Blog potpourri

June 18, 2024 — This week I’ll share several short and sweet updates. First, I received a wonderful thank you note from the students at Brick Elementary School. They sent it to me with a photo of me reading to children inside the tent on Literacy Night. What a sweet and appreciated gesture! I’ll be back at Brick on Tuesday night this week for their Reading in the Park event, where I’ll read my book aloud. This week is expected to be HOT (in the 90s)  and so I hope (for everyone’s sake) that it’s cooled down enough by the early evening time of this event, but at least there should be some shade, under trees or tents. 

Last weekend, I attended the Chelsea District Library Local Author Fair. The author event was moved indoors into a pretty and bright room with many windows overlooking Main Street on one side and the Reading Garden where we would have been. Thunder storms were predicted but passed Chelsea by. I met many of the other authors in attendance and treated myself to a new book by one of them. It’s called The House of Deep Water by Jeni McFarland. There were several other children’s book authors at the fair. It’s always great to see what else is out there, especially by local authors. Michigan Moon was a beautiful book of local wildllife photography and a lullaby poem about what animals are doing at night. There were two children’s books about chickens and they traded or purchased each other’s books. One of those authors, who was wearing a cute black and white jumper with little chicken drawings all over it, purchased my book. She was a retired teacher and librarian who said she loves wordplay. She has a collection of books that she shares with children. I was especially pleased that a teacher/librarian appreciated my little book. 

Altogether, I sold three books, so it was a bit slow, but hey, it’s better than nothing. It was only a two-hour event. A mother of two young boys bought my book after checking out book tables encircling the room. My “agent,” Tim, drove with me and rambled around downtown Chelsea mostly, and stopped in a couple of times to see me. Google Maps took us along back roads — it was a peaceful drive dotted with copious farmland and barns.  

I was happy that a friend of mine, Amy, her daughter, Claire, and her son (who live in Chelsea), stopped by the event. I always appreciate the moral support of having people who know me show up. Thanks again! 

I bought a tablecloth in a bright blue to coordinate with my book for author tables. And Jenny Kalejs, book illustrator, designed some bookmarks, postcards and new business cards for me. So I’m getting swagged out and a little more professional with each event. Not many people have taken the mini candy bars I’ve had at various events and eventually, I end up eating most of them, so I did without this time. 

The author I sat next to in Chelsea was first published by traditional (but small) publishers and had a series of problems. Next, she decided to self-publish and said she would not consider working with traditional publishers again.

I recently noticed the Finn the Frog Collection, self-published by Ron Keres, in Amazon’s humor category — a successful series of children’s picture books. I’m happy for the author. He’s posted about his experiences in one of the Facebook groups I’m in. It’s encouraging to see his success, especially as a self-published author. These anecdotes aren’t meant to draw any conclusions about traditional versus self-publishing. Authors have all kinds of different experiences.

Artist, John Megahan, is currently sketching and painting the next book to beautiful life for our planned fall release. It’s exciting and fun to see how his imagination and creativity are bringing our book closer to reality. I’ve had many people comment about how much they loved the teaser image we released in this blog a few weeks ago. One friend said it gave her “chills” and called it “next level.” Another friend and former coworker called the partnership of John and me, the “dream team.” So kind! 

A funny thing about the painting we featured in the blog was that John interpreted my words differently than what I had in mind. I’d said something about the shadows of the moon and he painted a shadow on the boy’s bedroom wall cast by the light of a full moon shining on objects on his window sill. I’d imagined the boy, in bed, looking out his window at the full moon and imagining a rabbit on the face of the moon in the craters, light and shadows. I’m sure this is a common occurrence between illustrators and writers. With traditional publishers, the writer and illustrator generally don’t confer and you hear complaints from the author sometimes about how the illustrations don’t match or weren’t what they had in mind. It’s a privilege to be in a collaboration with the artist. I reworked the text a bit in the moon shadow section to make it more clear and he’s going to do another version of that picture. We both love his original and we may figure out a place for it within the book. But, at least, it made a terrific teaser. Watch for more! 

Speaking of the moon, did you know that the full moon in June is called the Strawberry Moon? This year, the moon will be full the day after the summer solstice in the Northern Hemispere. The summer solstice is the precise moment when the sun is at its highest in the sky each year at 4:50 p.m., Thursday, June 20. As the moon begins to rise from low on the horizon, it will appear huge in comparison to its surroundings. This is called the moon illusion. According to Almanac, the name Strawberry Moon was used by Native American Algonquian tribes that live in the northeastern United States as well as the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota peoples to mark the ripening of strawberries ready for gathering, not for the moon’s reddish hue. When it’s close to the horizon, a moon usually appears reddish because the light rays have to pass through the most dense layers of the atmosphere. Try to get outside as the first summer moon rises on Friday, June 21 to take in this natural wonder!