last chance to bid!

The auction for my January small graces painting ends TODAY!

POETRY FRIDAY: The Peace of Wild Things

I often worry what our country…our world will be like in the coming years. I worry about global warming, the environment, our economy, war, terrorism, famine and disease. I worry for my daughter and her generation—and for future generations. What helps to keep me sane is laughter, which I find to be a great catharsis. That’s why I love watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

In the following poem, Wendell Berry provides us with another suggestion for helping to forget—at least for a time—things that trouble our thoughts.

From The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

You can read the rest of the poem here at American Life in Poetry.

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original fairy tale poem entitled A Charming Prince Has Second Thoughts.

Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday Roundup today.

sketches and gum

I stayed up until early this morning to turn in a piece for the "launch meeting" for my bubble gum book. Oy. I was trying to get onto a normal schedule again. So much for that. I did manage to finish an illustration in one evening. Go me. The pink one (ends) has not been finished. Of course I have no idea if they like the art or hate it. I guess I'll have to wait....





I bought a book a few weeks ago called AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE. It's all about artist sketch books w/interviews and interior drawings. I've never been able to keep a sketch book but am fascinated by the people who do.



I love this quote: "My sketchbook is the opposite of my job. It's like a pocket-sized vacation." For me keeping a sketch book is a chore. I did read one comment about doodling that I 100% identified with. I can't find the actual quote but the artist said that doodling helps him pay attention. What first seems rude is actually a way of keeping on track and listening to the person/people talk. I am the same way. Lots of times if I doodle while some one is talking I have an easier time listening.

anyway, I highly recommend getting the book. It's really great and the sketch books are amazing!

meghan

DONE!

The rewrite is on its way to editors (thank you, Fabulous Agent!); the old drafts are on their way to another destination. And I'm working on the next book.

Safety Act Catches Publishers Off Guard

I was visiting with a friend who owns a small, independent children's book shop yesterday. She called my attention to Safety Act Catches Publishers Off Guard, an article that she had just read at publishersweekly.com. My friend expressed her concern to me about the negative impact that the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 may have on her business.

You can find links to the article and to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 at Wild Rose Reader in the following post: Safety Act Catches Publishers Off Guard.

dumplings

My head has been filled with dumplings lately. Not only is my new work-in-progress novel tentatively titled "Dumpling Days," one of the stories in my upcoming early reader Ling & Ting prominently features dumpling making: With so many dumplings in my head, I decided there was no time like the present to accomplish #4 of my new year's resolutions: make my own dumplings!

My goal this year is to try a few different dumpling recipes and figure out which one I like best. When I recently read on Jama Rattigan's blog that her book "Dumpling Soup" was having it's 15 year anniversary (wow!), I knew her recipe was the one I wanted to try first.
"Dumpling Soup" was one of the few multicultural picturebooks around when I began my journey as an author/illustrator, it was one of the books that inspired me to write about my own cultural heritage. So, why not start my dumpling making experience with a book that started my book-making experience? Seemed fitting to me!

So, following the Yang family recipe, I murdered a cabbage. It was gruesome, I chopped it into many pieces. I didn't know I could be so cruel:


Then I mixed meat:

and folded the dumplings:

Don't they look good? They are not as nice as my mom's, but I was proud.

Then I cooked them

and ate them! YUM!
These dumplings are going to be hard to beat, but I plan on making the Lin family recipe next...

More sketches

Sorry for the short posts, I've been busy lately revising a book dummy for an upcoming project, Greta's Dad. Here are some sketches...

What are those effin' gees, anyway?

Recently at a work lunch, I started talking about geeky publishing terms that could be used for names of bars. Like, "Hey, you guys wanna go to F&Gs tonight?" or "There's a cool new place called TK."

Its possible that all of you already know what these mean, but I thought I'd outline a few publishing terms, with particular focus on sales materials, as right now our design department is working towards getting the cover designs finished for our Fall 2009 ARCs. What are ARCs, you say? Well, I'll tell you!

ARC=advanced reading copy. When speaking, I actually interchange saying it as the word "arcs" and saying it as the initials "A.R.C.s" fairly consistently, so I think saying it either way is fine. ARCs are the main sales materials we produce for our novels. They look exactly like a paperback book, and ideally will have the cover design on the front, although oftentimes the design is not final and will change either slightly, or in some cases, the final books will have a completely different cover. For example, we completely changed the cover of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass from ARC to final book after getting some negative feedback. (I would post the ARC cover, but I can't seem to find the image anywhere...I really loved the ARC cover, though!)

Galleys: this can actually refer to two different things that are related. One refers to page proofs, which is basically the manuscript when it's typeset and laid out in the design of the book. This comes after the copyedited manuscript. Galleys can also refer to ARCs, although oftentimes the difference is that galleys don't have the cover design--the cover is plain, usually uncoated paper. (I'm not sure if this is the same across the board in publishing.) Sometimes, though, ARCs and galleys are used interchangeably.

F&Gs=folded and gathered pages. The common publishing joke is that of an intern or newbie who, after working in publishing for a while, asks someone, "What are Gees, and why is everyone so mad at them?" F&Gs are our sales materials for picture books--it's basically the color proof for a book that has been cut, folded, and gathered so that it looks like an unbound book.

BLADs=Basic Layout and Design. BLADs generally look like F&Gs, but aren't the complete book. We make blads generally for longer illustrated nonfiction books, where you don't necessarily need to see the whole book to decide if you want to buy it. For example, we used BLADs to sell Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!, a Beatles biography we published last Fall. But we also used BLADs to sell the longer picture books by Jimmy Liao, The Sound of Colors and The Blue Stone, because doing full-length 80-page F&Gs would be too expensive.

TK=to come, as in "copyright information TK." It's used as a placeholder and reminder that you're waiting for additional material. Yes, I know, "To Come" should be TC, but it's not. Basically, from what I've been able to understand, it's an intentional misspelling meant to catch the eye. 

Are there other publishing terms/abbreviations that you've always wondered about?

Bid NOW!

The January Painting for small graces is NOW ON AUCTION!

Please spread the word and BID!

talk today at 2pm - come see me!

This is from Fuse #8's blog (because I'm lazy)

Graphic Elements in Biography and Non-Fiction

Join C.M. Butzer (Gettysburg), Meghan McCarthy (Seabiscuit, the Wonder Horse), Sean Qualls (Before John Was a Jazz Giant), and Dan Yaccarino (The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau) as they discuss their work melding picture book and graphic novel elements with biographical and informational subjects.

The Children’s Literary Café is a monthly gathering of adults who are fans of children’s literature. Professionals, librarians, authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers, teachers, and anyone else interested in the field are welcome to attend our meetings. The Literary Café provides free Advanced Readers galleys, a rotating series of talks with professionals in the field, and great conversation.

New York Public Library
Children's Center at 42nd Street
Room 84
475 Fifth Avenue
New York , NY 10018

POETRY FRIDAY: A Poem by Philip Appleman

Here is a poem for the beginning of the year that I had planned to post last Friday—but we had no Internet access in the timeshare where we were staying with friends in New Hampshire. Happy New Year a week late!

To the Garbage Collectors in Bloomington, Indiana, the First Pickup of the New Year
by Philip Appleman

(the way bed is in winter, like an aproned lap,
like furry mittens,
like childhood crouching under tables)
The Ninth Day of Xmas, in the morning black
outside our window: clattering cans, the whir
of a hopper, shouts, a whistle, move on ...
I see them in my warm imagination
the way I’ll see them later in the cold,
heaving the huge cans and running
(running!) to the next house on the street.

My vestiges of muscle stir
uneasily in their percale cocoon:
what moves those men out there, what
drives them running to the next house and the next?
Halfway back to dream, I speculate:
The Social Weal? “Let’s make good old
Bloomington a cleaner place
to live in—right, men? Hup, tha!”

You can read the rest of the poem here.

********************

At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original poem from my unpublished collection of memoir poems entitled A Home for the Seasons. I’ve also included five other poems from the collection that I posted previously.

Anastasia Suen has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.

a new studio

After Christmas came some craziness. To sum up a VERY long story, there was a leak coming from my sink and the neighbors' ceiling came down and my landlady threatened to call a lawyer and evict me and "make me pay," etc. Ugh!!! So I was planning on re-designing where I paint. It used to serve as a useless dinning room. I'm getting rid of the dinning room table and chairs and moving stuff around. Good fun! I was excited. Ikea and Home Depot here I come. Of course, the awful nightmare of being yelled at for literally more than 2 hours - from 1:30 - 5 to be exact, I got depressed and scared and thought I might lose my home. I also haven't been able to sleep well because of stuff like this:



I hope this doesn't gross anyone out. It shouldn't. It's my foot. Anyway, I get this all over body itching thing that the doctors can't figure out and I end up cutting up my feet and other places. Nice, right?

Moving on. Before I was informed of my very tight book deadline, I was finishing up this:



and starting what I'm calling the "zerox series."



And of course documenting more street art:



Now I must give that up and work on the book (this is the ends)



...and finish moving around the space:







I have WAY too many books.


This is what I've decided to do with my antique dress form:





And I bought a very creepy antique clown at the antique store near my parents' house. He's to keep my company during my long work hours (yeah right).



I'm going to make a whole new "see inside the studio" when I'm done moving things around and building things. My dad is going to help me make a wooden flat-files type thing and I'm buying two long, high kitchen carts to serve as my working space. My dad bought me two big pieces of glass to use as palates, which I highly recommend... and I'm going to make a music station space and all sorts of other stuff, so stay tuned! (if you are interested, of course). I will document it all.

meghan

www.smallgraces.org

Thanks to a kind hint by fellow blogger Mitali Perkins, I've figured out how to get a custom domain name for my charity project: www.smallgraces.org. Please spread the word!!!

Small Graces: A Painting a Month for the FCB

As I mentioned in my 2009 post, I was very proud of Robert's Snow. It is probably one of the most meaningful things I have ever done and it made me a true believer in the Winston Churchill quote, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

While I don't feel capable of running a large project like that again, I do want to continue its spirit if only in a small way.

So, I am proud to announce my new charity project:

Small Graces: A Painting a Month For the FCB


Once a month a small(roughly 5x5 inch), unpublished, original painting of mine will be auctioned off through eBay with 100% of the proceeds to benefit the Foundation of Children's Books. This painting(above) will go on auction from Monday, January 12 through Friday, January 16.
(I'll post a link then!)

It is a variation on Robert's Snow except:

1. I'm the only artist, and there is only one painting during each auction

2. It will happen once a month for the year of 2009

3. The original paintings will all be illustrated small bits of wisdom (inspired by the collecting I've been doing for Fortune Cookie Fridays)

4. The money (all of it) will go to the Foundation of Children's Books to support author visits in low-income schools. Why? Read HERE.

This is just my small way to give back to schools and the community, and it can be yours too! Please spread the word and bid!

charity

Recently, when my fellow BRG Meghan wrote a frank post about authors, money and school visits, it made me think. Her honesty made me wince and nod at the same time.

Because here is my truth--I do a lot of school visits. I am so grateful and honored that schools invite me. But a great portion of my income depends on the fees I receive from these visits. AND, my most natural state is introverted--there are only so many visits I can do in a year without stammering incoherently. I'm kind of like a jar of marbles--every visit I do I am less one marble until I am empty. So, I can't give away my marbles for free.

But, it isn't fair that the only schools that get authors to visit are the ones that can afford to. Every visit I do, I can see the excitement in the students. But it also isn't fair to ask the author (the usually financially-strapped author) to do it for free either.

That is where organizations like the Foundation of Children's Books, the beneficiary of my new little TBA project, comes in.

The Foundation funds school visit programs for low-income schools. So, schools that usually can't afford an author to visit, get one and the author doesn't have to suffer financially either.

Supporting the Foundation is win-win for everyone. Students of all incomes get wonderful programs and fellow authors are able to make a living to keep creating books! Isn't that great?

Now, don't you want to know what my new little charity project is? Stay tuned!!!

New sketches

I resolve in 2009...

Happy 2009, everyone!

I do love making new year's resolutions, and listed a few over on my personal blog. Here are some of my work-related goals:

-Come up with plan to manage submissions in a more efficient way--do not keep authors/agents waiting for more than 3 months (I know, I resolved to do this last year, but this year I'm being more specific!)
-Read (including audio books) at least one adult book every three months, and one published MG/YA book every month (I know this probably seems pitiful, but I always feel guilty when I'm not reading submissions)
-Clean my office for at least a half hour each week (I went into the office on Friday to clean and organize, so I have a bit of a head's start now...)

I managed to read a lot over the holiday break, and it felt fantastic. I read Malcolm Gladwell's newest, Outliers (loved it). I read Jenny Han's upcoming novel, The Summer I Turned Pretty (SO good). I read Sarah Ockler's upcoming debut novel Twenty Boy Summer (what a tear-jerker!), and Coraline by Neil Gaiman (fantastic!). And I finally made significant progress into a book I had started last year but never finished, What Is the What by Dave Eggers. And yes, I even read some submissions. I also read the newspaper almost every day. And it all felt fantastic. And so this is why I am determined to keep reading actual published books throughout the year. I will, goshdarnit! It's why I wanted to be involved in publishing in the first place, after all. For the love of the books.

Did you read any good books over the holidays?

Grace Lin Books Group

So, my New Year's resolutions are up and running...though, no thanks to me. I am miserable with a cold, looking oh-so-glamourous-like this:

(like my hat? It was an X-mas gift!)

But resolution #8 (lucky 8!) has begun thanks to cyber-friend Jenny who started a Grace Lin Books Group on Facebook. She also made a Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Book Release Event too! Isn't that neat? Thanks, Jenny!

Please join! It'd be fun to have an online booklaunch! Once my congestion clears up, I'll try to think of some fun virtual party favors, as I think virtual cupcakes are sorely lacking in tastiness.

*question to self--do I join my own book group, or is that weird? Hopefully answer will be forthcoming as my head clears.

2009

2008 is almost over! The number 8 in Chinese culture is lucky, so 2008 was supposed to be a lucky year. Looking back, it was rather a good year for me. I fulfilled some dreams--like walking on the Great Wall of China and visiting Taiwan with my parents. I also finished my novel which definitely took some luck.

The number 9 is synonymous with longevity in Chinese culture (hope that bodes well for the longevity WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON!), so 2009 is a year to think of long term ambitions. Here are 9 of my personal goals for the year (some are a little less aspiring than others):

1. Write a new good novel. Make books without any excuses-- work that I know that I have done to the best of my ability so that it doesn't matter what anyone says.

2. Grow my hair at least 3 more inches so I can donate it. This is actually kind of hard, because my hair is driving me a little crazy. I haven't had it this long for a while.)

3. Charity. Robert's Snow is a project that I am proud of but, not only is it too much responsibility for me to take on again, it is also a project of the past that, for now, I want to leave in the past. But I feel strongly about my art and charitable giving...so I'm working on a new project that will be revealed in the new year. Stay tuned!

4. Make dumplings. This is something I haven't done since I was a child with my mother. If I remember correctly, they were far superior than store-bought ones. I think this is a good year to find out if that is true.

5. Participate. I read a fair amount of blogs and lists but I never comment. I rarely even respond to comments on my own blog. I guess I am still in a weird-shy-lurking phase...that I will get over this year.

6. Do every school visit to the best of my ability. I've booked quite a few visits this spring, and I am SO grateful and honored that schools have requested me. The only problem is that sometimes my introverted nature takes over and students, schools, librarians and teachers begin to blur. I am going to make a special effort to check myself this year.

7. Learn how to make a frosting flower. I really want to get some impressive cake decorating skills down!

8. Embrace marketing, but know my limits. In this current climate, I need to give my books all the help they can get. I don't want to be QVC salesperson, but I'd like to get as many people who might be interested in my new book know about it.

9. Be thankful. No matter what this year brings, I know there will always be something to be grateful for. With thankfulness, nothing is ever that bad and the best things are even better. And that is something I hope stays with me for a long, long time.

Art to do list for 2009

This year instead of focusing on personal resolutions, I decided to make a list of all the art projects I've been meaning to do, but always put aside so I can focus on writing and painting books. What I'm realizing is that if I don't do those other projects, my writing and illustration will suffer, I need to dabble more to feed my inspiration! So here are some of my artistic goals for 2009. I may not get to all of them, but I like the idea of starting a list so that I can do them, eventually.

- Start a series of pet portraits (along the lines of this painting I did for a friend's wedding).

- I'd like to do some little paintings on miniature square canvases of trees and flowers in interesting color palettes.

- I'd like to do more sewing. Its something I grew up doing quite a bit, but again always something that gets pushed to the bottom of my creative list. In particular I'd like to sew little animals like these, and maybe some table runners with matching cloth napkins.

- I'd like to learn an animation program, and animate some of my drawings. I've had an idea about flying cats thats been flapping its wings in the back of my brain for a long time!

- I'd like to do more drawing from life.

What are your artistic goals for 2009?