What’s Coming Up

A few people have asked me lately when my next book will be coming out. It has been a while! For the last two years (2014 and 2015) I’ve only released one book per year, and those are the first two books in the Tales From Deckawoo Drive series written by Kate DiCamillo. And yet it seems like I’m busier than ever – so busy in fact, that I’ve had to put school visits on hold until I finish up some of these projects. So here’s a list of what I’ve been working on and what’s coming up.

- This summer I finished up the artwork for a picture book written by Lisa Wheeler. It’s a fun rhyming book titled Even Monsters Need to Sleep. It will be published by Balzer+Bray and it will be released in the fall of 2016.

- Currently I’m working on the illustrations for the third Tales From Deckawoo Drive book. This one features Baby Lincoln and it’s a terrific story. It actually brings me to tears each time I read it. It will be published by Candlewick Press and come out in the fall of 2016.

- After that, I’ll finish up the illustrations for my next book, a story I wrote called Hattie & Hudson. I have about 2/3rds of the illustrations completed but I had to set it aside to work on the two books I just mentioned. I’m very excited about this story. It’s the first time I’ve written a story with a female main character, in this case a girl named Hattie. It’s also my first attempt at writing a non-rhyming story. I actually wrote it originally in verse (in fact I wrote it several times in rhyme!) but after multiple rewrites I realized it really would work better in prose. It’s a 40 page picture book that will be published by Candlewick. It’s scheduled to be released in the spring of 2017.

- I also have to fit another picture book project in my already crowded schedule. Unfortunately I can’t tell you much about this title but it’s a book I didn’t write. I’m just the illustrator. I’m not sure I’m going to meet the deadline on this one so I’m uncertain when it will actually be published. Right now it’s scheduled for a spring 2017 release.

-The last two books I have to illustrate are: a follow-up to Even Monsters Need to Sleep and the fourth Tales From Deckawoo Drive book, but I have no idea when these are due or when they will come out.

Stay tuned!