This Weekend

...has been crazy.

First, I volunteered at the library again, which was very fun. I re-shelved the books in the large print section, crossed out the bar codes in discarded books and magazines, and I made a poster display for the YA section. It was incredibly fun, even more than last week.

And then  I went to my friends birthday party which was SO FUN and we stayed up until all hours of the night. Yay! By the way, starting a movie at 11:30 - so great. Custom Apples to Apples (where you make your own cards before the game starts) - best game ever. Happy Birthday Emi!

And then I got home today, realized I didn't write a picture book yesterday, went to turn on my computer, and... nothing happened. My computer would not turn on. At all. So I took my computer into the mac store (I have a mac) and they said they could fix it, but it would take them a week. A WEEK. So started freaking out because all of my schoolwork (including notes) is on my computer. And then I realized all of my notes for PBM are on my computer. But I didn't really have a choice because my computer wouldn't work even if I brought it home, so I might as well have them fix it.

So I went home and called my friend (thank you!) for the notes from last week (I backed up my computer last weekend, thank goodness so I'm only missing stuff from last week, which includes everything for PBM) and borrowed my brother's computer, a PC which I can barely use (with lots of "gahh"s and "darn it"s and "oh my gosh this freaking computer"s but which I'm using now, and I'm going to make do for this week.

Except that by the time I finished my homework after all of this, it was 11. And I just didn't have the energy to write 2 picture books without any of my notes. And my brother's computer doesn't have photoshop, so I can't draw covers and be done with it.

That is my excuse for why I missed two days in a row. And it's a much better excuse than "I had a lot of homework" which I'm sure I'm going to use a bunch of times in the coming weeks, especially in the week before finals (gack!).

I'm going to try to write THREE tomorrow (yeah, right). I'll probably end up with 1 completed book and 2 ideas. And since spring sports start tomorrow I'll be too exhausted to make those 2 ideas into 2 full books. Which is what double frees on Tuesdays are for. I also want to finish the drawing I started for the inside page of Fox & Sparrow (which may have to wait since it's on my computer) and make a cover for Green Yarn. Goodness, I have a lot to do.

Until tomorrow,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 4 (again)

So I actually got out 1 more picture book before I went to bed tonight. Here it is:

Picture Book #5: Green Yarn

One day, Katie was looking through the closet when she came across a roll of green yarn. Katie picked up the yarn and knew at once that this yarn would make the most beautiful sweater. She asked her mother to make the yarn into a sweater, which she lovingly and skillfully did. Katie wore her sweater night and day. She wore it to school, she wore it at home, she wore it to the grocery store and at her friends’ houses. She put it on the minute she woke up and took it off only when she was getting ready for bed. Weeks went by, then months, and soon Katie started growing out of her wonderful sweater. When the sleeves were several inches too short and the buttons didn’t always stay closed, Katie’s mother unraveled the coat and made it into a scarf. Kate got a new coat to replace to green one, but she never loved it the way she loved her new green scarf. Katie wore her scarf night and day. She wore it when it was cold, she wore it when was warm. She put it on the minute she walked out the door and didn’t take it off until she was back home. Weeks went by, then months, and soon the edges of the scarf had started to fray. So as much as Katie loved her scarf, she agreed to unravel it and make it into something else. But her mother was busy and forgot. So it stayed in a roll of green thread for weeks, then months, then years. When Katie grew up and moved into a house of her own, she put the green yarn into the closet. Six years later, her daughter Mary was looking through the closet when she came across the roll of green yarn. Mary picked up the yarn and knew at once that it would make the most beautiful sweater.

When I originally thought of the idea “Adventures of a Coat", I thought it was going to be a bit of a different story, about several generations of a family, and the coat was going to be a man’s overcoat, like my pre-marathon prep sketch (a combination of several different tracings)

Then several thoughts started to come together at once. I was writing about a roll of yarn for another picture book idea. I thought about how my Omi Mary always makes her own (beautiful) sweaters, and how I was fascinated by all of her yarn and by her knitting when I was younger. (A favorite game of my brother’s and mine was called spiderweb and involved taking all of her yarn out of the closet and stringing it all across the living room. I wish I had a picture of it.) I also started thinking about a coat I used to love. I still love it, although it’s a bit small now. It’s bright green, just like Katie’s sweater in the story. All of these thoughts came together into what became the story I have now like this:

If you can’t tell, that’s a giant whiteboard with basically the entire story on it in sections.

By the way, Katie’s character came out of a book I loved years ago called Katie meets the impressionists (picture below). Although my Katie turned out a little bit differently, her origin is in that book, which I highly recommend.

Also, I originally imagined my Katie’s coat (now a sweater) like the one in this book. Then I realized that it’d be pretty hard (if it’s even possible) to make a coat out of yarn, so I turned it into a sweater instead.

I don't have any illustrations for this yet. I'm publishing this with an earlier time-stamp than it actually is, because I'm betting my parents will read this post (hi mom and dad!). I'll just say, it's late. And I want to go to bed and not make another illustration since I just finished the Odyssey one a few hours ago. I'll draw and post the illustration for this tomorrow. I want to try drawing it by hand first again. Anyway, I'm off to bed now.

G'night,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 4 - Illustration

This isn't a cover illustration, but it's the first page. I'm very proud of it. I think it's the best illustration I've done this far. I drew it by hand first, then scanned it into my computer. Then I had to trace it on photoshop because when I was drawing it, I forgot that I couldn't publish a drawing on lined paper. Then I colored it on photoshop just like normal. One of the other things I did differently this time was that I drew the text rather than inserting text. I like it better this way but it's a lot harder because I'm still using my little trackpad, so I have to be super careful with the letters. Any thoughts on today's illustration?

Yay for curly-headed Odysseus!

I'm working on my make-up book for yesterday, but it's not even close to being done, so it might turn into tomorrow's picture book and I'll just be a day behind of where I want to be. Perhaps inspiration will strike me farther into the month and I'll write four in a day (yeah, right) and be as ahead as I want to be. Or maybe I'll be productive this weekend. Or maybe not. Oh well.

Tomorrow will be the first weekend book. For me weekends are not work time. I'm sure for most people, weekends are not work time. Weekends are sleep-until-noon time and then hang-out-and-waste-time time. Everyone needs some of that. Let's see if I can write both of my picture books and have a real weekend. If not, the weekend takes priority, 'cause otherwise, I'll never get through next week. (Gahh, school! Just kidding, I actually love school.... most of the time.)

Until tomorrow,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 4

Today I felt like being unoriginal. So I did I retelling of The Odyssey, which already has a zillion retellings out there. Unfortunately, I wrote this during my free period, which means I didn't have a copy of The Odyssey to reference, so I might be a bit out of order and missing a few details because I haven't touched my copy since I read it for English last year.

Today I wanted to try drawing my cover on paper and then scanning it in and coloring it digitally, so I don't have that right now either, but I'll post it tonight.

Without further ado, Picture Book #4: The Odyssey.

Odysseus was a very clever man.
Odysseus: I am a very clever man.
In fact, he was so clever that he figured out how to win a war.
Odysseus: I built this wooden horse and hid soldiers inside of it…
Inside speech bubble, text turns into panel showing Trojan horse.
After he won the war, he decided he wanted to go home to his wife and son. So he got into his ship with some other soldiers who were also going home and started sailing.
Two of the gods, Poseidon and Athena were arguing what to do about Odysseus. Athena wanted to let him go home because he was clever, but Poseidon was angry at Odysseus.
He was angry because once when Odysseus was sailing, he landed on the island of one of Poseidon’s children, a Cyclops. He tricked the Cyclops into getting drunk and then blinded him. Odysseus and his companions escaped by hiding beneath the Cyclops’ sheep.
Poseidon caused a terrible storm and all the ships got wrecked, but Odysseus managed to escape to the island of Calypso.
Calypso took care of him until he had built another boat, and tried to convince him to stay, but he wanted to go home to his family.
He landed on an island where he told his hosts the story of the war and of his travels. They agreed to help him get home, and several men agreed to sail him there.
But Poseidon was still angry and so this time they landed on an island where the enchantress Circe lived. She turned all of Odysseus’ companions into pigs, but Odysseus tricked her so that she didn’t turn him into a pig and then convinced her to turn the companions back into humans.
Next they arrived at the island of Aeolius, god of the winds. He gave Odysseus all of the winds in a bag except the one that would let them easily sail home. Odysseus did not tell his companions what was in the bag, but warned them not to open the bag. When they were so close that they could see land, Odysseus took a nap. The other sailors thought that Odysseus had told them not to open the bag because there was money in it that Odysseus didn’t want to share. So they opened the bag and all of the winds came out, blowing them in the wrong direction in a huge storm.
When they figured out where they were, the sailors were afraid. In order to get back home, they would have to face many dangers.
First, they sailed past the island of the Sirens. The Sirens’ song was so beautiful that sailors would jump into the sea if they heard it. But Odysseus knew theat he’d never get another chance to hear them. So he ordered all of the sailors to stuff their ears with wax so that they could not hear, and tie him to the mast so that he could not jump overboard.
Next, they had to sail through the straight of Scylla and Charybdis. On one side of the strait lived Scylla. Scylla was a monster who lived high up on a cliff. She had six heads that could eat a sailor in one bite! On the other side was Charybdis. Charybdis was a giant whirlpool that could destroy any ship. When Odysseus had to sail through the strait, he sailed closer to Scylla because he wanted to save the ship and the rest of the sailors that didn’t get eaten.
Finally Athena convinced Poseidon to let Odysseus reach home. Odysseus went into his house in disguise, but undisguised himself when his wife and son figured out who he was.
The End.

And now a few questions:
Should I have more for each story within the story? I don’t want the kids to get bored.
Also, the language gets more complex as the story goes on. Should I change some of the vocabulary? I assume the story will be read by kids who are old enough to understand the vocab I use or by parents reading to their kids who can explain words that the kids don’t know.

I'm determined to write another picture book tonight, since I just found out that our Cumulative Assessments cut a few days into the end of February, so I want to keep those as rest days in case I need them.

By the way, as of 2pm today, there were 100 views in the month of February alone. And it's only 4 days in! Thank you, viewers!

Until tonight,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 3

So I have bad news. I don't have a picture book for today. I meant to write one today, because it's just ridiculous to be taking a break when I'm only 3 days in, but I didn't have any free periods during the day, and then I came home from school and fell asleep, and then I had a of of homework.... You get it. I'm not going to go through a whole list of excuses because obviously everyone has busy lives. But I'm determined to write two tomorrow to make up for today. I have a couple ideas.

Also, I'm in the middle of a sketch for an inside page of yesterday's book, Fox & Sparrow. I'm pretty sure it'll turn out better than the cover did. I'll post that tomorrow as well. (It looks like tomorrow's going to be a pretty busy day. Oh well, it's Friday!)

Picture Book Marathon, Day 2 (again)

I'm beginning to see this marathon not only as a picture book marathon but also as a figure-out-how-to-use-photoshop-better-so-you-don't-embarrass-yourself-with-your-awful-drawings marathon. Today I decided to get ahead of the game and write TWO picture books (that's allowed, isn't it? I don't think I could finish the marathon if I wasn't allowed to do books in advance. The first one I did today is here), and with my continuing theme of variety, I made today's book a wordless picture book. And, to try to make my cover a bit better than yesterday's, I traced an actual photo. Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it (AKA not at all the way I wanted it), but here it is.

Picture Book #3: Fox & Sparrow

Anna, sparrow, flies out of a cage. Flies in the sky (4 panels). Sees Ari, fox. Approaches cautiously. Ari smiles, insincere. Anna and Ari play (9 panels). Ari leads Anna through arch. They play. Ari backs out. Anna sees other animals (butterfly, cat, hawk, dog). Anna tries to go to them. Anna get caught on bars. Zoom out. Anna is in a cage. Ari looms nearby. Anna drifs down to bottom of cage. Anna transforms into doe. Anna rams against bars of cage. Bars shatter. Ari smiles insincerely. Anna turns away. Anna joins other animals. Ari is left alone.

Lots of symbolism in this one, and I'm not sure some of the kids will get it. What do you clever readers think? Do you get it?

This is a retelling (with a few obvious changes) of events that happened when I was in elementary school. No, I didn't get put in a cage, but a friend of mine didn't turn out to be quite as friendly as I had originally hoped, and even tried to stop me from making new friends. Luckily I grew up (hence the transformation) and although she still goes to my school, I'm strong enough to stand up to her now.

By the way, the four other animals in the story are animal versions of four of my closest friends now.

Please comment! Feedback would be incredibly helpful, especially with this one, since I'm not sure if my story is getting across.

Picture Book Marathon, Day 2

After yesterday's incredibly difficult rhyming couplets, I thought I'd give myself a break today.

Picture Book #2 is called I Want a Llama.

I always loved the word llama when I was younger, with that awesome double l at the beginning. My friend Stephanie and I have a joke about bringing llamas to school, and so I wrote this one for her.

I Want A Llama

For Stephanie

I want a llama to carry my books

To carry my bags

To carry my pens and paper

I want a llama to take me to school

To take me to work

To take me to my friends’ houses to play

I want a llama to cuddle

To hug

To sneak into my room at night and sleep on my rug

I want a llama to sit in my backyard

And eat daisies

Cloaked In Red

by Vivian Vande Velde
Start Date: 1 February 2011
End Date: 1 February 2011
128 pages (Hardcover Edition)
Published 1 October 2010

I explained the premise of this book in my post "Fractured Fairy Tales" (scroll down a-ways or click here). VVV wrote eight retellings of Little Red Riding Hood, and I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one. After reading some reviews saying that it was mediocre, too short, or didn't live up to VVV standards, my expectations were somewhat deflated. Then Amazon couldn't get a copy of the book to send to me, which lowered my expectations even more (Was there only one printing? I ended up getting a used copy instead, just to get the book faster). However, I was as excited as ever when I received the somewhat tiny book in the mail. Yes, it is short; 128 pages and the pages were somewhat smaller than I'm used to. However, upon reading the first few pages of the first story, I could tell the rest of the book was going to be good. I promptly threw out my old expectations and replaced them with shiny, new, and far higher ones. Cloaked in Red did not disappoint. Every story was funny, interesting, and totally different from the one before. I finished it (in about an hour) with a smile on my face.

Picture Book Marathon, Day 1

Wow. What was I thinking? I thought I'd start with something a little bit challenging, so I took one of my ideas from my brainstorm last week and write it-- in rhyming couplets. Let me say now, rhyming couplets are hard. Although I'm no artist, as I've mentioned before, I have a cover sketch, which I want to try for most of the picture books (as if this PBM wasn't going to be hard enough) and a sketch from one of he inside pages, which didn't end up in my final anyway, because it led to a bit of a dead end. With the couplets, I had to let the story drive itself a bit, because if I tried too hard to make it go a certain way, the rhymes inevitably wouldn't work out. Please keep in mind when looking at the sketches that these were done on a laptop trackpad by someone who only sort-of knows how to use photoshop. So here it is, picture book #1. Comments and edits are welcome.

The Not-So-Little Mermaid

Soon after Ariel found her prince

The other mermaids were hard to convince

That the ocean was the home for them

And under the sea it was becoming mayhem

Ariel’s big sister Elle

Was not doing very well

She was not happy to marry a merman

Wanted to marry a human, said “I know I can!”

And so one day when she was swimmin’

With her friends the other mer-women

And saw a prince upon the shore

She said, “This is it! I won’t wait anymore!”

She shed her fins, running onto the beach

Until she had run right into the prince’s reach

“I want to be your princess,” said the newly-human Elle.

“What a beautiful girl! Are you under a spell?”

“Yes, I am under a spell to let me stay here

And I have only three days, then I must return, I fear.”

“Only three days?” said the prince to sweet Elle.

“Only three days, and then I must say farewell.”

So for three days the prince and Elle talked and played

Until the prince wished that she could have stayed

And in order to break the spell

Tried to kiss his new friend Elle

“What are you doing? Why didn’t you ask me?”

She shouted, and the prince began to see

That Elle had decided she wanted to go home

And play in the waves and foam

And didn’t want to stay with someone who didn’t ask before he kissed

After all, it was a good thing he had missed

Or else she’d be stuck on land

Never able to go farther than the sand

“Thank you for letting me stay these three days

But now we should go our separate ways

If you had some manners maybe I’d stay

But now I think I’ll go.”

And she walked away.

Alright! While we're at it, let's get some strong female characters into these picture books, shall we?

In the future I may try hand-drawing the cover and/or whatever inside page(s) I feel like doing, and then digitally coloring them. Hmmm.

1 down, 25 to go!

Teaser Tuesday, 5th Edition

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am doing a slightly different version of Teaser Tuesday. Since I go through books so quickly, I'm going to put a quote from any book I've read in the past week.

***

"Given David's history, the Navy probably had no choice, but instead of letting him work on reactors, it put him on KP and had him swab decks. Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance to work on science in a controlled, supervised setting, where his enthusiasm and nascent talent might, who knows, have done some good." - The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean

"At that moment, there was a sudden complicated sound right over his head. It began with rasping bark, snapping twigs, and a single squeal, and ended with a hail of apples bouncing on his skull." - Heroes of the Valley, by Jonathan Stroud

"The floor shook as the farming machine hit the wall, and the glowing hole behind her was suddenly much bigger. Through it, she saw the huge machine backing up for another attack." - Specials, by Scott Westerfeld

"Aya followed her deeper into the army of cylinders, looking for clues as to what they might be. But the metal forms were unmarked and featureless, like giant pawns in an endless chess set, all exactly the same." - Extras, by Scott Westerfeld

"Gregor's mother - despite the presence of the chief clerk, she stood there with her hair undone from the previous night and piled in a high, ruffled mass - first looked at his father with folded hands, then took two steps toward Gregor and collapsed in the midst of her petticoats, which billowed out all around her, her face completely lost to view and sunk on her chest. His father clenched his fist with a hostile expression, as if intending to push Gregor back into his room; then he looked around the parlor in uncertainty, shaded his eyes with his hands and wept so hard that it shook his powerful chest." - The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

"Andrew, leaning attentively over Stashe and the computer and trying to take in what she was telling him, watched Aidan pass and repass the study windows and was reminded of himself at Adian's age. Things at his grandfather's house had seemed so magical in those days." - Enchanted Glass, by Diana Wynne Jones

"'Truly it is, as they say, a woman's fate to wet her sleeves with tears a thousand times.'
'It is also said,' Suzume argued, 'that a woman's will can shatter stones.'" -The Heavenward Path, by Kara Dalkey