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I just learned that BUBBLE HOMES AND FISH Farts written by Fiona Bayrock, illustrated by me, and due out from Charlesbridge in Spring 09, is a Junior Library Guild Selection. Everyone is very happy.

A nice nice boost as I finish the last few illustrations for THE PRAIRIE DOG PRINCE, written by Eva Katharine Gibson, to be published by The South Dakota State Historical Society Press (whew!) as one of their Prairie Tales.

Fun writing & illustrating family news all around:

Mark, my husband, a blogger, cartoonist, and “rickety old” skateboarder, who can still rip it up despite being “all old and everything”, was interviewed for a local t.v. sports show. Apparently, I have been living with a legend. When did THAT happen?

See the Channel 12 video here!

My older daughter and her friend, Seth, were in Locus Magazine, photographed at the Dell Magazine Awards for Young Writers at The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Two fantastic young writers enjoying some mingling. Seth won an award!

My younger daughter had a How-to article published in Craft Magazine. She was also featured in their blog, and did a workshop locally for the Craft:07 Issue launch the weekend before her High School graduation.

Tad Poole hit the road today. (Going door to door with a special offer!) Wish him luck? Yes, please.

At last, I guess. I know this looks like a blog but I am not really a blogger. I thought this format would be an easy (ish) way to post new stuff and give the first page a new look periodically. Which it is. So there! And I HAVE been busy… with work and playing with something new, as usual. Doodling with characters, style, mood, pacing… This time it’s a skateboarding story, which was wierd at first because skateboarding is Mark’s thing, but it’s totally fun to draw. Now I wonder why I waited so long. Of course I am counting on Mark to catch any embarrassing mistakes.
Some more sketches:

A week late. Still trying to catch up! Holidays twist your arm to do things you’ve been wanting and meaning to do but can’t seem to make time for; contact people, get together with people, spend time with people, etc… which is good. But all that dang socializing takes time. I don’t have office hours, or take vacation. I work every day and I like it that way! So what happens when school is out and the whole family is home for a week or two? Well. Around this house, everyone has his or her own projects. Here you see K working on her novel (over 100 pages!) G home from her first semester at M.I.T. with an epic poem to share (28 pages of iambic pentameter - No kidding! Based on a prose story written by a friend.) and Mark hard at work on his skateboarding comics and blog.

With a house full of creatives, I think the secret to compatibility is respectful sharing of space and resources (No hogging the computer! No leaving big messes for someone else to clean up! And yes, sadly, everyone must take a turn doing dishes. And laundry. And the cat box…)

2006 was fine. Good family stuff, steady work, exciting new school visit and book experiences. There’s a nice discussion of the gopher book on John Bell’s Oz and Ends site

But last year is history. What do I want from 2007? More of the same, I guess. Fun. Progress. Growth. (If I was truthful I’d add: Bigger money! Smaller bills! But I am full of fiction. Chock full. Over-flowing.)

Our last bookstore signing on our last afternoon in Sioux Falls at Barnes and Noble (on one corner of the busiest intersection in all of South Dakota!) Chit-chatted with book people and gopher hunters and some aspiring author/illustrators here, and a geneologist. Signed copies of !2 Days of Christmas Dogs and a stack of Discontented Gophers. Spent the late afternoon strolling around Falls Park, and the old downtown area.

More pics from yesterday and a couple from today.

One last book-signing in Sioux Falls. It’s been fun, but yow. I am really really starting to miss home. The kids, the dog, the yard, even the rain. I miss everything. Taxi, please!

It was a busy trip but we enjoyed some natural wonders… and unnatural wonders, as well. (Pronghorn antelope on the highway between Rapid City and Pierre, a six foot ”jackrabbit” and other oddities at Wall Drug, in Wall, S.D., and a nice formation of geese flying over the award-winning S.D. Historical Society building in Pierre.)

We (my book-designer husband, Mark and I) are having a great time in South Dakota. We don’t get a lot of snow at home (Portland, Or.) so we enjoyed the snowstorm the first night - even though it made the roads slippery-slide-y and put a pox on our plan for a quick trip to see Mt Rushmore… We’re meeting a lot of nice people, too. Our hosts from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Nancy Tystad Koupal and Martyn Beeny for example. We’re learning lots of interesting local history, geography and culture. My first-ever school visits in Pierre, and Aberdeen were fun, fun, fun. Only a couple minor bugs with the program, easily worked out. The kids asked great questions! It was handy to have Mark there to answer book-design and production type questions.

THE DISCONTENTED GOPHER is out, just in time for Christmas! So this contented illustrator will be out and about attending openings and visiting bookstores. Here’s the schedule so far. I hope to see you, if one of these locations is convenient to you. Let me know you’re coming and I’ll save you a share of Zikki’s riches…

12/1 Opening (5-9 pm) NW Childrens Book Illustrators Show – Portland, Oregon, Murdoch Gallery
4114 North Vancouver Ave, Portland, OR 97217 tel. 503 284 1960

12/2 A Childrens Place Bookstore – Portland, Oregon, 11 am 4807 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR tel.503-284-8294

12/6, Borders – Rapid City, South Dakota , 7pm, 2130 N Haines Ave, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, tel. 605 394 5334

12/7, Prairie Pages – Pierre, South Dakota, 5-7pm, 321 S. Pierre St, Pierre, South Dakota 57501, tel. 605 945 1100

12/9, Little Professor – Aberdeen, South Dakota, 1-3pm, 3315 6th Ave SE, Aberdeen, SD 57401, tel. 800 564 0632

12/10, Barnes and Noble – Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1-3pm, 3700 W 41st St, Sioux Falls, SD 57106, tel. 605 362 1500