Picture Book Marathon, Day 17

So yesterday I hinted at a book for my friend Rachie. Today I actually wrote the book. She gave me the idea for the story, so it's dedicated to her.

Picture Book #17: Untitled So Far
for Rachie

Once upon a time there was a girl with a beautiful voice. Every time she sang, people would be so overcome by happiness that she became incredibly popular. But there was only one person who she cared about. He liked her songs, but he wasn't enchanted like everyone else. Then one day she got sick and lost her voice. She couldn't sing anymore, and soon people went back to the way they were before hearing her songs. Without all of the people around her all the time, for the first time since she started singing, she could act like herself. _______ noticed this and started talking with her more. He saw what a nice person she was. So when she finally got her voice and started singing again, he stayed next to her the whole time and made sure she wasn't so surrounded by people that she couldn't be herself.

"The End"

Until tomorrow-- there's a fun story coming up.

Picture Book Marathon, Day 16

Today I had about an hour to work on my picture book, and I had this great idea that I wanted to illustrate. I got so into illustrating that I ran out of time to write the book part, so I'm just going to post the few lines I jotted down beforehand.

Picture Book #16: Different is Good

Tall people can reach top cabinets.
Short people can squeeze into the best hiding places during hide-and-seek.
Fast people win races.
Slower people can race for longer.
Girls get to wear dresses.
Boys get to not care.

The cover illustration is a tracing of a photo from a couple years ago. I am in it, and Ben and Rachie (who I have a book idea for, but no book yet). The funny thing about this illustration was that I realized after drawing it that the people in it are actually not very different at all. But at that point I wasn't going to start over.

I got the title from a line the The Incredibles, where Violet says "Is different okay?" and the boy (Tommy? Tony? I always forget his name) says "Yeah, different is-- different is good." I'm not sure if that's the exact line because I'm not interested in getting my copy of The Incredibles to check. But it's something like that. Anyway...

Only 10 more to go!

Good News! Lots of it!

Well, first of all, I am insanely excited because Nathan Hale just posted this post on his blog. I don't know anything for sure yet, but I believe (and hope) that this means another Rapunzel book is coming out! I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but I am a HUGE fan of Shannon, Dean, and Nathan Hale's graphic novels Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack. If you haven't read them, read them. Now. I wish I could post a full review, but I don't have the time or the focus to do that right now. So just take my word for it. You will love these books. I love these books. My brother loves these books. My 10-year-old cousin loves these books. So you can see why I'm excited that there will possibly probably be another one coming out soon.

[EDIT: I just found out that this assumption is incorrect, and that there will not actually be a third book... yet. Nevertheless, Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack are definitely both worth reading.]

The second piece of exciting news is that Matthew J. Kirby, author of The Clockwork Three, saw my review of it, and posted a link to it on his blog. I was linked to by the author. This is incredibly exciting because I sort of can't believe that 1) people are actually reading the stuff that I post, and 2) that my review was good enough to be linked next to sites such as Teens Read Too.

So that was my incredibly exciting and (to use a Scott Westerfeld term) happy-making night. Now, back to my English project (which I might post in a few days... possibly).

Picture Book Marathon, Day 15

So today I am cheating a little. When I first started the marathon, I dug out a bunch of old picture books I wrote when I was probably no more than 7 years old. I had an idea for today, about a girl with a beautiful singing voice, but I didn't get around to writing it, and I want to actually write the three from yesterday and this weekend also, so for today I'm transcribing a book called Zoop the Soup, written by my brother and me years ago. So, I technically didn't write this one during the marathon, but if I'm going to finish (and I really really want to finish), a couple of the books are going to have to be these old ones. Since this was written when we were younger, some parts don't make all that much sense, but I think kids will be entertained by the rhymes. I certainly was. (When I first reread this, I thought it was a bit silly and not a very good picture book. But the more I read it, the more it grew on me. So I'd advise reading this a couple times.)

Picture Book #15: Zoop the Soup
I have a soup. I tried to zoop the soup. The carrots are the real fast ones. The soup smells good.
(page turn)
Zoop the soup!
Please zoop the soup.
Woop, please zoop the soup.
Noop and Woop, please zoop the soup.
Moop, Noop, and Woop, please zoop the soup.
Kloop, Moop, Noop, and Woop, please zoop the soup.
Floop, Kloop, Moop, Noop, and Woop, please zoop the soup.
Koop, Floop, Kloop, Moop, Noop, and Woop, please zoop the soup.
(page turn)
Oh no! You never have to zoop the soup.
Flogaloop will zoop the soup.
Flagalopp will zoop the soup.
Fagaloop will zoop the soup.
Flopalop will zoop the soup.
Scabalop will zoop the soup.
(page turn)
Scabalop or any of the others won't have to zoop the soup.
Because Falogamadugacajugaglafloglowskosko will zoop the soup.
He is a double, triple, quadriple, octiple, tapiple, japiple, lapiple, octipiple octopus.
(page turn)
Wake up! Wake up!
]It's time for lunch.
I already zooped the soup.
(page turn)
Thanks to the zooper,
(page turn)
ZOOP!

First of all, I have no idea what I was thinking with that 4th to last page. As my brother says, the only suspense in the story is the breath before the reader attempts that ridiculous name.

Also, you probably want to know what the heck zooping the soup is. Well, we have this little hand-blender that my mom uses to puree soups. And it makes a noise like zoop, zoop. So, that's where the name comes from.

Photo courtesy of www.blenderexpert.com

If I have to resort to using old picture books, again, I'll try to pick a better one next time. By the way, if you think this one is worth fixing up, please let me know.

Until tomorrow,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 14

Well, I didn't get a chance to write over the weekend again. I think I'm seeing a pattern here. I have three ideas, one for each weekend day and one for today, but I doubt I'll get around to all (if any) of them today.

I've noticed that when writing these, if I get an idea into my head, my brain refuses flat out to think of any new ideas until I've written the first one into something resembling a first draft. Luckily this wasn't the case this weekend, thanks to one of my best friends, who gave my the idea and title for one of the books and lent his name to the other.

My three ideas are:

1. A picture book for my mom- I sorta have a vague idea and a few phrases written down, but this is going to need a bit of shaping before I start to write. Since I'm trying to incorporate as many as my friends as I can into a book somehow, I wanted to write one for my parents as well. So this one will be for my mom, if I can get around to writing it. It'll sorta be a "how much do I love you" book. I remember reading a lot of those with her when I was little.

2. PigBen -  A spinoff of "Pigpen" from Peanuts. Ben is a little boy who has some problems with personal hygiene. He doesn't like taking showers, he doesn't like brushing his teeth, he doesn't like brushing his hair.  Finally he becomes so smelly that no one wants to be friends with him. Thanks to Ben for letting me use his name for this character. (P.S. The real Ben is actually a very clean person, and nothing like PigBen.)

3. Nigel the "different" Zombie - This is Ben's idea, but I'm taking it (with his permission), because he has no use for it. Nigel isn't like other zombies. He doesn't like eating brains. He thinks humans are nice. When the humans finally strike back at the zombies for all those years of brain-eating, Nigel manages to convince the humans that zombies aren't all that bad and the zombies not to eat the humans' brains. Somewhat a spin-off of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a possible song option.

I'd better start writing. After I finish my homework.

Amulet

by Kazu Kibuishi
Start Date: 1 February 2011
End Date: 1 February 2011

Book 1: The Stonekeeper
192 pages (Paperback edition)
Published 1 January 2008

Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse
224 pages (Paperback edition)
Published 1 September 2009

Book 3: The Cloud Searchers
208 pages (Paperback edition)
Published 1 September 2010

Book 4: The City of Cielis
Will be published Summer 2011

These fast-paced and wonderfully illustrated graphic novels are quick reads that will keep you turning the pages and wishing for more. Since I've been writing picture books every day, I have an even deeper respect and appreciation for authors who can write graphic novels this wonderfully.

The story centers around Emily and her brother Navin, who after moving into their great-grandfather's house, find a mysterious amulet that gives Emily magical powers and lead them into a parallel world full of magic, heroes, shady characters, and quests. When their mother gets captured, Emily and Navin go to rescue her, each becoming heroes in their own right. However, the amulet seems to have its own agenda...

These books are quick reads - I finished each in about 45 minutes.  The end of every book will leave you wanting more, but there are only three books out so far. I don't know how many books are planned for the series.

I really like Kibuishi's artwork style. I have a few pictures of the main characters and a page from the beginning of the first book, before they leave the "real" world. Unlike the Bone books, Emily, Navin, and the other human characters are drawn in the same style as the creatures that only exist in the world of fantasy. I found it interesting that the characters in the fantasy world seems more real and stood out less than characters from the real world, such as the mother. They fit into their world so nicely, and I think Kibuishi's artwork reflects that really well.

I know I haven't been posting reviews, but I've been really busy with PBM and everything. I'm really going to try to stay on top of that. I may have to do an overall post with all the books I've read in the last few weeks with just 1 or 2 sentences for each. Yes, I think that's what I'll end up doing. 

Picture Book Marathon, Day 11

Although at this point I'm getting more and more ideas for my stories, I noticed that I'm staring to run out of  ideas on the form of the book. So far, most of my books have been wordless or straightforward narration. I want to use PBM to think of different ways I can express the story. So that's one goal I'm going to work toward for the rest of PBM. If you very nice viewers have any ideas, please comment and let me know.

So, today's book was inspired by my friend Marcella. She pretended to have read this book called "The Red Manilla Envelope" and told me a whole intricate plot summary, complete with government conspiracies and secret islands. She said someday she would write it for me, but today I decided to write my own version for her.

I like the general idea of the story, but I think  executed it badly. After PBM is over I'm going to go back to this story and see if I can tweak it until it turns into something I like.

Picture Book #11: The Red Manilla Envelope
For Marcella

Girl (Maddy) in post office points to manilla envelope
Takes envelope, hands over coins
Walks home with envelope – suburban neighborhood
Goes into house, gets out paper and pens.
Writing a letter (panels)
Looks at letter, smiles
(in single panel)
Hello,
My name is Maddy. I am 10 years old and I live in the United States. I love to write and
(panel cuts off the rest of the letter)
Starts coloring the envelope (red)
She writes on the back of the envelope:
If you revive this, write a letter about yourself, put it in the envelope, and send it to someone. There is a box of addressing labels inside the envelope. Whoever receives this at the end of December, please send it to P.O. box
(panel cuts off the rest)
Walks to post office, morning
Puts stamp on envelope
Puts envelope into mailbox
Envelope in mail slot
2 pages:
Girl in NYC looks at it, confused, reads letter and back of envelope
Put envelope under her arm and walks through city
Enters apartment
Makes coffee (2 panels, shares page with previous)
Sits down at desk, writes a letter
Puts letter in envelope
Puts envelope in mail slot
8-10 pages of envelope w/ different people in different places, countries
winter, maddy, bundled up, walks to post office in snow
passes houses with xmas decorations
arrives at post office, walks in
Red envelope is in PO Box
Runs home (3 panels)
Asleep in bed, letters from around the world on her walls
(panel) envelope is on desk, covered in postage stamps

11 down, 15 to go!

Picture Book Marathon, Day 10

Finally I'm back on track. I wrote two picture books today, one that obviously has to do with stuff happening in my life right now, and one that's not so obvious and I actually came up with the idea for before it applied to my life.

But before we get to that, I have exciting news (to me anyway). My computer is all better! Apparently the mac store called while I was at school and said my computer was ready to be picked up. I'm so happy because I thought it would take at least until Sunday. I went straight from swimming (with my brother's carpool in the car) directly to pick it up. It made my day to have it back. But anyway, now getting back to PBM--

Picture Book #9: Mike and Millie
Millie was a very nice girl. She had a lot of friends. One of her friends was Mike. Mike was not a very nice boy. In fact, he was downright mean, but he pretended to be nice because he wanted to be Millie's best friend. But Millie saw that he wasn't as nice as he was pretending to be, so he stopped pretending and acted like the horrible jerk he was. Millie was furious at him, but being a very nice person, she didn't want to do anything mean. But when Mike started being mean to Millie, her friend Haley punched him.

Moral: Violence isn't always the answer, but you should stand up for your friends. Also, don't be a jerk. Seriously, don't.

Gahh, high school drama. I obviously changed some stuff for the book, but this is an event that recently happened to my friend "Millie". I was outraged when I heard, and although I wasn't going to punch "Mike", I was going to go yell at him. But "Millie" and I decided that since "Mike" lived on attention, It'd probably not be the best thing to do. I did a great illustration that I'm want to post without messing with it on photoshop first because I don't want to ruin it.

But you can't really see it cause scanning doesn't work with pencil drawings. So,

I don't like the photoshop tracing nearly as much as the original, but at least you can see it. 

[EDIT: I just figured out that you actually can see the pencil drawing much better if you tilt your screen back and look up at it, so I didn't have to do the tracing after all, oh well. It was fun even though I don't love the end result] 

And now, onto the 2nd book of the day.

Picture Book #10: When I Grow Up

Every day, Kacey went to her 1st grade class. This week, the kids in her class were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up.
On Monday, Darren talked about how he wanted to be a doctor.
Kacey thought that being a doctor would be fun.
Teddy bear with band-aids in Kacey's hands, Kacey with doctor's kit.
But then she remembered that she didn't like being around sick people.
On Tuesday, Maya talked about how she wanted to be a teacher.

Kacey thought that being a teacher would be fun.

Stuffed animals in rows w/ paper in front of them, Kacey in front, teaching.

But then she remembered that she didn't like little kids. (Panel on side, 4 yr olds running around)

On Wednesday, Jack talked about how he wanted to be a detective. 

Kacey thought that being a detective would be fun.

Kacey in hallway with flashlight and dark coat, hallway is shadowed, clock in background reads 8:30.

But then she realized she didn't have anything to detect.

On Thursday, Jane talked about how she wanted to be a writer. 

Kacey thought that being a write would be fun.

Kacey sitting at desk with crumpled paper in wastebasket behind her - see cover drawing.

But she didn't know what to write about.

On Friday, it was Kacey's turn to speak. She stood up in front of the class, took a deep breath, and said, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but right now I want to be a KID!"

I drew this cover when I was preparing for the marathon, before I got some photoshop strategies down (scroll down to see some of my other more pathetic photoshop works) and I was going to edit it after I wrote the story but before I posted it, but I kinda like it now. The more I look at it, the more it grows on me. (That and the fact that I can't really spare an extra half hour to edit this.) So I'm keeping the original for now, but if I end up changing it, I'll post that version too. Now that I have my computer back, hopefully I'll be better about doing the art for my picture books.

I thought up the idea for When I Grow Up as one of my pre-PBM qualifying ideas. When I actually started writing it this morning, I realized that it was more relevant that I had originally thought, because this week is placement testing week, and we've been asked to think a lot about what we want to do next year, which will dictate what we do the year after that and so on and so on for what seems like the rest of our lives. I just don't think that these tests can possibly be that important, but it is a bit of pressure. But I'm just taking tests for everything I can and deciding what I want later.  So anyway, that's the connection.

Well, that was an excellent way to procrastinate. Now, back to work.

Until tomorrow,

Picture Book Marathon, Day 9

Today's story was inspired by two other marathoners, Nathan Hale and Jed Henry. Today Nathan Hale posted his marathon book, a wordless picture book about a giant snowstorm (see it here), and I was also inspired by a sketch Jed Henry did a couple of sketches about a month ago that I loved (see them here). Also this story was inspired by a time earlier this winter when my mom and I started a walk in the rain and by the time we got to lunch, it was snowing like crazy. By the way, this one is a wordless picture book like Nathan's. I wanted to put in words, but it worked so much better wordless. I didn't mean to copy, but...

So, Picture Book #8: Rainy Day, Snowy Day
for Nathan Hale, Jed Henry, and everyone participating in the Picture Book Marathon in 2011

Shadowed room, door slightly open, character looking out door, rain outside (bright)
*SLAM* door, character getting boots on
Door opening, pulling on raincoat, boots and hat on, rain outside
Character runs outside
Spinning (3 panels)
Running, jumping, playing (in panels)
Rainbow reflected in puddle, splash in puddle
Ripples fade, blue sky, then a single snowflake (panels)
Clouds form, looks up
Starts to snow
Plays in the snow, tastes snowflakes, makes snowman
Shivering
Goes back inside, takes of coat and boots
Grabs blanket and sits on couch in front of fire
Takes cup of hot chocolate from mother’s hand
Sips hot chocolate
(panel) hot chocolate on table
Falls asleep on couch
The End.

I don't have a sketch for it right now, but the ideal would look something like Jed Henry's sktech (see link above).

Oh No! And, Picture Book Marathon, Day 8

Yesterday I broke my posting every day streak, which was unbroken since January 14. Sigh. See, what happened was, yesterday was the first day of swim season. So I went to practice, and swam, and came home, and fell asleep. Until the morning, when I overslept. So my homework didn't get done, my picture book didn't get done, and I didn't write a post for yesterday. I thought about semi-cheating and writing a post today and time-stamping it for yesterday, but I didn't have anything to say. And also my brother needed his computer today, and since it is his computer, I gave it back (and realized how computer-addicted I was). But I did write a story for PBM that I transcribed onto this computer, but I don't have any names for anything yet. My name-creating inspiration was missing today. But anyway,

Picture Book #6: Untitled So Far
(this turned into more of a short story, but some picture books can be long, right?)


For Ceri

Once upon a time there was a girl named Sara who was very upset that in fairy tales, boys went out to seek their fortune when girls had to stay to home and wait for a handsome prince to find them. She recognized that there were far fewer handsome princes out there than there were girls waiting for them, so she decided not to wait for a prince but to go out and make a life for herself. So she cut her hair, disguised herself as a boy, and went to seek her fortune.
When she got to the nearest large town, she decided to find something to do while she was busy seeking her fortune, because being a country girl, she knew very well that money did not grow on trees. Eventually, she found a job as a blacksmith’s apprentice. But, being a girl, she hadn’t done very much hard labor and tired quickly. The blacksmith didn’t want to put up with that, so he fired her. Then she got a job as a stable boy, but, being a girl, she hadn’t had any experience with horses, so she was fired from that job as well.
For months, she lived like that, being fired from one job after another, when finally, exhausted and almost ready to return to her hometown, she got a job as a bookbinder’s apprentice. She was fascinated by the stories in the books, the beautiful words and pictures. And so she began to write stories, in secret, at night.
Each morning she would go to work and learn bookbinding until the shop closed. Then she’d have dinner, go into her room and start to write. She filled pages and pages with her stories.
One of her stories was particularly interesting to write, and she kept coming up with new ideas for it, so she brought it to work with her so that she could write down her ideas and not forget them by the time she got back to her room that evening. By accident, she put it down on the pile of books to be bound that day and the bookbinder picked it up and began to read it. When he saw her name on the back cover, his eyes widened. He told her to go back home for the day and closed the shop, taking the book with him.

That's all I have so far. That's the story from yesterday. I'm not sure where I want to go with it. The original idea is from a game my friend Ceri and I were playing over the weekend, where we would tell a story in the usual fairy-tale fashion, with all fairy-tale cliches intact, bust making it up as we go along.  This particular story was a variation on one I told, but fixed up and edited, and minus quite a few of the inside jokes. The story from today also has roots in that game, but the plot is different from any of the stories we told. Which transitions nicely into....

Picture Book #7: Also Untitled So Far
(this one obviously needs a lot of work)

In the town of ___________, there was an infestation problem. But this wasn’t an infestation of rats, or bugs, or (something else that infests). No, this was an infestation of dragons. Well, there was only one dragon really, but one dragon can be an infestation all by itself if it decides to be destructive.* (List stuff dragon did: burn houses, carry off maidens, be a general nuisance, etc.) In ________ there lived a young man named ___________. Like many of the other residents, he was unhappy with the dragon problem. But unlike the other residents, he decided to do something about it. So he went to the local witch and asked for help to get rid of the dragon. Luckily, she didn’t turn him into a toad and decided to grant his request. So she gave him a sword and three gold pieces and sent him home to kill the dragon. So _________ went home, but not being the brightest young man, he gave the three gold pieces and the sword to the first youth he met and told him to go slay the dragon. The youth left the next morning in the direction of the dragon’s cave and never returned. So ____________ went back to the witch and asked for her help again. Again she gave him three gold pieces and a sword and sent him home to kill the dragon. But __________ hadn’t gotten any smarter since the last time he went to see the witch, so again he went to the first youth he saw and gave him the gold pieces and the sword and told him to go slay the dragon. The youth left the next morning in the direction of the dragon’s cave and never returned. _____________ decided to go again to the witch and ask for help. By this time, the witch was getting annoyed that he kept coming back, so this time she gave him the sword without the three gold pieces, and told him to go slay the dragon himself. So ___________ didn’t bother waiting for the morning, but went that night and slayed the dragon while it was asleep. The next day he went to the witch to thank her. By this time she was really annoyed at him and didn’t ever want to see him again. So she turned him into a toad. The end.

*I got that line from Maurice and His Amazing Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett. I don’t think it’s the exact line, so it’s sort of mostly not copying. But I changed it to be about dragons rather than rats, and I’m citing Mr. Pratchett like the diligent English student that I am.

Also, I was really disappointed that I couldn't go more than a week without taking a rest day, and then I find these two wonderful comments on my last post that helped cheer me up and get me back in the game for the marathon. So thank you so much, Literally Lynne and Shaunda!

One more thing and then I will go to bed: I finally got around to scanning and coloring my sketches from the last few days. So first, here is my fully finished drawing for Green Yarn, which I may want to turn into the title page later. It didn't turn out the way I was expecting, and the girl looks a lot more like how I imagined the girl from Untitled So Far (book #6), but I like the way it turned out.

[UPDATE: I just realized I forgot her hands. Gack, I hate drawing hands. Oh well, if I ever do anything with this drawing I'll add in the hands.]

And here's the sketch for Untitled So Far (#6) which somehow got flipped horizontally.I'll fix that when I color it. I'll color tomorrow or the day after, depending on... well, depending on everything. On how my life works out tomorrow. Right now, I'm figuring out every day as it comes. Stressful as it is, it makes a nice change.

[UPDATE AGAIN: I just realized I forgot to do Teaser Tuesday. I'll do a double Teaser Tuesday next week to make up for it, once my life gets organized again. I'm super busy and not reading as much anyway.]

Until tomorrow, hopefully with two more picture books,