a good reason to be busy

Just posting this update because I'm about to be working hard for the next few weeks: While at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Conference this weekend in Birmingham a representative from Eedrman's Books for Young People expressed interest in my dummy and suggested I work up some finals and submit to them. Sooo I'll be spending the next few weeks knocking out some awesome final illustrations to send away with it. Wish me luck!

Catching up between conferences and vacation

I've been quiet for about a month as I worked like a maniac to get my picture book dummy ready for the Mid-South SCBWI conference two weeks ago here in Nashville. More one the dummy later. I also worked on an illustration for the illustrator's showcase. The attending art director, Patrick Collins from Henry Holt, supplied two manuscripts and we were to choose a spread from one to illustrate. The two he sent were Don't Lick the Dog, a story about how dogs prefer to meet kids , and El Barrio, a discovery story about Spanish Harlem. I was the only illustrator who chose El Barrio, and I chose it mostly because I loved the images conjured up by the writer's words. Here's the spread I chose to illustrate:
El barrio is
Our Lady of Guadalupe candles,
syrupy sweet churros,
ice-cold paletas,
and a lemon-yellow fire escape as
tall as a city skyscraper.


(text copyright 2009 Debbi Chocolate, image copyright Mary Uhles 2009)

All of ya'll kid's book groupies can read the entire conference blog here

A couple of days after the conference the fam headed down to Gulf Shores for some much needed R and R. I'll upload some pictures and sketches in the next couple of days. Next up is the Southern Breeze Conference in Birmingham. I hope to have a finished piece from my dummy done by then.