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!
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"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."
