Melissa T. Liban Illustrations

My Life According to Belle and Sebastian

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:02:00 +0000

I did this years ago on Facebook and recently was digging through my account and found it under the notes section, I don't know if anybody ever saw it, so I'm going to post it here cuz it's a pretty fun game. You should try it out. I used the band Belle and Sebastian, a band in which I love. They make songs you can just chill and smile to.

Here's the game: Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, answer these questions. You can't use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It seems to work best when you pick emo indie artists with large repertoires. Repost as "my life according to (band name)"
My Life According to Belle and Sebastian
By: Melissa T. Liban

Pick Your Artist:
Belle and Sebastian

Are you a male or female?
I’m a Cuckoo

Describe yourself:
I Fought in a War

How do you feel?
She’s Losing It

Describe where you currently live:
Asleep on a Sunbeam

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Dirty Dream Number Two

Your favorite form of transportation:
Dog on Wheels

Your best friend is?
Lazy Line Painter Jane

You and your best friends are:
Wrapped up in Books

What's the weather like?
Winter Wooksie

What's your favorite time?
A Summer Wasting

What is life to you?
A Century of Fakers

Your last relationship:
My Wandering Days are Over

Your fear:
Legal Man

What is the best advice you have to give?
It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career

Thought for the Day:
If You Find Yourself Caught in Love

How I would like to die:
Like Dylan in the Movies

My soul's present condition:
If Your Feeling Sinister

My motto:
This is Just a Modern Rock Song

Now it's your turn!

Creative Tuesday: Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:04:00 +0000

Hello Creative Tuesday! My computer is fixed just in time to make some patters! Yeah, hello, I LOVE making patterns!

A nice simple pattern (if ya click on it it will make it larger
and less blurry).

If you click on this to make it larger
it will less blurry.

I kept my pattern pretty simple with just the profile of my friend Sasha Santiago. I wanted to work with layers, so that's why and what I did.

Here's the Sasha I drew and worked with.

I then added in some background color and some drop shadows and patterned it up.

Sasha Santiago hasn't been around here in a long time. Originally I started a webcomic with her. I think I got about four pages in, when my dedication waned and I moved on to other things. She's now a character that my main character from my young adult novel draws.

She also got a little bit of a revamp in the looks department and in the patterns I made her look like a sticker cuz stickers (I was going for a pile of scattered stickers in the second one, hopefully it looks like that) are involved in my story Permanent Adhesives. I can't get my story out of my head, I think cuz I've been working on it for so long, so now I'm producing art with elements from it. I do apologize if you're sick of hearing about it, but I used one of the results from this weeks Creative Tuesday on one of the pages on my website, so thanks CT (also used it for my Twitter background).

For more fantastic patterns check out Creative Tuesday!

Sunday Sketches and Permanent Adhesives

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Hello my friends! My computer is finally back from the dead! Today for Sunday Sketches I did some hand lettering. Permanent Adhesives is the name of my young adult novel that I entered in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. It was in the middle of my final editing of my story when my computer decided to go berserk on me, luckily I have a wonderful husband who brought it back from the dead.

Check out more Sunday Sketches at Sophia Blog!

My Computer is Very Sick

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Well, my computer has had a total breakdown, so that sucks. I'm writing this from an iPad and it's weird and I might end up getting little finger cramps from the way I'm typing on it right now. So if I'm not around the interweb world for a bit it is due to my computers health issues. I've never realized how much I depend on computer for my day to functioning and enjoyment. I'm sitting and thinking, man I now have no excuse not to clean my house.
When my computer went kapootz I was in the middle of editing my story and that's what has been filling my days, so yesterday I actually went to the library to use their computers for a bit, it was kinda odd cuz I haven't used a computer in a library in forever, like years upon years, but I liked being in a different environment and working on my stuff. Granted I had my four year old with me and he kept singing and asking really loud, "Is it time to go yet?" but it still wasn't bad and I checked out a book, which I'm almost done with already cuz I don't have my computer to distract me. So, bye for now, hopefully my computer gets well soon.

I Entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:06:00 +0000

Okay, my computer has gone bonkers! I wanted to do Sunday Sketches yesterday, but I couldn't retrieve my image, so until my computer magically heals itself, my posts will mainly be text. I wasn't going to say anything cuz I didn't want to jinx myself, but you know how I said I was finishing up editing a young adult novel I wrote, well I entered it in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. They take up to 10,000 entries, half general fiction and half young adult fiction. The first round is your pitch, and if you make it past that, you along with 999 others in your category move on to the next round. So, we'll see. And if mine doesn't make it past that then at least I know I need to work on my pitch/query. My story is called Permanent Adhesives and unlike my novella, vampires are not involved, so here is a very short description of it (this was not my pitch, so ya know):

Molly Pearson really likes Elias Bickler. She doesn’t care that he’s short, or has a speech disorder, or also happens to be the son of her alcoholic father’s girlfriend. Problem is, they get in an embarrassing fight that ends up on the internet and she never wants to see him again, but then he comes up with a pretty clever apology involving her webcomic that just might give him a second chance.

Many other things are invovled in the story like: nerds, webcomic characters, Live Action Role Playing, street art, wearing tube socks with shorts while it's the inappropriate season, teen angst and drama. I'm kinda excited and I really like my story, so if it doesn't make it through ABNA then I'll start sending it to agent/ publisher like people . Permanent Adhesives is ready to meet the world!

My Experience Self-Publishing e-Books

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:32:00 +0000

Hello my friends. Today I’m going to talk about the experience I have had so far with self-publishing e-books. A bit ago I wrote a novella for young adults and put it up for sale. That was around Aug. 10^th 2011. This is post is on the long side!

Distribution: I put it up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble independently. I also put it up on Smashwords and they distribute it to Kobo, iBooks, Diesel and the Smashwords site itself. You can have Smashwords distribute your book to Amazon and Barnes and Noble also, but I chose to have them not to because there is quite the delay when it comes to sales reporting with Smashwords and if I do it myself through Amazon and B&N I also get more profit. My next book I might not even put on Smashwords because on that site I only have sold 2 copies, Kobo and Diesel I have sold none and the iBook store I have sold 6 copies, so next times I just might skip over the Smashwords cuz I might never even see my payment for those 8 books I’ve sold cuz a certain amount of money has to accrue before they pay you. This also goes with Amazon and B&N, but you’re more than likely to get paid by one of those. Now when it comes to sales on Amazon and B&N, for some reason I sell way more on B&N. Through reading forums and such it seems most people are flip-flopped and get more sales from Amazon. But it’s hard to even find my book on Amazon, whereas B&N, it’s quite easy to find. I have yet to be paid by Amazon and have been paid twice by B&N already. Also so you know, there is a lag when you get first paid. With B&N it’s 60 days from the first day of your sale, so ya gotta wait for your money.

Am I rich?: Hardly, not even close. Can I afford to buy a fancy coffee and a sandwich once a month, yes. I do believe it’s a hit or miss with e-books. I’m not complaining, I have sold some and have ten more dollars than I did before, but that’s about it. I think my sales would be better if the vampire in my story was all smoldering hot and you went weak in the knees when you looked into his eyes and he had rippling muscles. It seems some (mainly teen girls) prefer this type of vampire, but that wasn’t the point of my story, so no smoldering hottie. I’m sure I’d also have more sales if I actually marketed my story and told other people besides the ones that read my blog that I wrote a novella, but I’m not real big on the communication front, so yeah.

The holidays: I learned that the holidays, mainly close to Christmas, is a great time for e-book sales, well, at least on the Barnes and Noble site for me. My sales tripled, so next Christmas time I’m going to make sure I have more than one book up there to sell.

The actual sales: I’m going to show you my actual sales, as embarrassing and low as they may be. I’m always curious when it comes to other people’s e-book sales, so I figured maybe you are too, so here it goes. Oh and this is just Amazon and B&N cuz I already told you about my other measly sales (these are just U.S. sales. On Amazon I’ve sold a few copies in the U.K.).

Amazon B&N

Aug: 9 17

Sept: 5 20

Oct: 6 25

Nov: 2 31

Dec: 12 115

Jan (so far): 9 52

So, as you can see I do not have a best seller. But you can also see that B&N has been much nicer to me. I’m sure the numbers will prolly go back down once all the teens have used up their gift cards for the holidays, but it is fun seeing your book go up in the rankings.

Tough skin: I’ve also learned that you have to have some tough skin and not break down every time somebody says something negative about your book. It seems with mine you either love it or hate it. A couple people have complained about my grammar, but that’s just the way I write, just cuz I wanna. But somebody did point out that I had some punctuation errors and I did. It seems I have an aversion to question marks. So, people have said bad things about my story, but they ended up kinda helping me out. And it does feel great when somebody says they love your book. Thanks to all who have said they’ve enjoyed reading it!

Is it worth it?: I think so. So I haven’t struck gold, but I do know that my story has reached some and some have actually enjoyed it. Like I tell my husband; at least I have a constructive hobby.

My Journey to Becoming a Children's Illustrator: An Update

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Illustration for Nov. issue of
Stories for Children Magazine.

Okay, Blogger is acting really stupid right now, so suffice to say the formatting of this post is jacked (but the text of the post itself is fine, so please do keep reading)!

Well, sad to say I haven’t gotten very far on my journey to becoming a children's illustrator. The most I’ve done is an illustration for the back to school issue of Stories for Children Magazine and also an illustration for their November issue. A good while back I sent out some illustration packets to publishers and such, rejection letters still find themselves to my door now and again.
I was talking to the senior editor of a publishing house for a while and we communicated back and forth, but then she said it wasn’t going down, but then she also informed me she would no longer be working at said publishing house, but she did tell me that she liked my story Doris, You’re Still a Rude Bird. So, at least I know it’s not horrible, so maybe Doris will find a home this year.
I also started writing a lot and now I kinda can’t stop, so my submission of my illustrations and stuff has slowed to very little, well, you could say almost none. I did however make myself a new website melissatliban.com and I also am a member of That’s My Folio too.
For a short bit I worked with a crafting website, but that pretty much went south. That was during my stint of trying out art licensing, but I’ve realized I’m not really into it. I would just like to draw pictures for stories. While I haven’t gotten much work this year I’ve come to realize that I want to focus on children’s illustration and writing for the middle grade/young adult crowd cuz I can no longer suppress my urge to write angst filled teen novels. So no art licensing, no more selling digital stamps (I still have freebies on my digi stamp BLOG though), no more sticker and note card making, hmm what else have I tried, but I think you get the picture.

Oh, I did write a novella in there somewhere also, selling it me self on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and such, so that is my status update.

What to look forward too from me this year: a full length young adult novel (currently editing), a revamped Doris, You’re Still a Rude Bird (my children’s picture book, want to redo some of the illustrations) and hopefully my middlegrade novel Sharonda, Pete and the Rest of the Crowley Family completed.

We'll see how 2012 goes. Can you believe we're already halfway through January. Time goes by way to fast!

Illustration Friday: Grounded

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:33:00 +0000

"You're grounded young man."
"You're going to bury me in dirt?"

I haven't done Illustration Friday in ages, but when I saw the theme this week I had to whip up a quick illustration cuz this is an actual conversation I had with my 5 year old. It was going to be his first introduction to being grounded, but it resulted in me just laughing. Kids take things so literally.

Sunday Sketches: Cecile and Emile Surface Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:43:00 +0000

Happy Sunday Sketches! I drew a couple little things, then grabbed my little twin friends Cecile and Emile, threw it all together and today for Sunday Sketches you get a surface pattern made from a bunch of little sketches.

Below is my first ever sketchy doodle where Cecile and Emile appeared, followed by subsequent drawings of them (as you can tell, they've changed a little since the first sketchy doodle). First drawing was from a bit over a year ago and was done for Sunday Sketches, so thanks Sophia and Sunday Sketches, you helped bring my two little friends into this world!

When Cecile and Emile first appeared.

Still a little rough.

Cecile and Emile now!

Creative Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Hello my friends. Happy New Year. I hope you all had or are still having a wonderful holiday. I'm finally back, was pretty absent from blog land there for a while. Personal projects, the holidays, which we go out of town for, and well, so on and so forth, but here I am with my six geese a layin'. These are domestic geese, that's why they're inside in a bed.

So, Happy Creative Tuesday. The theme was The Twelve Days of Christmas, you were supposed to pick a day. I did: twelve geese a layin'. I took it as layin' down and not layin' eggs, I'm not to sure which the song refers to. Just a quick one (I forgot it was Tuesday, kept thinkin it to be Monday).

Stop bye and see more at Creative Tuesdays!

Sunday Sketches and Printable Gift Tags

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Happy Sunday Sketches my friends.

Some printable gift tags. Print, cut, punch hole, insert ribbon, or print on sticker paper (that's what I did!).

Print pdf HERE!

(for personal use only)

Sunday Sketches: Doris In Her Holiday Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Doris in her holiday dress.

Hello and happy Sunday Sketches. I've returned, I took a break from blogging for a bit there cuz I really got into what I was working on, but since I focused so much I think what I was working on turned out pretty great. Just in case you're curious it's a young adult novel. With this one I'm going to actively try to get it into the hands of someone who might say, "Well geez, this is pretty swell. Do you mind if I publish this?"

To check out more lovely Sunday Sketches visit Sophia's blog Blue Chair Diary.

I swear, I'm here!

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:17:00 +0000

I swear, I'm still here! That was the longest gap ever for me not blogging on this blog. It's December and all challenges are over; AEDM and NaNoWriMo. Was I creative everyday? I sure was! That's why I haven't been here, I got so sucked into what I was working on. What was I working on, you ask. A young adult novel and it was my main focus for NaNoWriMo. Did I finish my novel, pretty much yes, there's a bit of this and that left, but yeah, it's kinda done. Did I meet the NaNoWriMo goal? No, I have over 50,000 words, but many of them were done befoe NaNo, but in doing NaNo my main goal was to finish what I was working on and it worked cuz as I said it's kinda done. I'm going to finish polishing it off and then I'm sending it off, so we'll see what happens. I've actually already written my query letter!

This little fella matches some snowmen I did a while back.

AEDM and NaNoWriMo Day 8 and Tic Tocc

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:41:00 +0000

Hello my friends. It's AEDM and NaNoWriMo day 8 and Tic Tocc #23

Just so you all know if I don't post it's because I'm so engrossed in whatever it is I'm working on.

Now I usually don't post pics. of my kids, but I just thought this one was kinda funny. Little dude here was trying to get to that bag of Halloween candy (see, he even got a little chair to use), but he kinda got stuck. He was scared to reach for the bag cuz he was afraid he'd fall if he let go to reach for it and he didn't realize the chair was so close, so he started screaming for help. I then quickly ran for my camera. I told him, "Don't move, so I can take your picture." and he was like, "But I'm going to fall." Don't worry, I helped him down, he wasn't even that far from the ground.

Now Kat's Tic Tocc was about focusing on what you really want to do and accomplish and doing it! Me: I'm going to finish the young adult novel I'm currently working on. These characters have been with me for years (like 8), so they want out. Then I'm actually going to pimp it out and try to get it published. Even though I have this fear that nobody will want to publish it cuz it seems all books for teens these days are some sort of paranormal/fantasy/romance type of deals and mine is not, but I don't care I'm going to send it out to agents/publishers anyways. I plan to finish my Crowley story, but I've hit a snag, I'm trying to work out why exactly some things happen, so they're still with me, but when my young adult novel is done I have an idea of this cutesy, quirky novella type of deal (I've already written a chunk), and the writing below that I did this morning is from that.

I walked outside and the sun shone on me like a spotlight. The trees and grass seemed greener and more vibrant than ever. The birds were chirping and tweeting. I paused to listen to their song and I swear it was an actual song they tweeting and I swear it was the song that was stuck in my head earlier. I adjusted my backpack and started down the sidewalk for school and as I passed the trees that lined the sidewalk the birds continued their song, where the birds in one tree stopped the birds in the next tree continued the song. This went on my whole walk down the sidewalk. When I got to the corner a slight breeze blew, a breeze that was perfect in temperature,not to hot nor cold, just enough to ruffle a few leaves and make me feel revived and ready for the day. It was that exact moment that I felt an urge to dance again. I tried to resist it, I planted my feet firmly into the ground, but the birds’ chirping became livelier and the sky seemed to brighten to a brighter blue and the sun lit up the sidewalk and then there was that gosh darn breeze again and I couldn’t, I just couldn’t resist anymore and so I threw out a little shuffle, then some toe to heel action and before I knew it I was tap dancing down the sidewalk.

AEDM 2011, NaNoWriMo, Sunday Sketches, an Illustration and a Video Made with Jellybeans!

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:48:00 +0000

Hello my friends! Happy AEDM, NaNoWriMo, Sunday Sketches and whatever else might be going on today. I wanted to start my post today with a video. I'm putting it here, so you will be more tempted to watch it. It is an adorable stop motion music video made with jellybeans. Kina Grannis (the musician signing) was even filmed stop motion style, no green screen. She laid on glass over the jellybeans and they filmed her and the jellybeans frame by frame. There's also a making of video (really cool) watch it HERE!

Careful, you might go into sugar shock from the sweetness of this song/video.

This is an illustration I did a while a go for the back to school
issue for Stories for Children Magazine.

So, it is day day six of AEDM amd NaNoWriMo. I didn't post for day five I cuz I was really into my writing.

It is also Sunday Sketches!

Here is the first ever hand inked and colored Pete and Doris. I usually sketch them out first by hand, but I always ink and color in Illustrator. I think since I was writing about an art store the other day I wanted to use good old regular art supplies.

Doris saw the little pink birds in the video and she said, "I'm a cute little pink bird too, I shall try to lift someone up and fly away with them." Well, that someone she chose was Pete. As you know, he's a unicorn, they're not very light in weight, so Doris wasn't very successful.

Day Three and Four of AEDM and NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:58:00 +0000

Happy AEDM and NaNoWriMo day four (this is also counting for day three). Just a picture I took after my darling little one knocked my bucket o' goods off my desk while he was playing and I was writing. I have a sketchy doodle I did also, but it needs to be scanned cuz it won't photograph well and right now I'm feeling too lazy to scan, so here's a picture instead (it's not even a good picture), and below the picture is just a tiny tad of what I've been writing.

Jump to hours later and we are all at the corner of Belmont and Clark and Nicki is dancing in the middle of the Bunkin Donuts parking lot. A couple people from the donut establishment stared out the large glass windows at her as they consumed unhealthy levels of sugary goodness. Curious passer-bys’ glanced her way, but nobody really thought that much of it cuz there’s a lot of crazies in the city, so seeing a girl doing the running man in a parking lot really wasn’t that odd. She wasn’t carrying around a life sized crucifix like this one guy I always saw, and she wasn’t standing on a plastic crate screaming about the end of the world, she was just a girl doing an outdated dance move.
“We need some music,” she shouted at us; us being Kate, Roberto, Brian, Reynaldo, Dean, me, and Anna. We all leaned against the wrought iron fence that ran around the parking lot.
An idea popped into my head. I ran to the corner, waited for the light to change and ran down to Elias’ work. I bounded in the door, whipped around the front counter to find Elias in the same exact position as when I first visited him at the store. He was even wearing the same hoodie.

Day Two of AEDM and NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:20:00 +0000

Woot, woot, day two of AEDM and NaNoWriMo. Just got a quick little sketchy doodle for my drawing today, just drew on the back of some random paper sitting on my desk.

Here's a tiny tad of some of my writing. I picked this section cuz it's about going into an art store, so I'm sure many of you can relate.

It was colder downtown and the wind was at full blast. I held onto the strings that ended the ears flaps on my hat and pulled my hat down and close to my head and walked against the wind and business folks and college students, so I could get to the art store.

I found the store which was the first floor of some like eight-hundred year old high rise and entered with the door making a jingling sound as I walked in. It was warm and fuzzy in there. I was greeted nicely by the shelves of art supplies and then by some dude behind the counter who was hidden under a mass of wild hair who mumbled, “Hey.” Let me tell you, art supplies is one of my most favorite things in the world. I started wandering through the aisles admiring the tubes of acrylics, oils and water colors and checked out all the colored pencils and the graphite pencils and sniffed some erasers; a pink one, a kneaded one and a gum one. Yes, I like the way erasers smell.

I continued on and browsed through the markers where I actually picked up one to buy, it was one of those jumbo huge ones. No, I wasn’t going tagging, it was for what I was planning on working on that evening. I then looked at pens and ink and picked up a couple of the ink pens I use for my comic. Next I went to the paper aisle and perused through the sketchbooks and pads of paper. I found a huge newsprint one, but wanted larger. I wandered down the aisle to the back of the store where they sold things on rolls and I found the most perfect roll of newsprint to buy.

AEDM 2011 and NaNoWriMo: Day One

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Hello my friends and any folks who wander on over! I am taking on two challenges for the month of November. Art Every Day Month over at Leah's Creative Every Day blog and National Novel Writing Month challenge. I did the AEDM last year and made some wonderful blog friends and I wasn't going to do it again cuz I have a project I'm really focusing on, but then I rememebered all the lovely folks I met last year, so it's on. I'm also attempting NaNoWriMo. If per chance you say huh, what it is NaNoWriMo, it's National Novel writing Month and you are supposed to write 50,000 words in the span of 30 days, yeah, kinda crazy. Last year I think I made it a day cuz I didn't plan, but this year I have something very specific I'm working on. I'll try to post every day here, but we'll see cuz there' s a birthday thrown in there,some traveling, Nov. is busy. So I will either have some sorta illustrations, drawing, or writing, or a combo. Here's a little hello I drew today.

Here's a snippet of part of my writing I've done so far for the day:

We packed up our gear and went to hit a few more spots before retiring for the evening. On the El back we sat side by side. Elias kept glancing over at me as the train rattled along. His cheeks were flushed pink from the cold night air. The only other people on the El besides us were a couple on their way to catch a flight. From the looks of it, they were staying a long time wherever they were going cuz they had a lot leather designer luggage piled around them crowding up the aisle and surrounding seats. The train smelled like a combination of sweaty feet and pickles, it was pretty gross. I studied all the rectangular advertisements that were lined up at the top of the train car. One was for a photo studio that claimed it had serviced the region for over 100 years. There was one for some sorta nutrition place and then one for some online school with a sticker slapped over it. The sticker was one of those hello my name is ones and had somebody’s tag on it in black marker. Elias kept bouncing his knee, so I put my hand on top of it so he’d stop cuz it was driving me crazy. I left my hand there prolly longer than one needed to, to stop someone’s knee from bouncing and Elias once again glanced at me, then at his knee. He took a deep breath and put his hand on top of mine. I interlaced our fingers and we sat hand and hand until we got to our stop.

This is my NaNaWriMo page HERE.

The House In Windward Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:45:00 +0000

Hello my friends and Happy Halloween! Today I’m going to talk about a book that's full of Halloween fun. It is a middle grade novel by Katherine L. Holmes called The House in Windward Leaves. On Halloween the children of a small town called Lunisha enter a mysterious house and are transported to a magical star. Whatever the children are dressed as for Halloween they magically become, almost to the point to where they don’t remember who they were originally. Then craziness ensues! I like how this book is just like a child’s imagination, anything can happen, you can even become a zebra if you happen to be dressed like one. There are also some very nice ways in which Katherine L. Holmes describes things, take this part of a sentence for example; their colors were mellow as Indian corn and as pretty as living room drapes. Another description I liked; its fur flecked gold like marmalade. I enjoy a nice sentence!

One of the things I really liked is that when the kids are still in school (before they go trick or treating) they are able to dress up, but only if it’s what they what to be when they grow up. I liked that idea, there’s no costume wearing or anything at my son’s school, so if they had an option like they did in the book I feel it would be a fair compromise. Oh and there’s also a unicorn thrown in there, I do have a soft spot for unicorns.

To find out more about Katherine L. Holmes check out her blog Writing Amid Used Books and you can get a copy of The House in Windward Leaves at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

Bye for now and have a Happy Halloween, well, that’s if you celebrate it and if not, have a nice day, or try at least, it’s raining over here, bargh.

Creative Tuesdays: Autumn, Ticc Tocc and Vote for Lane Tech: Gleegiveanote

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Happy Creative Tuesday my friends. This Tuesday the theme is Autumn. To see more awesome Autumness go on over to the Creative Tuesday site.

Below is my response to today's Tic Tocc exercise. Check out Kat's blog Wright Story for more.

As I was saying earlier having a unicorn live with you is quite the experience, especially when you see a clash of different personalities. We’ll use Pete, the unicorn in which we’re speaking of and my sister Verona. Now Pete isn’t exactly one who would qualify as a serious person, or, well, unicorn I guess. He makes a joke out of everything, like when we went grocery shopping not too long ago; he tried to ride the cart across the store. He got about two feet, crashed, made a wreck of a few displays, all the while afterwards to jump up and ask what score he got, me also not being very serious only gave him a 5.0. Verona on the other hand went on a tangent about being respectful and blah, blah, blah. I don’t remember what she said after a couple words cuz my brain tuned her out and Pete was mimicking her behind her back. There’s also varying grossness levels between Pete and Verona. Verona was in the belief that she was a proper young lady and did not let anybody see, hear, or smell any gases exiting her person. Pete on the other hand was the total opposite. As you read through this story you’re prolly wondering if there is anything I talk about besides fart and poop, but Pete makes it hard to focus on other things. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before about how it’s true that unicorns fart rainbows and also sometimes flowers, but they sure do not smell like sweetness and sunshine, depending on what Pete ate before the explosion of gas out of his tuckuos, it could smell anywhere from rotting flesh to death in a garbage dump on a hot summer day, so yeah, they were stinky and also hilarious. Like the one time Pete accidentally sat on Verona, well, we say accidentally, and he let a hot one rip. Oh to see the dramatics Verona displayed afterwards; flailing of the hands, coughing gagging; I’m sure the coughing and gagging were in order, but there was also a fake fainting spell mixed in there and lots of bellowing. So as far as personalities went Pete and Verona were night and day, but that’s not to say they didn’t have good times together. He oftened helped her with her experiments or volunteered to be her test subject. He’d go on nature walks with her when I was too lazy to move, they’d have discussions about deep space, so as opposite as they were they also made great companions for each other.

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Also Lane Tech, the high school I attended has a video in the Glee Give a Note contest. They're giving away money to school's with music departments in need, so go HERE and vote for Lane Tech College Prep (when I attended Lane it was still called Albert G. Lane Technical High School). It's the largest Chicago Public High School. They are actually the 5th largest school in the United States, so they could really use your help. You can vote once a day, until Nov. 7th or something.

Lane Tech (I do not own the rights to this photo, I found it online).

I also found a Flickr photostream by Robert Powers that has lots of nice pictures of Lane, check it out, it's quite a pretty school.

Sunday Sketches: MGM Musical Inspired

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:35:00 +0000

Hello and happy Sunday Sketches my friends. I know it's been a bit since I've been here, some weekends of family bonding and then we all got kooties. My kids were all like "I'm sick mommy, tend to my needs." My cranium is somewhat functioning again. Last night I watched an An American in Paris, made some peanut butter cookies and got a Wilson Phillips song stuck in my head, Some day somebody's gonna make you want to turn around and say goodbye (can't stop singing that line). My bunny is inspired by the character Leslie Caron plays in An American in Paris. There is a scene where she has on this very lovely turquoise tutu with matching pointe shoes.

Au revoir mes amis.

Do drop by Sophia blog for more Sunday Sketches.

Creative Tuesday: Cupcake, Chicago Street Art and Marathon and Tic Tocc

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Hello my friends. It's Creative Tuesday. The theme this week is cupcake. Hop by the new Creative Tuesday blog to see more awesome cupcakes.

I missed Sunday Sketches yet again, but I was in Chicago (that's where I'm originally from). My husband ran his seventh Chicago marathon and to my surprise he said I could post pics of him. This is prolly the most pictures you have also ever seen of me. My husband is like me, we both like to keep it pretty low key, but we're both in this post today.

My husband the super stud about to run the
Chicago marathon.

Now, I was in Chicago and all but I'm not going to show you your stereotypical pictures of Chicago, we're going on a mini tour to see some cool street art.

First go to Chicago and find an El stop for the brown line.

Now wait for a brown line train.

Here it comes!

Exit the train at Belmont.

Walk down Belmont towards Clark.

Turn left at the alley. No not The Alley the store,
the alley behind The Alley,
before Clark, see this is the back of The Alley, walk past this.

Now there you are. You got some SNACKI
(the eyeballs)
and Left Handed Wave (Banana Man).

My sister Nicki's husband helping Banana Man hold
up his boom box.

Me and an eyeball.

Now if you go a bit more down the alley and turn left and go around some buildings and turn left again you will find Cardboard Lady, but you better hurry and get there cuz if it rains I'm not sure how long she will last.

Yes, there is a typo in my little story there.

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Now to continue my super long post, my Tic Tocc exercise. Every week Kat from her Wright Story blog sends out a newsletter to inspire you to create. Check out her blog. This week is all about the doodle. I haven't just aimlessly doodled since, well, I don't know when, so here is a total thought free doodle (10 mins).

Oh, wait, what did you say. Oh, you want some more pictures, okay, here's a few more.

I got me a degree from Columbia College Chicago. The above two pictures are just of the main building.

Oh dear, why is somebody trying to donate my sister
Nicki to a used book store.

Right near here the Autobots battled the Decepticons.

BYE!

Jennifer Noel Bower on Becoming a Children's Illustrator

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Hello my friends and welcome. This post is the start of a new series of posts where I talk to fellow children’s illustrators about their journey on becoming one. Today you will learn all about Jennifer Noel Bower’s journey. There is some good info packed in here!

How did you come upon your style? How long did it take you to land on a look where you said yes, that’s me? I know as a reader of your blog it has been fun seeing it develop.

I am not exactly sure I've fully come into my style, yet, although I have been told it is definitely identifiable. I am really into kind of this retro/vintage/cartoon hybrid sort of look with a mixed media feel. I am still trying to loosen up a lot in my work and not requesting perfection from each line. I guess I arrived at a certain style sense by trial and error, finding a medium that fit my mentality. I started out with pen, ink and markers because that is what I had leftover from art school fifteen years ago. Watercolors were frustrating and I didn't like the mess made by acrylics. Digital has allowed me to play, make mistakes, undo mistakes and progress a bit faster than with natural mediums; although I am always trying to make my digital work look more natural.

Do you have a certain process?

I always start with a sketch. They used to be really tight first drafts with a lot of erasing. Now I am allowing myself to play more and using up tons of tracing paper. Sometimes I will doodle different elements in my sketchbook, scan them in and then manipulate them into an image I like even better using Photoshop. I always have a pretty solid idea of what I want an image to look like and will use reference photos for getting the angles and perspectives accurately. But I am still learning to simplify the elements within my drawings. Once in PS, I always choose my palette from ColourLovers.com and then I begin to paint.

What medium do you use?

Digital, all the way, but playing with different brushes or scanned patterns to create a slightly more natural feel to the work.

How did you build up your portfolio?

One piece at a time and based off of feedback from my blog. You can tell by the comments (or the crickets) what pieces resonate with others. I just got back from my first SCBWI Regional Conference where my portfolio went through two reviews. The biggest advice is NOT to put in those pieces you are unsure about. We all have them, the ones we struggled to finish, didn't have fun creating, or look at and are still unhappy with. It is better to have only 10 pieces of really great work than 20 pieces that show varying degrees of uncertainty. Most of my ideas come from the Illustration Friday weekly prompts and every once in a while something from my life just begs to come out.

What have you done so far to promote yourself? I know you made some postcards; can you tell us what exactly should be put on the front and back of these? Tell us about any portfolio sites etc…Have any of the promotional things you’ve done so far helped, or do you think it will take a while?

Well, lets see. I promote myself on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, IllustrationMundo, That's My Folio and by attending a SCBWI Conference. I did make a promo card but I have yet to proactively send any out, I guess because I am still on the fence about whether I am truly representing my authentic voice. Lucy Cummins, Associate Art Director for Simon & Schuster said she is on the internet 90% of her day looking for new talent so really, the internet is one of the best advocates we have out there. Promotion is like planting seeds, you have to plant consistently and you never know when something is going to germinate. I actually received my first chapbook opportunity through a Facebook connection. I will eventually get those promo cards out but based on my recent portfolio reviews I need to add a bit more 'tween' specific material.

As far as what to put on the card, the front should be a great image with your name and ILLUSTRATOR or ILLUSTRATIONS. The back should definitely have contact info and links to portfolio or blog. Based on feedback it was suggested I put a carryover image on the back. The image is really the big thing. That is what is going to capture the AD's attention, then make it easy for them to see more of your work and a way to reach you.

What made you want to become a children’s illustrator?

Therapy! I've always loved being creative but grew up in a very competitive home and so because my sister was pursuing illustration I didn't. Art was her identity. I earned my BFA in interior design but then went to work for the family business right out of college. When my daughter was born I broke free but ventured further away from anything creative. First, sales with Tiffany & Co. and then into my current job as an office administrator and executive assistant. Quite honestly I was depressed. As I worked through issues with a therapist he strongly encouraged me to explore my creative voice and begin to the heal the inner child lost so long ago. (sad, I know) I doodled a doodle and posted it on Facebook. The feedback was phenomenal, but more importantly how I began to feel about myself and the world became more positive as I began to use my gifts and talents. I've been pursuing illustration ever since.

Any tips, pointers, or good stuff to share?

The biggest tips I can offer are: get involved in SCBWI - they are a tremendous and supportive resource; be authentic - draw what you like to draw in the way you like to see it; embrace the 3 Ps of this industry - practice, patience and persistence; be willing to connect with others in the industry...they have been there, done that, and now how it all feels. My favorite quote from David Diaz, a Caldecott Award winning illustrator, who ran our intensive at the conference said, "Sometimes I will goes days streaming Mad Men on Netflix because I am struggling to start the next project." That was so nice to hear. It makes you feel less alone with the weird thoughts we all get.

Visit Jennifer's website: www.jennifernoelbowerillustrations.com

Jennifer's blog: www.fromjenspen.blogspot.com

Right now on Jenn's blog she has a great post about her experience at SCBWI conference she just attended!

Thanks so much Jenn! Congrats on all that you've accomplished! Isn't there some great info in there! I think it's great getting this info from fellow illustrators who are on the same journey.

Okay, I'm going all cheesy and High School Musical on ya, but We're all in this together.

Would anybody else like to share their journey! If so drop me a line!

Tic Tocc #19: Wade Evans Came for a Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:54:00 +0000

Hello my friends. Today I have a piece for Tic Tocc number 19 (find out more about Tic Tocc at Kat's Wright Story blog). This is my first ever Tic Tocc without a Crowley story. I almost feel gulity, but I couldn't get my friend Wade the vampire outta my head, darn pranic vampires. Following Kat's prompt I went and pulled something out of my junk drawer and it was a pamphlet for my energy company, instant inspiration, Wade's all about the life force energy, little different from the energy that makes my lights go on, but great inspiration, so without further ado.....
“Okay,” Wade said taking in a deep breath. “You guys ready?”

We all nodded. Somehow instead of Wade just being at my house so we can do homework and watch TV or whatever; Lindsey also showed up with Mike Hanley who as of late had become her boyfriend and my brother was friends with them all too, so he was hanging out with us too, so my homework was nowhere close to being done.
Wade flexed his hands so his palms were parallel to the ground. He closed his eyes and become perfectly quite and still.
“C’mon,” Lindsey crowed.
Wade sighed and opened his eyes. “Shut it. I’m still figuring this out, so I need total concentration.”
Lindsey showed him her middle finger. Everybody had grown use to Wade’s snarkieness.
He scrunched up his face in response. “I’m going to try again.” He closed his eyes again and became very still. Nobody said anything and we all stared at Wade. For a few seconds nothing happened and I didn’t notice anything, maybe because I was just staring at his face, but Mike shouting, “Holy *!@#,” broke my stare.
I drew my head back and took in all of Wade, all of which was slowly lifting off the ground. “Shhh,” I instructed Mike while watching my boyfriend lift off the ground. At first it was just a couple inches, but then he kept slowly rising. I looked over at Lindsey. She sat with her hands covering her mouth. I’m sure she was trying to contain some kinda squeal. Jason sat with his mouth hanging open. It was a pretty amazing site. Wade opened his eyes and smiled. He then bent his arms and drew his hands up near his waist keeping them parallel to the ground. In one quick movement he un-bent his arms thrusting his hands towards the floor shooting him up in the air a few more feet. With a big grin he said, “I finally figured out how to levitate.”
“Oh my God,” Lindsey squealed.
I smiled. I already knew, he’d been working on it a couple weeks. I was sworn to keep it under wraps.
“How in the hell,” Mike muttered standing up. He was still getting used to all that Wade can do. Well, he was still actually getting used to the fact that Wade was a vampire. Mike walked towards Wade and Wade shot himself up a bit more. Wade’s feet were right about the top of Mike’s head. Mike was a pretty big guy, so Wade was at least over six feet off the ground. Mike stuck out his arm and waved it back and forth under Wade.
“It’s not a trick,” Wade stated. “Just merely energy manipulation.”
“You make it sound like it’s so easy,” Lindsey said getting up off the couch. She ran under Wade and squealed like a little girl. “This is so cool!”
Jason laid back on the carpet, putting hands behind his head. “How high can you go?” He asked looking up at the ceiling, which was actually pretty high. We were in the living room and it had one of those high ceilings cuz there was a loft that looked down into the room.
“I dunno, I live in an apartment, we have pretty low ceilings.”
“Well, let’s see,” Jason urged.
“Is that such a good idea?” I asked thinking that it could end in Wade crashing to the ground.
Wade looked down at us; just hanging out in the air like it was no big deal. “Let’s find out.” He bent up his arms again and then shot them straight to his sides blasting him up a few more feet. From there he closed his eyes and started a slow incline towards the ceiling.
“Dude,” Jason said sitting up and bending his head back.
I gave Lindsey’s shoulder a death grip. I was so afraid he was going to fall. He was still learning how to work all his gifts, levitating was the newest one he figured out. He was almost to the top. “You’re about to hit the ceiling,” I called.
Wade stopped in the air, opened his eyes, looked around and then down at us.
Some of you might know Wade, Heather and their friends already, they're from my story Actuality: A Teenage Vampire Novella. They invaded my head again! I'm pretty sure I went over time, it was at the end somewhere, but there's actually a bit more to this. I couldn't stop writing! My novella hasn't sold that many copies, but there might need to be a follow up.
But in other news I know I once mentioned that I wotre a young adult novel under a pen name, so I put it up on some sites and sold a whopping four copies, so I decided to give it away for free. It took Amazon forever to pick it up as free, but it finally did and a bit ago it actually made it into the top 100 free for Kindle (It's plummeted since then, quite far (bye-bye to top 100 real soon), but it did make it all the way to #31. I could look at this two ways: Nobody would read my story so I just had to give it away, which is kinda sad, or I could say: Hey, I made it all the way to top 100 free on Kindle and that's kinda cool.

Creative Tuesday: Morning and Tic Tocc No. 18

noreply@blogger.com (Missy) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Good morning my friends. The sun was actually out this morning and waiting with a cup of coffee for me. The sun is so nice. Clouds are trying to take over, but hopefully the happy little sun will swat them away. The theme for this Creative Tuesday is MORNING! Wander on over to Mr. Toast's blog to see more morning awesomeness.

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Below is my Tic Tocc exercise from the wonderful Kat over at her Wright Story blog.

This time around we had to think of something that has been stressing us, big or small and then use that as inspiration to create with positively. I myself swear I never have enough time. I have so many ideas/projects I want to do, but not enough time in the day. If I could just freeze it just for a bit that would be great. Below the Crowley's find themselves frozen in time for a quick bit.

It was as if all time stood still. Well, I think it actually did if only for the quickest second. I’m sure it was somehow related to the portal and wormhole being open at once. I looked around and it seemed I was frozen in a running position. The monster Verona released from the copper kettle was stuck in the midst of consuming the unicorn hunter. Verona herself had an odd look of delight adhered to her face. Auntie X was standing near with one knee drawn up, an elbow pulled in and her other arm straight out. What I was assuming was the proper wormhole traveling pose. Pete cowered behind the stone wall, with George and Georgina clinging to his neck. From the looks of it they were clinging a little too tightly cuz Pete’s tongue was hanging out and his eyes were slightly bugged. My dad was saluting. Don’t ask me why, maybe it was for Auntie X, who knows. My mom was to my right, she was in the middle of falling on her face, but hung in the air due to the funny thing that was going on with the time and space. Auntie Minniford was the last one to be accounted for. She was in the air about a foot off the ground with her arms outreached trying to grab for Reginald. The birdcage door was sucked open by the suction created by the combined forces of the portal and wormhole. Reginald got sucked right on out. It looked like he was being drawn into the wormhole in which Auntie X would continue her travels.

Side note: Reginald is the bird that lives in the birdcage that Auntie Minniford has in her hair.