filled to the brim with junk food and over-processed food? And often as not, with a child or two hanging onto the side of the cart. I don’t know about you, but I nearly fall over when I see all that heavily processed, chemicalized, sugared food … and fed to children. Yes, I know how busy we all are – I’m one of those people – but I also know that we are becoming an obese, increasingly unhealthy nation. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high, and stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer are killing us all way too young.

I read a lot about the food we eat and try to eat as wholesomely and purely as I can. As much as I possibly can purchase or afford is organic. I make most of my choices in consideration of what has been added to our foods along the way, (hormones, antibiotics, pesticides), or how they have been altered, (GMO), the horrific cruelty involved in getting animal products to our plate, (most meat), how the environment is affected by the production of that food, and when possible, how the workers who produced the food are treated/compensated. I know most people are not as deeply concerned about what’s on their plate as I am. And I also know  it’s still quite possible to eat well without all the considerations that I choose to make.

I recently read am article in the March 2010 issue of Prevention magazine about the 50 healthiest everyday foods, and a simple pictorial guide as how to stay with the healthiest choice, and skip the highly processed choice, plus a health/shopping tip at the right. Each line had 3 columns, for example – 1st choice – an apple – 2nd choice – and somewhat processed – applesauce and 3rd choice to be limited and highly processed – apple toaster pastry.  Whole grain bread, wheat bread, fortified white bread. Fresh chicken breast, deli-sliced chicken and chicken nuggets. You get the idea.

Most people may know at this point there is next to no chicken in chicken nuggets, but did you know that pasture-raised eggs may have 35% less fat, 60% more Vitamin A, and 200% more omega 3’s? This article is a little gold mine of short, concise facts.

I was very disappointed that I could not find this article on Prevention’s web site to link to – I think for the average consumer, it provides a straightforward guide about how to make better food choices. That third column is what I see an awful lot of in shopping carts nowadays. So if you’re reading this, I may already be preaching to the choir, but eat whole foods … stay in the left column .. and maybe we’ll meet each other when we’re 90!

Reservation Blues – Sherman Alexie

/ still a dreamer

There’s plenty written about Reservation Blues, including that written by Alexie himself, so I’m not going to write any summaries or anything like that other than what appealed to me, personally. And that’s a lot. First, I realized I’m going to have to buy the book to have my own copy, as what I read belongs to my local library. That’s so I can go back in and visit from time to time.

I am moved by Alexie’s writing style – in some ways, almost a stream of consciousness, but we all know one doesn’t get published by going with only that. It’s HOW he writes that I’m drawn to – the fluidity, the interjections of things that may seem unrelated or perhaps we just never connected before. Like Big Mom and her relationship to the slaughtered horses … how they brought their songs back to her in the forms of others – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Marvin Gaye, (the latter two whom I was very fortunate to have seen in concert), and then they returned to earth. Is it so surprising that Robert Johnson, who bartered away his freedom, should come to Big Mom? Or that Thomas Builds-the-Fire should let Johnson’s guitar pass through his hands and Victor to become ensnared by it?

I read Reservation Blues and wished I knew Big Mom. Everyone needs Big Mom – loving, giving, spiritual, a healer, and yet objective, claiming to no particular situational outcome for anyone. I wish I couldn’t hear the horses scream … a too-piercing song. But Big Mom’s there to mourn for them and to keep their songs alive. And I am thankful. Woven into the story, the violent massacre tells part of the tribe’s history.

I am drawn in by Alexie’s subtleties,  such as the harmonica that Big Mom made for Robert Johnson and tossed to him. “He could feel a movement inside the wood, something familiar.” Was it his music, or was even Big Mom not powerful enough to out The Gentleman? Is it why Johnson decided to stay in Wellpinit? It was only one line that may have gone unnoticed but Reservation Blues seems packed with such subtleties, such fluid turns of the wrist. It’s a style I like, kind of filled with asides that maybe you get, maybe you don’t.

Reservation Blues follows a core group of characters that have strengths and weaknesses, their acceptance of life and their desires to escape or rail against it. Some of them survive the adversities, some don’t. And those who do, some better, some not so well. And if it’s hard to like Victor? a note from Junior to Big Mom tells us why he’s not as bad as he seems. But Victor’s weak and Johnson’s guitar has him in thrall. Again, maybe smaller points in the novel … maybe ones that encompass the whole story in one vignette.

And there’s magic – things that couldn’t be real, such as Junior’s appearance to Victor in the car, the guitar talking, the strings catching fire – or could they? Woven into the story, they become so believable they cannot be extricated. For me anyway. I surrender and I believe. And I follow the band Coyote Springs and its evolution, how it helps me get to know who’s in it, who they meet, where real hell is, where it’s not.

Does Reservation Blues depict life on the reservation today? I have no doubt. It doesn’t give the reader any kind of romantic view of the American Indian such as Alexie says seems common to some white people, New Agers, etc. The view is sometimes painful, sometimes simply life, sometimes just of people like the rest of us dealing with what every day brings. But it’s a different life than that of the rest of us – one with a different history, a different set of memories and tradition, and different challenges – not ours. And I like Alexie’s telling of it. He connects me. And I like how he does it.

No One Does It Like A Cat

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

If you have a prescribed spot of sun and a cat, chances are the latter will find the former and fit right in it. It is the cat’s artistry to seek Ra and pour oneself into his shape.

Witness Mewsette below – the perfect cat in a light box.