Hi, my name is Sheryl McFarlane and I’m the author of seventeen books for kids. My newest is Welcome Rain!, a picture book about the joys, benefits and sometimes… the challenges of rain. It’s illustrated by the very talented Christine Wei and published by Greystone Books. One day in the spring a few years ago I was looking after my grandchildren on a very, very rainy day — the kind of day where people stay inside. But not us! I had dogs, so we go out for walks even during the wettest weather. Of course there were lots of puddles, and my grandkids insisted on jumping in every single one of them! But since we all had our boots on and my grandkids had their rain suits on, and I had my umbrella, and my little dogs Ruby and Karl had their raincoats on, we stayed nice and dry! Best of all, we had so much fun! When we got home, I started thinking about rain, and how much we rely on it… not just for puddles to jump in. The water for my cup of tea, the water for the noodles I used to make my grandchildren’s lunch, the water for washing up… all of that water comes from our local water reservoir which is fed by rain and snow melt. Later, the younger children and I walked over to pick up their sister at school. It had stopped raining. We walked the creek path which we’re so lucky to have nearby. The creek is home to ducks, frogs, and salmon fry raised and released each year by local schools, including the one my granddaughter attends. The youngest stopped to marvel at drops of water sparkling in a spider web strung between the branches of a bush. The robbins and chickadees were out in full force snapping up worms that come up from the earth after it rains. Suddenly all of the song birds that had been feeding, made a noisy and abrupt exit. At first I thought we might have scared the birds away, but we spotted a Cooper’s hawk flying away. It had been using the wet weather to try to score an easy songbird meal! After my grandchildren went home, I didn’t bother making dinner. Instead, I started writing… I knew I had the beginnings of a new book. And I knew I wanted it to be about rain; not just about the joy of jumping in puddles. I wanted to write a story about how important rain is to all of us. And because I grew up in Arizona—where it can be very dry—I also wanted it to be about missing rain when it isn’t there. Illustration from Welcome, Rain! This is how it works for me…I don’t write every day, but once a story stirs, there is no stopping it from coming out.
That evening, my husband took the dogs out for their walk. I was busy writing Welcome, Rain! Sheryl lives in Victoria. BC where she enjoys splashing in puddles with her grandchildren and the rainy days she does not have to water her garden. www.sherylmcfarlane.ca When I first pitched Groundwood Books on a narrative nonfiction picture book on the urban forest, I wasn’t thinking about a series. I’d written a lot about trees for adults (my own experience treeplanting, city trees under duress, etc.) and it seemed like an important and relatable topic for younger readers. Others had the same idea because there were at least 3 other kids’ books about trees that came out around the same time! But when my editor, the late Sheila Barry, suggested we might consider water as the subject for the next book in our two-book deal, an idea started to burble and bubble beneath the surface. With more and more people living in cities around the world—some 80% of the earth’s population will live in urban centres by 2050—and all the stresses, challenges and opportunities this creates, we figured kids would need help decoding their environment. ThinkCities, a series about urban systems and sustainability was born. The books in the ThinkCities series are inspired by the urgency for new approaches to city life as a result of climate change, population growth and increased density. The series highlights the challenges and risks cities face, but also offers hope for building resilience, sustainability and quality of life as young people act as advocates for themselves and their communities. Conceived long before the pandemic, the first book, A Forest in the City (illustrated by Pierre Pratt), came out in April of 2020 just as the global virus was taking hold. Instead of gathering at my favourite local independent bookstore with friends and family to celebrate, my husband and I rode around the city delivering signed books on our bikes. I made paper cupcakes and blew out paper candles, learned how to make Instagram videos and launched a Youtube channel. We did our best and hoped the next book would come out in a pandemic-free world. City of Water (illustrated by Katy Dockrill) was published in 2021 in the middle of another global lockdown. We were already working on City Streets are for People (illustrated by Emma FitzGerald), all about sustainable transportation (bikes, scooters, subways, trams) and a manifesto about reclaiming the streets for human beings. The hitch was that no one was taking public transit at the time; even biking or walking was curtailed. The streets were empty. We nearly postponed publication, but I was convinced that in light of the pandemic, the book was more important than ever. Paris was giving its streets over to bicycles and pedestrians, electric vehicles were on the rise. Emma added some masks in the illustrations, and I added a few references to the dislocation and rupture of the pandemic. Fortunately, City Streets came out in 2022 when people were returning to the streets with a vengeance. The final book in the ThinkCities series, City of Neighbors (illustrated by Katy Dockrill again!), was just published this month (May 2023). This celebratory book about creative placemaking initiatives around the world—using art, music, dance, light, water and even public toilets to bring life to neighbourhoods—is, I think, a fitting cap to the series. Neighbors brings home the importance of community building and the potential for kids to make change in their own neighbourhoods. In the aftermath of global lockdowns, long overdo challenges to the status quo from #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, war and social/cultural/political division, a book about how we can come together to make our communities stronger, more equitable, greener, cleaner, safer and more fun feels very right. I’m proud of the series and pleased that, pandemic notwithstanding, the books are being shared and published around the world (Canada, US, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey so far), spreading the key message that kids can be fierce advocates for themselves and others. For this is the throughline in the series: the power and potential children have to change the world for the better. Onward!
For more on the series, visit my website www.andreacurtiskids.ca or Groundwood. Whether or not you should add illustration notes to your picture book manuscript is always a hot topic. Picture books are a collaboration between author and illustrator, and authors often want to make sure their vision for the book is communicated through small notes left in the text. These notes can explain specifics not described by the text, hint at things happening in the background, or indicate a visual joke needed to make the plot work. The main thing to remember is, you have to leave room for the illustrator to bring their vision to the project. You’re basically writing half a book, and handing it over to someone else to bring it to life. I’m a fan of illustration notes, but try to use them only as needed. The final DARK CLOUD manuscript my editor at Kids Can Press sent to illustrator Penny Neville-Lee had five of them. The book follows Abigail, a young girl who begins to experience depression. The first note, and to me, the most important one was right at the top. It said, “Over the course of the spreads, small elements of light/brightness slowly start creeping into the images.” In my head, I was imagining mostly greyscale at the beginning and the book would get more colourful as it went along. But the note didn’t explicitly say that. This is what the first page of the book looks like: First page of Dark Cloud. When I asked Penny about her overall vision for DARK CLOUD, she recalled a Zoom meeting with the editor and art director where she nervously proposed the idea of mostly greyscale — not realizing we had imagined it the same way. There were also two small notes to indicate the need for a visual of parental support, so readers wouldn’t feel like Abigail was dealing with things on her own. For example, since her mom isn’t specifically mentioned in the text, the need for her presence was indicated in a note. Two final notes were tied to Abigail’s interactions with a friend. The first one read, “Abigail sits beside a little boy on a bench at recess. Together, but still alone, a hint that she’s not the only one. Each has a striking swarm of their own colourful butterflies.” Here’s how that page turned out: From Dark Cloud. As you can see, Penny did most of the things that were in the note, but the butterflies aren’t in colour. Penny said, “There was some back and forth about not making the butterflies colourful as suggested so that smaller elements like the bow would have more impact.” She knew, visually, it was too early in the book for that colourful element to happen. So she shifted focus to the bow in Abigail’s hair, which was given to her earlier in the story by her dad. The final note was for the last spread in the book, it said, “Abigail and little boy from spread 5 are swinging beside each other, their butterflies are still present, but they’re happier.” From Dark Cloud. Since the author and illustrator generally don’t communicate while the art is in progress, I understand why authors sometimes clutter their manuscripts with illustration notes, and why many editors strip them out.
I asked Penny how she feels about art notes in general, she said they’re useful to a point. “With fiction there's usually a very clear descriptive passage to be illustrated. With picture books it's far more open ended. If the author or designer has strong feelings, it's worth knowing so you can take on board. The notes for Dark Cloud were perfect. I could see the book unfurling as I familiarised myself with your text. Spreads like the library one arrived nearly fully formed. Others like the fractured dream took some more thought. Getting the pacing right is tricky and takes a lot of planning through thumbnails and roughs. Too many notes can shut that process down!” It’s about finding that balance, so the author’s vision for the book is enhanced by the ideas the illustrator brings. For me, seeing someone else’s interpretation of the words I wrote is the best part of writing picture books. Sometimes that means letting go of those notes and seeing where the inspiration takes them. DARK CLOUD is out May 2nd, 2023. Anna Lazowski wrote her first picture book for a class assignment in the sixth grade and has been creating stories ever since. Now an award-winning radio producer whose journalistic work has been published in various newspapers and magazines, Anna is also the author of T. Rexes Can’t Tie Their Shoes. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with her husband, kids, and dogs. www.annalazowskibooks.com Carolyn: Grandpa’s Stars was the fastest book I’ve ever written, taking about one month from concept to acquisition, although there was a long wait between signing the contract and actual publication. Once the idea for this story took hold, it spilled out of me in a rush. By comparison, my first picture book took me over a decade to write! The inspiration behind Grandpa’s Stars came from something one of my kids said near the end of a long, dark drive to Haliburton (although I can’t remember which one of my kids said it now). Whoever it was, mentioned something about knowing we were getting close, and I was surprised, thinking they had recognized a landmark in the dark. But when I asked how they knew, they replied, “I can see Grandpa’s stars.” That simple line burrowed into my brain, a tiny seed of an idea, waiting for the right conditions to bloom. Samantha: Grandpa's Stars is the first book I've illustrated that has been published! In my career it's very common to have projects that never see the light of day, so I'm very excited to have something I can actually show people and have a copy of. I previously worked on an unpublished graphic novel that had some similar themes, the relationship between grandchild and grandfather was very prominent and it also took place partially in a cabin in the woods. I grew up in a log cabin in small town BC, so it's a very familiar environment. My family and I would often lie on the dock and watch meteor showers. So for this project I drew inspiration from previous work, my childhood spent in a rural environment and my current life in the city. Grandpa’s house in the woods Carolyn: There’s something magical about seeing your story come to life through illustrations for the first time and getting a glimpse of how another person interprets it. I remember the day I saw the initial sketches for Grandpa’s Stars; that was the day the book started to feel real. One of the early drawings that got Carolyn so excited Samantha: I've been a digital illustrator for most of my career but I hadn't updated my equipment in a long time and was tied down to a desk with a huge old Cintiq and photoshop. For this book I treated myself to a new iPad and started messing around in Procreate. It quickly became my favourite software to work in and I loved how portable it was. I was able to work on the book from everywhere I went, deadlines were short and I was helping my brother move, so I would draw in the truck and on the plane. The whole book was done digitally in Procreate including the sketches. The completed illustration from the final spread of the story. Carolyn: In addition to writing picture books, I also write novels, and usually have between 2-5 projects on the go. Right now, I have three novels and two picture books in various stages of completion. I get up early to write, when the house is quiet and the busyness of the day hasn’t yet taken over. As a full-time grade seven teacher, at the end of the day, I simply don’t have the energy to be creative. Plus, there’s usually a lot of other stuff going on at the end of the work day: dinner prep, kids’ activities, new episodes of The Voice.
Samantha: I'm a full-time freelancer and I do a bit of everything! Illustration has always been my main passion but I learned early on that it wasn't going to pay all my bills. Currently I’m doing a lot of graphic design, animation and motion graphics. In the past I did a lot of editorial illustrations for magazines and newspapers but I've pivoted in my style a bit and am currently seeking more kidlit projects. I recently started teaching continuing education classes in illustration and design at my alma mater and I'm really enjoying sharing my passion and knowledge with an eager audience. I work from home with my partner and my cat Joan in a very old house that backs onto a lovely old cemetery where we frequently go for walks. Grandpa’s Stars (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) was released on March 15, 2023. You can learn more about Carolyn and Samantha by visiting their websites or following them on social media: carolynhuizingamills.ca Instagram @carolynhuizingamills Twitter @huizingamills samanthalucy.com Instagram & Twitter @samanthalucyh Peggy Collins I will always feel like an imposter.
It’s very likely that you will too, at some point in your career. im·pos·tor syn·drome [impostor syndrome] NOUN imposter syndrome: the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills. E.g. "people suffering from impostor syndrome may be at increased risk of anxiety" It’s a pretty common thing amongst creatives. I remember my very first SCBWI conference – which was life-changing in so many ways. On my way there (I was also pregnant with my first child), I was nauseous. I almost turned around. More than once. I had graduated from Sheridan College for illustration; this WAS what I wanted more than anything. I had ALREADY illustrated a book for Scholastic and had been paid for my art since graduation. BUT I was SURE I did not belong here, in Niagara Falls, with REAL writers and illustrators. I was wrong, in so many ways – I met some of my very best friends there. I found mentors, critique groups and made direct contact with two new art directors that I wanted to work with, and it was amazing. It launched my career. Bad news? I still feel like an imposter on the regular. EVEN after this past year, which has been the highlight of my career so far. But, there is hope! How do we get PAST feeling this way? 1. Stop comparing. I mean it. Comparison is the death of joy (you have heard this before). Instead of looking at how you (feel) you come up short, celebrate your fellow creatives (especially the ones you know need it). Study the work, analyze what you love about it – is it how it ‘feels’? the lighting? The backgrounds? The expressions? Once you do this – you have your next step ready – work on THOSE things! Micro courses, tutorials, trial and error, these will all help you make art you can appreciate more. 2. Get OUTSIDE, in your community. Making art/writing for a living can be lonely. I, for one, spend far too much time in my head when I am alone, and this leads to those thoughts. Not many of us have lots of extra cash lying around – but did you know that many charities will issue receipts for a donation of your work? I have worked hard to create community connections with charities and organizations I believe in. For example – our local shelter/food bank was doing a fundraiser and I offered to design/illustrate a map, for which they offered a generous tax receipt. I learned more about the unhoused community and was able to help raise money for the organization that is working to fix this problem. I worked with my children’s school creating murals with the kids – which has led to numerous paid mural projects, books, community art installations etc. There is so much more – but I truly believe that if you give with your heart – you will reap the rewards. It is important to not overextend yourself or give away too much for free – but time is more generous than money. Also, it exposes you to more stories/lives/experiences that make you a better storyteller. 3. ACCEPT that regardless of whatever point you are in your career – there will always be people you admire (and may be a little jealous of) and people who are thinking the same about you. There is room for all of us. 4. DO it ANYWAY. This is the key to it all. If you feel the waves of self doubt and imposter syndrome waving over you, make art, make it badly, draw with your non-dominant hand, play with ideas and media – and don’t expect that everything you do will be awesome. If you are having fun, you will make art that shows it. 5. And lastly – talk about it. The more of us that know that so many of us feel this way – the less we will feel this way. Take the monster out of the dark – it’s kinda cute, really. The kidlit community is really one of the most incredible, supportive ones in the world. I hope this helps you a little. I even feel a little imposterish about writing this – but I did it anyway. Get involved, look around and recognize that you have a unique and special gift that only you get to nurture and share. Not all riches are monetary. Peggy Collins is an award-winning children’s book author-illustrator with more than 35 titles to her name, including Harley the Hero (winner BLUE SPRUCE 2022), A Sky-Blue Bench, Whistling for Angela, In the Snow, and In the Garden. She has also written and illustrated for animated apps teaching math, indigenous history, and education and is faculty in the Animation and Game program at Loyalist College. Peggy lives in Napanee, Ontario with her two children and two cats. www.peggysillustration.com Amberlea Williams and her debut picture book, The Bee Without Wings My debut author-illustrated book The Bee Without Wings published on March 21st from PAPress/Chronicle Books! The inspiration was sparked by an article about a woman who found a wingless queen bumblebee in her garden. On its own the bee wouldn’t have survived, but with her care, it lived for a number of months, and they seemed to share a mutual bond which was really sweet. There’s something deeply heartwarming and inspiring about an interspecies friendship, especially when it involves an animal that isn’t typically thought to be affectionate, like a bee. This idea of a person helping and befriending a wingless bee stuck in my mind, and wouldn’t let go, and over many months and years became a book! Very early notes and ideas. When an idea first takes hold, I try to get everything down on paper - sketches, notes, words, colour palette ideas, facial expressions - without censoring any of my thoughts, just get it all out of my head. I also fall down rabbit holes of research—in this case everything related to bees—their life cycle, what flowers they like, how a bee could be born without wings (deformed wing virus), etc, etc. Then I try to see if any of these tiny scraps fit together and can be fleshed out into a storyline—most of them won’t fit or make sense, but it’s all part of diving into the story and seeing where it could go. The story slowly builds, and changes, and evolves. An equally important part of the process is when I’m not working on it directly, knowing my brain is still thinking about it, and then coming back to it with fresh eyes (the ol’ ‘magic drawer’ trick). I find I need to “see” the story take shape, so I start laying out my thumbnails and very rough sketches in InDesign (the graphic designer in me gets excited about choosing the font, page size, etc, because those are all a part of creating the right tone). I work back and forth between images and words, making sure each helps the other, and isn’t redundant, and try to make effective use of the page turn. After I had worked through many versions, I got a professional critique from Jean Pendziwol, and her keen insights and feedback really helped me tighten the story and get it ready for submission. For the final illustrations I scanned my sketches and composed them in Photoshop, making sure they would work in black and white first, then creating a colour plan. I painted in layers of watered down gouache, then added texture and details with pencil crayon. For some of the illustrations I scanned painted textures and added those in Photoshop. Pencil sketches, loose colour plan in Photoshop, scanned textures, and beginning to lay down layers of gouache. Rough pencil sketch. Rough paint (it was only later, with my fantastic editor Rob Shaeffer that the kitty, Molly, became a more central character and was added to more of the illustrations). Final illustration. I was thrilled when the publisher said that we could add some backmatter, because I love research! There are lots of books out there about bees in general, but I wanted to focus on bumblebees in early spring. It’s only mated queen bumblebees that hibernate. So if you see a bumblebee very early in the spring, it is likely a queen, and she’s got a lot of work to do getting fueled up, finding a new nesting site, and laying her eggs. People can greatly help bees by delaying the cleanup of their garden, allowing dandelions to grow, and planting native wildflower species. I’m very much a novice gardener, but I'm hoping someday I’ll be a font of gardening wisdom. I’ve got some wildflower seeds I’m very excited to plant that I hope will attract a lot of bees and butterflies.
Amberlea Williams is an illustrator, graphic designer, and yoga teacher living in Ottawa. Her debut picture book, A Bee Without Wings, was released on March 21, 2023. Jack Wong. Cover of When You Can Swim, written and illustrated by Jack Wong. For the past two years, the work on illustrations for my books have landed in the dead of winter. This was the case for my debut, When You Can Swim (coming out May 2nd from Orchard Books / Scholastic!) Because I was going for art with a natural, observational feel, the timing was actually quite a problem. Trying to make a book about spending sunny afternoons on the beach, wading through warm tide pools, and splashing in sparkling waters was kind of difficult without the opportunity to observe these scenes in person! The summer prior to completing the final art, I took lots of reference material—notes, sketches, photos (I even bought a glorified ziplock bag for my phone to try underwater photography)—to capture as much as I could of the natural environments I would eventually depict in the book. But as they say, you don’t know what you don’t know—or in this case, what I might need to complete a picture. So even after documenting everything I could (almost obsessively so), when I went to make a drawing, I found there was always some aspect of the scene that I'd missed which I should’ve captured. This actually worked pretty well! Serious research. Any author, illustrator, or artist in general contends with this “information gap”: art is often about what you’ll invent on top of an existing scaffolding of reality that helps make that invention feel real, or at least grounded in a world that the reader or viewer can share. It took a while for me to grow comfortable with the notion that this sort of “gap” is also good for the so-called realistic imagery I was trying to represent. So in other words… there’s about 75% of accuracy in my drawings, and about 25% of just fudging and making up and breaking the rules of physics… and I’m always really fond of that 25% that came from me, at least after the fact. Scene from When You Can Swim. You’ll have to excuse me for these fairly random thoughts. They’re on my mind because this winter I just finished another book that I’ve been working on for the past three years. All That Grows (coming 2024 from Groundwood Books) is a tender story about a child observing the natural world as it springs into new life… and naturally, for the past three years, I’ve been obsessively documenting the flowers, garden vegetables, weeds, and other flora that sprout and flourish from early spring to summer. These days, every time I go for a walk, I’m still absent-mindedly pulling out my phone, ready to snap the first crocus of the year from all angles — before realizing I don’t actually have to do that anymore. And realizing that I don’t have to is up there among the most luxurious feelings I’ve ever experienced. Being an artist is weird. Scene from All That Grows, written and illustrated by Jack Wong. Also a self-portrait of the artist desperately memorizing a tree.
Jack Wong's upcoming book, When You Can Swim, will be out in May 2023. Canada is fortunate to have so many talented authors and illustrators making wonderful books for kids. And this year at Picture Books, Eh! we are lucky to have 32 of them sharing their 2023 picture books with us along with their valuable experiences and insights as picture book creators in this country. Both on our website and on our Twitter and Instagram pages, you'll find news on upcoming picture books by a broad range of Canadian picture book creators––including many beyond this group––as well as interviews, reflections and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the picture book making process. Oh, and giveaways! To launch us into 2023, Picture Books, Eh! is excited to offer a manuscript critique, a virtual school visit and several upcoming books! (We will do summer and fall giveaways for books published later in the year.) Our 2023 launch giveaway includes:
Books by Julian Chung Peggy Collins To enter our launch giveaway, simply: - follow @picturebookseh on Twitter and/or Instagram - like and re-tweet our launch giveaway Twitter post - extra entry for tagging a friend - Winners (chosen at random) will be announced here on our website as well as on Twitter in exactly two weeks, on Wednesday February 8th at 9 am EST . Critique details: If you win the critique giveaway, you will be invited to submit a picture book manuscript of up to a thousand words, with up to two questions about your manuscript. Jean E. Pendziwol will then give you one-time editorial feedback focused on your questions. The edits will be done in a Word Document and will be returned to you within six weeks, with both comments alongside the text and suggested edits within the text (using Track Changes). Picture Books, Eh! is glad to be able to offer a platform to a diverse range of Canadian picture book creators, including creators who have been historically marginalized from children’s publishing. We are still open to new members for 2023, so if you are a Canadian picture book creator releasing a traditionally published book this year, feel free to get in touch with us!
Picture Books, Eh! also welcomes any Canadian picture book creator to get in touch about writing a guest post for our blog or Instagram page. Whether you are publishing this year or not, traditionally published or self-published, if you have insights to share, we’d love to hear them. Happy reading, eh! Picture Books, Eh! 2023 Cover of Marjorie Magic, by Joy Norstrom, illustrated by Anushka Shenoy Joy joins us on our blog today from Treaty 7 territory, Calgary, Alberta. Joy has previous experience writing short stories and novels for older audiences; however Marjorie Magic (out in early 2023) is her first picture book for children. While Joy is a Canadian author, her publisher (Dixi Books Ltd.) is based in the UK and the Marjorie Magic illustrator (Anushka Shenoy) is from India, making the creation of this book a global collaboration! Please read below for our interview with Joy. Q) Could you share with us one of your favourite picture books growing up? What do you remember most about it? Joy) The first picture book that had an impact on me was The Best Nest, written and illustrated by P. D. Eastman. It’s a classic Dr. Seuss Beginner Book, so perhaps many of you may have seen it. Eastman’s ability to convey emotion and character in The Best Nest is probably what made such an impression on me. The birds' delight in creating their perfect new home. Mr. Bird’s sorrow when he was unable to find Mrs. Bird. I was often scared of losing my parents while shopping or at large events when I was a child, so seeing Mr. Bird alone in the rain resonated with me. And of course, his sweet relief finding home and his loved one again. Nothing beats a happy ending! Creating an emotional response in readers is exactly what I want to do in my own stories too. From The Best Nest, by P.D. Eastman Q) Do you type or handwrite your stories? Joy) I type! I used to write in journals, however after a decade of writing fiction on my laptop, I think I’ve trained my brain to think creatively while I’m typing. It’s almost like I don’t come up with ideas unless I am tapping away at the keyboard, a mug of tea beside me, and an hour to myself with no distractions. Q) What was your process for creating the Marjorie Magic manuscript? I originally had an idea for a book of fantastical recipes where each recipe required an ingredient that was created in the previous recipe. So if the first recipe was for a unicorn, you would need the assistance of a unicorn as one of the ingredients in the second recipe and so on. This was very early in my writing career; I was reading a lot of picture books with my own children at the time and experimenting with lots of ideas. I also began taking creative writing courses. I learned about story structure and how plot helps to give stories forward propulsion. I took my recipe idea book and started to write some scenes about what would happen if someone found the book. Then I put my ideas away for several years and began writing fiction for older readers. One day in the summer of 2021, I decided to pull the manuscript back out and see what I might do with it. I had changed a lot as a writer, so I had new ideas and was less scared to cut pieces that weren’t working and try again. After several revisions I printed the manuscript out, cut it into pieces, then pasted them into a 32-page dummy book to see how the story would flow. A dummy is basically 16 pages folded in half and stapled to represent the length of a picture book. Sometimes seeing a picture book story in this way makes it easier to identify what is working and what is not. To decide where the story is too wordy, too confusing, or where the pacing is off. I read it out loud to my kids and then had them read it back to me so I could hear how it sounded. Together we brainstormed ideas for tricky parts and tried different variations. While this process resulted in me being much happier with the manuscript, I could tell a few things weren’t right but didn’t know how to fix them. My next step was consulting with an established children’s book author. This was an amazing process because getting another set of eyes helped me develop solutions that previously weren’t coming to mind. I made more revisions based on that feedback, cleaning it up till it was as polished and as concise as I could make it. Then I sent the final draft to my publisher and was thrilled they were interested in it. To learn about the illustrator’s process, which begins after the story is written, read my interview with Anushka Shenoy here. https://www.joynorstrom.ca/unblog/introducing-anushka-shenoy-the-illustrator-of-marjorie-magic
Part 1 of authors making an actual Starlit Trip to the Library. Parts 2 and 3 below. The following interview was conducted by Helen Kubiw for her blog CanLit for Little Canadians. It was published on August 9, 2022 and is being re-printed here with her permission. Please check out Helen's reviews and interviews with other Canadian kid lit creators over at CanLit for Little Canadians and follow Helen on Twitter. HK: Before we talk about the book, tell us a bit about the collaborations that resulted in both the Julia books, How to Catch a Bear Who Loves to Read and A Starlit Trip to the Library. How did you all come to work together to create the text and art? Andrew Katz: Our collaboration came together through a series of fortunate events. Juliana and I met about six years ago, and our very first conversations revealed a mutual love of writing. At that point she was a published novelist, writing in French, and I had self-published a few picture books for my nieces and nephews for birthdays and holidays. Within a few weeks, Juliana and I had started writing a children’s play together. Then, a few months later, inspiration for a picture book hit. I spotted a book lying around that I didn’t recognize, and I made an excited lunge toward it, as if it were a chocolate chip cookie. Juliana joked that to make a trap for me, the thing to put in it would not be food but a book. Immediately we sensed a potential plot twist for a story, and soon the tale of Julia, a young girl who yearns for an ursine pal, and Bertrand, a bear who loves to read, began to take shape. We wrote a draft that we had illustrated by a student at the college where I teach, and we self-published the book as a present for our nieces and nephews. Skip forward to a book fair in Cuba; Juliana was there to present her novel and I was tagging along. One afternoon we crossed paths with a representative from Chouette publishing (the publishers of Caillou), who explained to us that Chouette had just created a new imprint, called CrackBoom! We told the rep about our Julia and Bertrand story, and she suggested that we send it in. We heard nothing for six months, assumed they were not interested, but then out of the blue got an email saying they wanted to publish our book! (It turns out they just hadn’t read the manuscript yet.) They asked if we had anyone in mind for the illustrations, and Robin Budd, a multiple award-winning children’s animator, happened to be a family friend of mine. I contacted Robin to see if he knew anyone who might be interested in the job, and he put us in touch with an illustrator named Joseph Sherman, a Gemini Award-winning animator himself who had always wanted to illustrate a picture book. Luckily, Joe was excited to hop on board the project, and the rest, as they say, is history! That, in a nutshell, is how the collaboration between the three of us got started. First book in Julia series: How to Catch a Bear who Loves to Read / Comment attraper un ours qui aime lire.
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