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I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK, released last week (!!!!!), tells a fractured fairytale only in dialogue…which I wouldn’t normally recommend, because the speech bubbles can obscure illustrations. But if you’re working with the genius that is Benji Davies, you don’t have to worry. Because somehow, he fits it all in! And it’s all gorgeous, dahlinks!
This book took four years to come to print—like a fine bouillabaisse, it simmered long. (Sorry, I just heard that on TV and guffawed, so I had to use it.)
Here’s one of my favorite spreads of the book turned into a coloring page. It’s a quick PDF download. Click it, print it out, share it, make up dialogue for Prince Zilch and Papa Bear! What are they saying? (Is it something about the tourists posting to Instagram? I dunno, they don’t look like millenials to me.)
Enjoy!
And now…onto some winnahs…
First, let me say this to everyone who has bought the book, shared it and otherwise helped spread the word:
See, my buckets overfloweth! (Overfloweth = what I think Gwyneth should have named Apple.)
It takes a village to sell a book, and I’m grateful!
Here are the winners of a signed, personalized I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK from my Facebook author page and PiBoIdMo group contest:
JANET DISOTELL
CARISSA MINA
DAMON DEAN
Congratulations! I’ll be contacting you shortly to arrange delivery!
Well, now I must bid you a fair adieu because I’m taking a little blogging break. (Honestly, if I can stay away for three days, I’ll be flabbergasted. Like you were reading the “fine bouillabaisse” line above.)
GONE FISHING! (To make this, of course!)
Happy Mother’s Day to my mama-writer friends. What you do every day is amazing! You created kids…and now you create stories!
And what I just did is amazing, too. I gave birth to a new book cover!
(Well, really, Benji Davies did.)
I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK releases in August 2015 from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster. But you can catch a glimpse of the alien-bear mayhem right here, right now:
Many thanks to my very cool editor, Alyson Heller, and art director, Karin Paprocki, at Aladdin. And of course, none of this would be possible without über-agent Ammi-Joan Paquette.
More sneak peeks to come soon. I promise you a cute bear tushy.
Have a great day, Mama Bears!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious does not even begin to describe the week I’ve been having! I know, I know, why should YOU care? Frankly, I don’t know. The fact that anyone other than my mother reads this blog blows my mind.
First, on Friday, my agent said she loves the 900-word picture book I just wrote. Who knew that many words was possible? I tend to stick to the 500-is-best rule, but this story was too librarious (made-up word) to fit in such a tiny space. So it’s busting out into the world and I hope it writes home soon. Au revoir, dahlink!
Next, I spoke at the RUCCL One-on-One Plus conference. And people thanked me for my speech! To know that I helped a few mentees feel less nervous that day—whoa! Mission accomplished.
And now, I have an announcement!
Drum roll please….
Oh, you’re an animal, Animal!
I have an illustrator for I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK (Aladdin/S&S, 2014)!
And he is full of awesome sauce! (Although he’s from the UK, so that might be called “admirable gravy” across the pond, I dunno.)
Without further ado (and I do a lot of ado), it’s…
(No, that’s not Benji in the picture. Although I think that may be me on a non-showering day.)
Benji is the admirable gravy behind such books as WINSTON WAS WORRIED, DINO PARADE and HODGE THE HEDGEHOG (which I mistakenly thought was about John Hodgeman), plus the delightful interactive book app series from Nosy Crow, BIZZY BEAR.
So can you tell I’m absolutely tickled to have him working on my book?
This is one of the most exciting parts of being a picture book author—finding out who your illustrator will be and falling in book love. (Not to be confused with marriage love, as I am already taken by a dashing computer geek. And yes, you can use the words “dashing” and “computer geek” in the same sentence. Although to the computer geek, it may have a programming connotation.)
So check out Benji’s work, congratulate him, and also give him fair warning that he’s working with an absolute nut. He may require counseling after the book launch.
After all, I called him “admirable gravy”!
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 