Friday, December 21st, 2012
Happy Holidays!
This one is from the archives. I normally paint my own Christmas cards, but life has been a bit busy lately. I just returned from a crazy book tour and I'm at the end of a painting deadline for a new book, so there simply hasn't been time to paint and print one. I dug deep into the flat files and found this one from 2008. It's a silly piece of old man winter watering his wintry garden. It's already cold and snowy here in Minneapolis, so it seemed like the right piece to use this year.
Wishing all of my friends and readers the very best this holiday season!
Friday, December 7th, 2012
The DRAGON Tour in Pictures
Even more sights, sounds and fun of the
Waking Dragons Book Tour
~ Part Two ~
I ended my last post with a DRAGONY day in Delaware, Ohio. Tami Furlong (from Fundamentals Bookstore) is an excellent host. I had a full day in the schools and an evening event at the library there and caught an early flight to Chicago the next morning. I spoke in two schools in the Chicago suburbs. They were awesome...
I always have a lot of fun speaking to students. I do something different every time a new book comes out. The dragon book was extra fun to read.
I was only in Chicago for one day. I finished the day with an event at Anderson's in Naperville and then met up with some high school classmates I hadn't seen in years. Thanks, again, to Erik & Lauri Haugen for a terrific time!
I continued my travels early the next morning. I packed up and was off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
I spent some time at a great school in Milwaukee called Brookfield. One little girl there asked me what the world was like when I was a kid. When you have a big imagination and your job is to tell stories, that's an awfully hard one to resist, so I didn't. I told the classes that the world was much different back then. I told them that when I was a kid, shoes hadn't even been invented yet and we had to walk around with cardboard taped to our feet. Their jaws were wide open! Many thanks to Rene Steven and all the great teachers at Brookfield for a wonderful time!
I tell a lot of fun stories when I visit schools. I don't want to give you the wrong idea- they're usually true stories. But we have a LOT of fun at these events.
I did an event at Boswell Book Company in the afternoon in Milwaukee and a reading at the Children's Museum to an audience of costumed kids and their parents that night. I don't have pictures from either of those presentations. But I had a nice time with Daniel Goldin and many thanks to Nick for his help with the events.
The next day I headed out to a Wisconsin city with a very interesting name. It's Oconomowoc. I still don't think I'm saying it right. There's a great bookstore there called Books & Company. I've been running into the owner, Lisa Baudoin, at different book gatherings for years, so it was really nice to finally do an event in her store. They held a really fun costumed event. We had all kinds of ghouls, goblins, superheroes and... kitties show up.
I flew off to Detroit the next day. I hadn't seen the news in days. I knew there was a storm brewing off the east coast, but I had no idea just how big it had gotten and that it would soon blow so far inland, it would have an effect on the weather in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I would spend the next few days.
You know the saying- "neither rain, nor sleet, nor hurricane..." or something like that. We did get some rain and wind, but it didn't get in the way of the dragony fun.
My new friend, Lynn, from Nicola's Books drove me around to some fun schools in Ann Arbor. Lynn is not only a fan of books, she's a movie buff as well, so we had a lot to talk about.
I returned home from windy Michigan after being gone for nearly two weeks straight, but the tour wasn't over. Red Balloon Bookshop threw a fun launch party complete with dragon cake!
My buddy- the talented storyteller, Sara Waters, even agreed to do a short storytime before I presented Waking Dragons. Sara is the best! She dressed up as Little Quack and read a few of my books...
And then I presented Waking Dragons.
We had a great time with all of the young knights and dragon-wakers there. But that wasn't the end of the tour either. Then I went on to Ames, Iowa.
I grew up in Ames and the community is always so welcoming when I come to visit.
There are a lot of amazing teachers in Ames. They really go out of their way to prep the kids and make my visits extra special. Kirsti Minion is one of those extraordinary teachers...
And Suann Evans at United always does a great job.
And Lisa Dolan is another. I've always enjoyed visiting her school...
Here, art teacher, Susan Norris, explains an assignment they gave the students in art class at Meeker Elementary. The students got to choose a favorite character from one of my books, come up with an idea for their own book using that character, and then they made book covers. This is such an amazing idea. It gives kids a glimpse into creating stories, as well as the idea of designing a book cover and incorporating a title and byline. The intuitive mind is so very important, I'm so impressed when schools recognize the value in teaching creativity and make art classes a priority.
The students came up with some fantastic ideas for stories!
Here are closeups of a few. I always love to see the personal spin kids put on the characters when they draw them. These are some seriously amazing artists...
I continued my tour of the Ames schools with Joan Fitzsimmons...
And Janet Bunker...
I had a short break and late in the afternoon I spoke to a Children's Literature class at Iowa State University taught by Dr. Amy Popillion. It was a lecture hall with hundreds of students. They had such great questions and I ended up speaking for more than an hour about all facets of creating stories and art for books and the children's publishing business.
Two reporters came to the class- one from the Iowa State Daily and the other from Ames Tribune. Hannah Furfaro wrote a beautiful article that appeared on the front page of that Sunday's Ames Tribune...
Interestingly enough, they put my article next to the headline, 'So who's running in 2014?' In case you're wondering, it won't be me. I like my job way too much. To read the full article in the Ames Tribune, please click HERE.
Speaking to a full house at the Iowa State University Bookstore that Saturday...
And chatting with some young readers and art enthusiasts afterward...
In action at the Ames Public Library later that day. The Ames Public Library is a very special place to me. It's the first place I ever saw an author speak. My dragon event was the last event held there before the library closed for a year of renovations...
The final dragon event was held at Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis. I'd just gotten the original artwork back the day before. I always enjoy bringing original paintings to events, when possible. It gives another perspective into the world of books.
Signing a book for SUPERMAN!
All in all it was a fabulous tour. I met so many great people and book lovers, young and old. I have to express endless thanks to my publisher, Simon & Schuster, for sending me out to read, draw and sign Waking Dragons. Super-duper double dragon thanks to Anna McKean, my publicist at Simon & Schuster who planned every last detail of this whole crazy tour. And more thanks to Paul Crichton, Director of Publicity at S&S, who's support I so appreciate. Thanks to Justin Chanda, Alexandra Cooper (my awesome editor on this Dragony book), Chloe Foglia (the super-talented designer of Waking Dragons), Amy Rosenbaum, and everybody at S&S for all of your hard work. And special thanks to Jane Yolen, who's beautiful, lyrical, bouncing words started this whole dragon adventure off. Thank you, Jane. And thank you, readers, for coming along on this crazy journey.
Friday, November 30th, 2012
The DRAGON Tour in Pictures
The sights, sounds and fun of the
Waking Dragons Book Tour
~ Part One ~
The Dragon tour has come to an end! I brought the dragons to seven states in all. I spoke to thousands of kids, saw some old friends and made a whole lot of new ones. I drew a lot of dragons, read Waking Dragons countless times, told a whole lot of stories and answered hundreds of questions. At least one little girl threw up at an event in Ohio, there were goblins and ghouls lurking about at a bookstore in Wisconsin and Hurricane Sandy blew into another tour stop in Michigan. But none of that stopped the fun. All in all, it was a grand old DRAGONY time.
Here's a tour of the Waking Dragons book tour in pictures...
It all began in Cincinnati at the "Books by the Banks" festival. Though I don't have any pictures from the actual festival, I do have a fuzzy picture from that night. I had a chance to meet up with my old pal, Loren Long, and some new friends from the world of children's books.
From left: Derek, author/illustrator Loren Long, Dr. John Hutton
(owner of Blue Manatee Books in Cincinatti), and author/illustrator Tad Hills
I flew to St. Louis the next day. I'd never seen the arch and was anxious to get a good look at it. I did as soon as I got to my hotel room. This was the view from my window...
There was a jam-packed schedule in St. Louis. Six schools, a bookstore event, a dinner and a quick flight, all in two days.
I got to meet a lot of cool kids that love books...
I told them all about creating the characters and painting the pictures for Waking Dragons.
And many of them told me stories while I signed their books.
They often come up with thought provoking (and sometimes hilarious) questions.
I went out for dinner with some terrific librarians in St. Louis. People in the book business have very clever senses of humor. When a woman named Melissa Posten asked me where I'd like to go for dinner, I suggested barbecue (because that's what St. Louis is known for). Look at where she took me...
She says she didn't make the connection between Little Quack and "Shaved Duck," but she's far too witty for it to have been a coincidence. In case you're wondering, I didn't have the duck.
There are a lot of late nights and early mornings on a book tour. You're often doing up to three or four presentations in a day in schools, libraries or bookstores and sometimes catching a flight as well. I didn't have time to be tired, so when I had a few minutes at an airport or on a plane, I drew tired lions.
I flew from St. Louis back to Ohio and ended up in a fun city called Delaware the next day. The kids were lively and welcoming and we had a great time!
One has to be very careful when waking dragons. At Heritage Elementary in Ohio, a class wrote how they would wake a dragon. They came up with some very interesting methods...
At Buckeye Valley Elementary, they decorated with a "red hot" sign and a giant dragon from my new book that was flying above the stage.
The students at Buckeye Valley had made their own books. This one, called Sleeping Dragons, was giant. You can see the basketball hoop above it.
Coming next week... fun in Chicago, Milwaukee, the unwelcome arrival of Hurricane Sandy and more dragon tales from Minnesota and Iowa!
