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05-03-07
No more updates here: News and updates will be
listed on my sketchblog instead. Here's my
blog.
01-11-07
I'm picking up author presentation gigs.
They're listed here: author
visits
Michigan Library Association, Lansing School District,
Ann Arbor Schools, Ann Arbor Book Festival, Michigan SCBWI,
and a few others. Life's pretty exciting.
12-23-06
Pencils! Bloomsbury sent Ellie McDoodling pencils to give
to kids, to remind them to read my book and then go doodle.
They're neat. They have a "special feature," as my editor says.
(They're heat sensitive)
10-18-06
PBS TV Auction featuring my art
I have been accepted into the WKAR-TV artist table auction for
next spring. I'll pick up a little handmade table next month and
paint cartoony scenes of local events on it, and it'll be auctioned off
as part of their annual fundraiser in April. This is my first time applying
--
generally I hear about such artist events only after they've ended.
10-03-06
Dinner with the Bloomsbury Publicist
I met Shannon Hale (Newbery Honor for Princess Academy),
and Deb Shapiro, the Director of Publicity at Bloomsbury,
and also the staff of the can't-say-enough-great-things-
about-this-children's-bookstore, Pooh's Corner, in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was lovely. An hour's drive for
an endless supply of useful information... What a treat!
09-25-06
Revising the Ellie book
The manuscript revisions are ended and I'm working on the final art
for the book. Bloomsbury might be the best publisher, ever.
I feel very lucky to be working with them. When it's all done I will
post a few excerpts from the book.
excerpts
3-15-06
Famous Author Series
Cynthia Leitich Smith of Cynsations blog fame has linked to me!
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2006/03/author-interview-douglas-rees-on.html
I had wondered where all the new traffic came from, because the
mailbox is full of nice letters about the Famous Authors feature. :)
3-12-06
Reviews of the Sketchbook
I've gotten hundreds of emails about the sketchbook, including one
from a famous, recent Caldecott winner. Thank you to all who've written.
3-09-06
Famous Author Series
Busy week for author visits! I met
Peter
Catalanotto and Patricia
Polacco!
Sketched them both (and their presentations) and
uploaded the art here.
I also picked up a gig: Going to speak at the Library and 5th Grade
classroom
at Averill Elementary in Lansing, in 2 weeks, talking about becoming an author.
3-06-06
Carnival of Children's Literature!
Chicken Spaghetti announces the Carnival of Children's Literature, No. 2:
A Coney Island Adventure! And my new Famous
Authors feature debuts
as part of it. See the Carnival here:
http://chickenspaghetti.typepad.com/
And see my Famous Authors here:
http://ruthexpress.com/sketch/skfa00.html
3-03-06
Promoting the sketchbook
http://www.illustrationmundo.com/
<- submitted by pal George
Schill Wow!!!
IllustrationMundo is the other big international illustrators blog. Scroll
down and
see The Art of the Sketchbook, More News From George Schill. Click and it
takes
you to either my sketchbook or a page featuring a tiny image from my
sketchbook.
Or click on Search recent News, 20 results per page, and see a bunch of
entries.
My 19 year old son Joe will think it's cool that he's featured on this big
artist blog.
(He's the tiny person in the iimage chosen for the feature) ;)
3-02-06
Promoting the sketchbook
http://drawn.ca <- wow, does life
get any better? I found out I am featured on
Drawn!, the international blog for illustration of all sorts, because someone
wrote
me a nice email about the sketchbook and said he found me through Drawn!
How exciting this is. All my heroes either are featured on Drawn! or they
read it.
Drawn! put my sketchbook feature into three categories: Illustration, Drawing
and
Books. And there are already some very kind comments on my work, there.
They featured my Circo restaurant page, with Emilie, Cindy and Jude in vivid
color.
2-26-06
Promoting the sketchbook
http://on-track-on-line.com/index.shtml
<- a site for train & Amtrak enthusiasts,
features my sketchbook among their Trip Reports. People who ride the rails
send
this site their reports of their trips for others to read. It's fascinating
seeing how
different people describe the same route. Wish I'd found this site *before*
going
to NYC -- I'd have known what some of the mysterious things on the trip
mean.
I found the site by looking for Amtrak sleeper car accommodations
descriptions
(this site has maps, tons of info, history, you name it) for *next* year's
trip. :)
2-24-06
Promoting the sketchbook
http://www.moleskinerie.com
<- I am featured artist Feb 24-26. Woo hoo!
Moleskinerie is dedicated to the fabulous little Italian Moleskine
(moh-less-KEEN-ah)
notebooks that I use for sketching. Moleskinerie features all sorts of art
and writing,
and they are doing a project where they send Moleskine notebooks around the
world
and pre-selected artists and writers add something, each a page. I signed
up to take
part in the travelling notebook and that's how they discovered my NYC
sketchbook.
They featured a collection of images from the sketchbooks. Son Joe (19) counted
how
many of the images show him, how many show 8 year old Emily and how many
show
Kate, 16. Lisa, 22, doesn't count anymore since she doesn't live here. ;)
Emily has
slightly more than Kate and Joe. I think their pseudo-sibling rivalry is
funny.
2-20-06
Promoting the sketchbook
This is the list of blogs (that I'm aware of) who have linked to me. What
a thrill this is!
Amy Moreno:
http://cachibachis.blogspot.com/2006/02/ruths-2nd-annual-scbwi-nyc-conference.html
Shennen Bersani:
http://www.shennen.typepad.com/
Greg Fishbone (funny reference):
http://tem2.livejournal.com/71457.html
Wendy Martin:
http://wendymartinillustration.com/wordpress/
Dee from page 046 and 038:
http://www.letsjustsee.blogspot.com/
Courtney Pippin-Mathur (p. 038):
http://www.5elephants.com/notebook/
Leeza:
http://leezybloggs.blogspot.com/2006/02/you-gotta-see-this.html
Leeza also did a cool dummy book of the conference:
http://www.leezaworks.com/scbwi/
Roz Fulcher:
http://rozzieland.blogs.com/rozzie_land/
To those who take the time to read my sketchbook: T H A N K Y O
U!
And to those who read last year's NYC sketchbook and encouraged me
to do a book for kids in the same style: T H A N K Y O U !!!!
I did as you suggested, and selling that book has changed my life.
2-15-06
The sketchbook is uploaded, all 93 website pages of art. Whew! Find it here.
2-08-06
Just got back from the NYC conference and I have 185+ pages filled, in the
sketchbook, and will get them uploaded to my website as soon as I can.
First, though, I have loose ends to tie up on the SCBWI event I am helping
coordinate, Networks Day, for my region. Networks Day is a chance for
writers and illustrators around the state to meet and discuss the business
on Feb. 25 at various hosting sites around the state. It takes more to
coordinate than I thought it would. I am a bit behind. Argggh
But I can't shake the smile from NYC. What a great time that was.
