And you can't have too much Alliteration in the title of a blog post. (Oh, Alright then, you can.) (Plus After reading my last blog post ... groan, barely literate in parts. I blame it on the boogey.)

Anyway:
ART DIRECTOR: Postcards do work ... sent out my latest promo postcard last week (if you must see it AGAIN, here it is - the poster from the NESCBWI conference, I know you are tired of it.)

Anyone who would like a postcard just send me an email with your snail mail Address to hazel-mitchell@hotmail.com and I will gladly mail one to you. So, I digress; I received an invitation from a Smashing Art Director to submit sample sketches for a book they are working on. Hopefully I will hear next week if they CHOSE ME. Or not. Still, gratifying to be Asked. The main character is a teenage boy ... here's what I came up with ... the one at the end is the one they like best (so far.)

Also they may want the whole book hand lettered and I would LOVE to do that!

AGENTS: Regular readers (hello Mrs Trellis from Wales!) may recall that I was in a state of high Anxiety last week Awaiting the call from the Lovely Agent (said in the voice of Father Jack - note to reader go rent 'Father Ted' from Netflix or similar). This Lovely Agent and I are not, Alas, to be married in Author/Agent bliss ... Ah well. NEXT!!

AUTHORS: (And Illustrators.) We had our second meet of ReVision (our Central Maine crit group). We met in Augusta and went to the Harlow Gallery for a talk by Author/Illustrator Jeannie Brett. Small Attendance, but lots of good information and it is Always a treat to rummage through the roughs and dummies of Another Artist. Five of us came along, and we swapped news and ideas before hand. It really is excellent to have like minds At hand - the energy created by being together really helps when you are back Alone in the Attic.

A busy week in All. A rainy sail on the Isaac H Evans last Sunday, but nice to be out on the sea, in the ocean timewarp. Met a fellow tin whistler on board ... so we had a little toot.

And I Am Almost done with 'Share the Bear.' all scanned in, text to be Added. You never know by the end of next week I may be ready to submit All four manuscripts to A Lovely Publisher. And then I can quit boring you with them! It will be a relief to get them out into the slushpile. Oh no. Then I will have to decide what to do After that!

Addled is what my brain is by the heat ... how About you? Although it's breezy today, for which I am thankful. Snow ... it seems a distant dream ...

Alas I must Away back to my layout now, and leave you in peace. (Did I over-do the Alliteration do you think??? Guffaw).

Adios mon Amigos
Hazel
(AkA The Wacky Brit).

PS. 12 days to LA conference.

PPS. On the bedside table this week:
"Going Bovine" Libba Bray
"Imagine a Day" Sarah L Thomson/Rob Gonsalves
"The Circus Ship" Chris Van Dusen
"Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach" Melanie Watt
"Owen" Kevin Henkes
"Artist to Artist" Philomel Books

In somewhat philosophical mood this weekend. Life has a way of reminding us what is, and is not, important.

On Thursday I was cock-a-hoop, COCK-A-FLIPPING-HOOP I tell you, to receive a reply to a query letter I sent out a month or so ago from a NY agent requesting to see more of the PB problem solving manuscript I am working on. Needless to say I fandango'd around the studio, dogs scattered to sofas/cupboards/bushes until the dust had settled. All day Friday I worked on the rough, making some alts that had been in my head a while until, finally, with bulging eyes and buzzing brain, I pressed 'send'. And now I wait trepidatiously (spelling?) for the Lovely Agent to reply. I do not like waiting :-(

And then, just as I had finished, through the village came roaring a posse of fire trucks, blaring and a huffing and puffing. I cursed them for disturbing the peace and then wondered if it was a yahoo who had been showing off to his friends or a cat stuck in a tree.

I didn't have long to wonder. My flippant attitude well and truly banished by the news from a good friend that the fire had infact been her husband's workshop and sculpture studio burning to the ground. Years of work and tools and memories gone in a moment. Thank goodness, we said, that the wind was moderately stilled after a gusty morning or the house would have gone too. And thank goodness no one was hurt. But all gone, so fast.

It put in to perspective my lust to get my work out there NOW. I still have the ways and means to create at my disposal, there is always tomorrow, universe willing. I am reminded to not take things for granted and so to appreciate it more. Life needs to slap us round the head occasionally. I just wish it wasn't always when a tragedy strikes.

In their kitchen now is a little box emitting a VERY insistent squawking. A little frazzled chick rescued from the fire, demanding ground turkey and drops of water. I hope Phoenix makes it. Life is more important than stuff, however much the stuff may mean.

What else?

I have been working on greeting card designs for a client in Washington State, here's a mermaid in watercolour ...

and I began to layout the 4th book in the problem solving series (Share the Bear) ... here's an illustration of her (pencil and photoshop). So far I am liking the characters ... what do you think?

Oh yes, and it is some sort of holiday in the USA today. Independence something? Wasn't this the day the Brit's washed the hands of the whole affair and said your on your own now?

Me, I'm painting window frames.

Tatty bye until next time ... count your blessings y'all.

Hazel
aka The Wacky Brit.

PS reading this week:

"Miss Brooks Loves Books and I Don't" Barbara Bottner and Michael Emberley

"The Very Fairy Princess" Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, Christine Davenier

PPS ... Farewell to a wonderful writer Beryl Bainbridge one of England's best.

All images, text, photographs and ideas represented on this website are copyright of the artist Hazel Mitchell and may not be reproduced, copied or used in any way without written permission of the artist.