Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 124

Another DebsAndErrol Song: NaNoWriMo Overnight

Last day of NaNoWriMo!

Don't worry if you didn't finish -- consider taking the 250, 500 or 1000 words a day challenge instead.

More about DebsandErrol at http://debsanderrol.com/

Read the daily Nanotoons that Errol has been posted at https://www.facebook.com/NaNoToons

Angry Robot launches new YA imprint

From the Angry Robot site:

"We are absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the launch of our new YA imprint, Strange Chemistry The imprint will launch in September 2012, with five titles appearing before the end of that year, before settling down to one book each month. Strange Chemistry will follow AR's strategy of co-publishing its books simultaneously in the US and UK, in both eBook and paperback formats. Subject matter will include fantasy, science fiction, supernatural and horror, and as with Angry Robot the lines between those genres are likely to be very blurry at times."

You can find an interview with editor Amanda Rutter on YAtopia. According to the interview, Strange Chemistry will be open only to agented submissions.

More info

Lost Weekend with David Diaz (Part 1): Art, Food & Friendship

As some of you already know, I was thrilled to be picked for the SCBWI Illustration Mentorship Program at last year's Summer Conference in LA. Thrilled as in "can this really be happening to me" thrilled, especially when combined with the offer from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers to illustrate Michael Ian Black's new picture book, I'm Bored.

The six of us got together during the conference, just to chat and get to know each other a little better: Eliza Wheeler, Andrea Offermann, John Deininger, Kimberly Gee, Ashley Mims and me. We discovered (to our mutual relief, I suspect) that we all got along very well, and we decided to launch our own website at KidLitArtists.com.

We also kept in touch via group email about what we were all up to, shared successes and disappointments, critique and encouragement. We hung out when we attended the same SCBWI events.

At the SCBWI Summer Conference this year, some of us were joking with Caldecott-winning children's book illustrator & SCBWI Illustration Mentor David Diaz, saying we'd love to snoop through his studio (I believe it was Eliza who was nervy enough to suggest it). David surprised us by saying it was a great idea. In fact, he sent out an invite soon after the conference, and said he wanted to invite some other mentees as well.

And so LOST WEEKEND was born!

Sadly, not all the 2010 and 2011 Mentees could make it to Lost Weekend (we missed you guys!). Here's the attendee list:

Mentees: Class of 2010:

Andrea Offermann, Eliza Wheeler and me

Mentees: Class of 2011:

Christina Forshay, Jessica Lanan, Juana Martinez-Neal, Andrea Zuill

Others invited by David:

Bonnie Adamson and Alice Ratterree

Note: This wasn't an officially sanctioned SCBWI event but rather an act of generosity by David. I admire his courage, inviting a bunch of strangers into his private home. I think he was a tad nervous at first, wondering what he had got himself into.

(Above: piece by David Diaz)

Some of us stayed at the hotel, some at David's. I loved David's house with its high ceilings, full of light and color. There was art everywhere, including many gorgeous and interesting pieces by David and his son Ariel.

(Above: Piece by Ariel)

David did most of the cooking…and he's really good at it! My mouth is watering even as I type this, remembering these home-baked popovers fresh out of the oven, light as air and slathered with fresh cream, jam or savoured plain:

Here are just some of the other things we feasted on during the weekend:

German pancakes, scrambled eggs with sautéed spinach, smoked bacon, sausage.

"Sin-cleansing" French pressed coffee.

Handmade pasta, with an Putanesca Sauce with Hot Italian sausage

Salad with goat cheese, candied walnuts, crasins, and white balsamic vinegar dressing

Sformata di Ricotta

Oven roasted garlic

Fresh bread

Jambalaya rice with sausage, mushrooms, grilled tri-tip

Pumpkin pie

Chocolate chip coconut brownies

Apple raspberry crumb pie and ice cream.

I'm pretty sure I left Lost Weekend heavier than when I arrived.

Plus Bonnie introduced me to Pickled Okra (yummmmmmmmmmmm):

which go wonderfully in these:

I loved the buzz of activity in the kitchen as we chopped and stirred under David's tutelage, conversation and laughter (a LOT of laughter) filling the house.

Even food shopping was fun:

I discovered Von's, which is apparently a chain grocery story in California. "V-a-u-g-h-n-s," said David, when I asked him how to spell it. I believed him and started writing it down until I heard the others sniggering. Kidlit illustrators can be so MEEEEEAN. :-D

We spent a lot of time just chatting in front of the fireplace. We each gave a brief demo of how we worked, talking about our process. It was funny, really -- each one of us basically felt like our own process was SO boring yet when it came to seeing how the others did their work, we were each fascinated. Lots of kidlit and art talk and picture book writing talk, plus browsing of each other's portfolios.

On Sunday, the weather cleared up so we decided to go walking on the beach. SUCH a nice change from Toronto weather!

We left our shoes in a pile on the beach:

David reassured us that no one would steal them. :-)

And holy cow, I know it sounds like a cliché, but it felt SO GREAT to walk barefoot along the beach!

and we saw pelicans:

and hang gliders:

David took us to the Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Garden, with its beautiful gardens and koi ponds:

We got in trouble from a security guard in the gardens when we laughed too much as we tried to get this photo taken:

Darned noisy kidlit illustrators!

Above: David let us snoop through some of his archives from earlier in his career

It was fascinating to see some of David's earlier work, and hear his explanations of how and why he changed his illustration style. We also got to see sketches and drawings from Mother Earth Watches (working title, will change), his upcoming book with Chronicle Books (tentative publication date: Spring 2013).

David taught us a new technique: taping down a framed area on masonite, painting a background texture/color using acrylics, then a layer of matte medium (or at least I had to do this since my base layer of acrylic was already so textured), then drawing in conte, then spraying with a fixative.

Some of us (hand waving here) didn't normally work with acrylics, so were a bit nervous about the process. BUT it ended up being a lot of fun as well as enlightening -- it was good to push beyond our normal creative comfort zones, especially in a safe and encouraging environment like the one at Lost Weekend.

Also very cool to see the different approaches everyone took in their projects.

Andrea, who drove to David's, brought some of her paintings later in the weekend for us to look at. I LOVE her work! She also brought a print for each of us as a gift. Here's the one she gave me:

You can see more of Andrea's work at http://www.andreazuill.com/

 

To be continued….

New Debs&Errol Music Video For Writers: "First Page Of My Story"

Great new music video for writers from my friends Debs&Errol. :-D

You can see their daily comics on their website and Errol's daily NaNoToons.

New Debs&Errol Music Video For Writeres: "First Page Of My Story"

Great new music video for writers from my friends Debs&Errol. :-D

You can see their daily comics on their website and Errol's daily NaNoToons.

Reader thanks from my childhood autograph book: Ray Bradbury

I recently came across my childhood autograph book, and the recent #readerthanks posts on Twitter inspired me to share this page.

I always loved reading, but it wasn't until I read Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine that I became aware of style in writing. I'm generally a fast reader, but for Ray Bradbury's books I slowed way down so I could savour the language. Reading Ray Bradbury's books also helped me get hooked on sf/fantasy early on.

Note re: autograph page. For every autograph I received, I found a image of the author, researched and typed up a bio, and also wrote out the author's name by hand in calligraphy.

Another gem in my autograph book: a manually typed note from Stephen King! With corrected typos, even! I'll have to share that in a future post.

In case you're wondering how Ray Bradbury ended up sending me his autograph... When I was hoping to get someone's autograph, I wrote to the publisher with my request and a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply. I was SOOOOOOOO excited when I got replies!

Color proofs for I'M BORED arrived today!

Yay! The color proofs for I'M BORED arrived today, woohoo!!!

Also included in the package: the welcome sign that was in the front lobby of Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers when I first visited them. I've taped up the sign beside my office door. :-)

If you're on Facebook, please do "Like" our I'M BORED page:

https://www.facebook.com/boredbook

I'll be posting more spreads, sketches and journal entries about the whole process, leading up to the official launch in September 2012.

September.

2012.

MY HEAD IS GOING TO EXPLODE WITH ANTICIPATION BEFORE THEN, I SWEAR.

Back from my trip but am still catching up...

Just got back from a 10 day trip to California and Texas. In California, I attended Lost Weekend: an amazing creative weekend hosted by Caldecott-winning illustrator David Diaz (see above photo). After that, I attended BoardGameGeek with my husband: a five day (yes, I said FIVE DAYS) board gaming convention.

I'll be posting more about Lost Weekend here in Inkygirl, and am posting about BGG in my board gaming blog.

Right now, however, I need to unpack and then catch up with some e-mail...

NaNoWriMo comics and songs from my friends Errol & Debs

For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, I highly recommend you check out Errol Elumir's NaNoToons. Heck, even writers who AREN'T doing NaNoWriMo will appreciate some of the writer angst in some of these comics. :-)

But wait, that's not all! Debs and Errol are also writing about NaNoWriMo in their daily comic and I MADE A CAMEO APPEARANCE RECENTLY!!! I only stumbled across it just now as I was putting this blog post together! Heh.

Errol also writes NaNoWriMo songs! Here's his newest:

And in case you missed it, here's the music video that Debs and Errol did about NaNoWriMo (I make a cameo appearance here too!):

 

 

NaNoToons: NaNoWriMo Comics from Errol Elumir

For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, I highly recommend you check out Errol Elumir's NaNoToons. Heck, even writers who AREN'T doing NaNoWriMo will appreciate some of the writer angst in some of these comics. :-)