Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

A nice review of The Gingerbread Pirates, and some kind words about illustrators Richard Scarry, Petr Horacek, Gail De Marcken and me, from the excellent children's book blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Indiebound bestseller list

Good news: The Gingerbread Pirates made the Indiebound bestseller list! It just made the cut, at #15 in the Children's Illustrated category.

New Indie Bookstore in southern Maine

Join me this weekend in Kennebunk, Maine to welcome a great new independent bookstore, Kennebooks, to the southern Maine community. It's a 3,500 square foot space with 11,000 books, but it also has the comforts of home- a wood stove, a couch, a front porch. And their knowlegable staff can help you find just the right book. Especially if you happen to be looking for a book about pirate cookies who come to life in Christmas Eve...

I'll be signing copies of "The Gingerbread Pirates" at 10:30 this Saturday, November 21, and there will be other fun stuff going on all weekend as part of their Holiday Open House. Hope to see you there!

new studio

I spent yesterday morning rearranging my studio. Before yesterday, when I worked digitally I just put my monitor, laptop, and wacom drawing tablet on a drawing table, which was fine but a bit awkward. But now that I'm going to be working digitally more (just for sketches at this point, all the pictures in my books are still done with traditional media like paint, pencil, paper, etc.), I decided to make the computer setup a bit more permanent, and a lot more comfortable.

I got a corner computer desk and replaced the keyboard section with an 18 x 24 portable drawing table. Here's how it looks now, with my old drawing table and paints on the left, and my new computer/monitor/drawing tablet on the right:

Horn Book Magazine Holiday High Notes

The Horn Book Magazine came out with its annual list of recommended new holiday books, and The Gingerbread Pirates made the list!

Henry Aaron's Dream

I just got my first real copy of my next book, Henry Aaron's Dream (Candlewick, January 2010). Here it is!

first day of school

I've heard a lot of people say that having a new book released is like sending your child out into the world. Well, I have a new book that comes out today, and I started my day by watching my little girl get on the school bus for her first day of kindergarten. I'm proud of The Gingerbread Pirates, and I hope it does well and all, but after watching that school bus drive away, I have to say that having a new book released is nothing at all like sending your child out into the world. Not even close.

The Gingerbread Pirates Tour

The Gingerbread Pirates comes out on September 8, and Kristin Kladstrup and I will be spending some time this Fall traveling around, signing books, reading to kids, and eating lots of gingerbread men! So if you like books, cookies, Christmas, pirates, or all of the above, come see us! It's rare to get the author AND the illustrator together in the same place, so this should be lots of fun!

Here's where we'll be:

September 19 2:00-4:00 pm. Talk Like A Pirate Day! G. Willikers in downtown Portsmouth, NH (I need to practice for this one. So far I just know "arrrrr", "matey", and "swashbuckling".)

September 20 3:00 pm launch party and book signing at Book Ends in Winchester, MA
(we're working on getting The Gingerbread Construction Company bakery involved. Yummmmm.)

October 24 time TDA, at The Blue Bunny in Dedham, MA

November 22 11:00 am book signing and story hour at Barnes & Noble in Portsmouth, NH

December 5 2:00 at The Wenham Museum in Wenham, MA, as part of their annual Gingerbrad Express event.

Monhegan

Here's a painting I did last week while I was on Monhegan Island. It's watercolor on 300 lb cold press arches paper, about 8"x10".


watercolor, 8x10

The Gingerbread Pirates

I got my first real copy of my next book, The Gingerbread Pirates, written by Kristin Kladstrup, illustrated by me. Here it is!

Reach Out and Read

I did a reading and drawing demonstration at the Claypit Hill School in Wayland, MA on Monday, in conjunction with Reach Out and Read, a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud.

Here's a short video about Reach Out and Read:

Just One More Book

Here's an interview I did the other day with Mark Blevis from the Just One More Book podcast.

Just One More Book is a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children’s books. I love listening to Mark and Andrea interview authors and illustrators, so it was an honor to be featured on their show. Definitely visit their web site, and scroll down their amazing list of authors and illustrator interviews and book reviews.