“Is the Bald Eagle Sleeping?” makes a great christmas gift or stocking stuffer for new Moms, toddlers, and young children! What’s better than a cute and soothing bedtime story to get the little ones to bed after all those stimulating holiday events on your calendar this month, the flashing Christmas lights, and sugary holiday treats?
Happy Holidays!
Our booth at the OC Children’s Book Festival 2011. Thanks to Maricris and Jane for helping out and decorating the booth!
Come see my booth at the OC Children’s Book Festival tomorrow Sunday, October 2nd from 1-4pm at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. ”Is the Bald Eagle Sleeping?” will be in the Author’s Corner!
Thanks everyone who took the time to become a fan of my Plus 2 Plus 2 FB page! I just got the minimum number of fans needed for my own vanity url on FB. Drum Roll…Announcing www.facebook.com/plus2plus2 Yeah! But don’t stop there! Would love to get more fans!
I had the pleasure of doing my first book reading in my son’s class. The teacher invited me to share the book during my son’s share day. When I arrived at the classroom, my son had a big smile on his face. He stood up in front of the class and introduced me. The teacher asked him, “Who wrote the book?” He answered, “My Mom.” Then she asked him, “And who drew all the pictures?” He replied, “My Mom,” as he nuzzled up next to me. I could tell he was extremely proud.
I started out telling the children that the story I was about to read, starred one of their friends – Kai. They were thrilled to personally know the main character of the book.
The children were between 3 and 5 years old. I was absolutely amazed how many questions and comments they had about the book. “How long did it take you to write the book?” “I like the colors.” “I like the spaceship.” “I like the snail.” I think almost every child raised their hand after the reading.
I had such a great time and would love to do it again!
Our daughter won 1st place in her school’s book float contest for her first grade class. Each child created a book float by building a display of their favorite book on top of an old shoe box. This was especially meaningful since the book she chose was none other than Is the Bald Eagle Sleeping? by Mommy.
We drove to a local craft supply store to buy loose feathers and a couple of styrofoam balls.
To make the bald eagle’s nest, Daddy helped her cut some branches from the olive tree in our backyard. She glued them one by one onto the shoe box for the nest .
Next, she glued white feathers on a styrofoam ball for the head and brown feathers on another styrofoam ball for the body. She molded the small triangular beak with yellow clay and cut out eyelids from black construction paper.
By the time my daughter completed the book float, the bald eagle almost came alive.
This week, the winners of the book float contest get to have a pizza lunch with a local author. She is so excited!
During my elementary school days, I loved to draw. I could easily occupy myself for hours with a pencil and a pad of paper. I stopped doodling in high school when homework took priority. It wasn’t until recently, many decades later, that I picked up that pencil again.
If my initial intention was to publish a children’s book, I would not have attempted any illustrations — would have left it to the professionals. Since I was only planning to draw a few of my son’s favorite sleeping animals to show him before bed, I figured the task was easy enough.
First, I folded over five pieces of typing paper to create a little booklet for sketching. This is my first sketch in April 2010. Not very impressive.
The following day, I put a little more effort and redrew my first illustration. I showed it to my daughter. She was very excited and wanted to color it. I made a copy for each of us to color. She used colored pencils (below), I painted with watercolors. I failed miserably, created a huge mess, and ended up throwing away the soggy painting.
Dissatisfied with the watercolors, I decided to try Photoshop for my illustrations. It was a bit of a learning curve for me but it was definitely worth the time and effort to learn Photoshop. The brushes in Photoshop are incredible – you can control the size, texture, and opacity of the brushes and the possibilites are infinite. I created my own brushes and color swatches, which made the illustration process much easier.
Initially, I used my computer mouse to do the drawings but it was difficult to control the fine details, so I purchased a Wacom Bamboo Pen. It definitely made the strokes smoother and more natural. The drawing below was my first attempt at using Photoshop. As I gathered more experience illustrating, I went back and redrew my initial drawings, including this one.
I asked my daughter to help me with little parts of the drawings. She was delighted and especially enjoyed using the mouse and adding the stars in the night sky. I encouraged her to do her own drawings too. Below is her version of the two humped camel.
Illustrating my first book turned out to be such a rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to share hours of quality time drawing with my daughter, I enjoyed chuckling quietly to myself and smiling every time I imagined what my son’s face would look like when I show him the completed book, and I rediscovered my love for drawing.
