First Look at an Illustration for "Louie, the Lonely Lighthouse" Coming May 2015!

I am pleased to announce some very important news concerning my upcom-ing book Louie, the Lonely Lighthouse, due out in May. Hold on to your hats!

"Gone were the days when ships navigated by the sun by day
and by the stars at night." from the text by Greg Zschomler.

For several months I have been doing two things: 1) attempting to illustrate the book myself and 2) working with another artist to illustrate the book. Frankly, I was pursuing the two paths because I wasn't sure which one would work best.

Though I made several attempts with a variety of media, I was not happy with my own abilities to produce what I saw in my head, nor could I find the right technique.

The illustrator I was working with I met more than a year ago at a book fair. I liked her work then and I contacted her last year before Thanksgiving about illustrating Louie. She very much wanted to do so. I asked her to pitch me some sample drawings/paintings.

Note: My experimentation did result in my illustrating the cover of my last book, Rocketman.

Anyway, over the past several months she worked hard to produce pieces that would suit me. I saw several styles--some too cartoony, some too realistic--and, although her work was amazing, I wasn't sure she could do quite do what I wanted. The talent was there and I could tell she was very versatile, but I was doubting. Neither of us was giving up just yet (but I was pursuing the other option, just in case). And I was beginning to sweat it.

I'm glad we continued to work together--refining the style. She has been so very good about taking criticism and suggestion from me (and I can be a real pain) and, over time, we have settled into something wonderful. I think you're going to agree.

Needless to say, though she has been working entirely on spec up until this point, today Roxanne Bowman and I signed our contract making the collaboration official. In a few days I will release the cover art, but I have included one of the inside illustrations with this post for your preview (see above).

Roxanne is a painter, illustrator and wonderful digital artist (which I find amazing at her age) living in Florence, Oregon. Here is her bio:

"At the Age of 7 I had a childhood experience that would alter the future for me. I had been raised in a Parochial school. I was a poor student [and] getting Ds was the best I could do. I had a priest and two nuns speaking with my mom in front of me, saying, 'I'd better get a good man to marry me because I'd never amount to anything with my grades.'  I determined at that moment... the montra 'watch me suckers' running through my brain there after. After a harried life, three daughters a broken marriage, and now a successful second marriage I found a chance to fulfill my dream of [being] the first in my family to attain a college degree. I am a senior aged woman who has fulfilled that dream with the educational excellence of my college at Suma Cum Laude'. And although some say I am 'over the hill' at 62, I find my life and my degree a start to an exciting life for my future."