New York Times live drawing interview!

Hey everyone!
I finally get a chance to breath a little and sit down and update my blog! Phew! The past few months have been a flurry of activity and travel that I will try to catch up on in a few posts soon, but for now I wanted to share my live drawing interview that I did a few weeks ago with The New York Times Children's Book Editor Maria Russo. I still am pinching myself that it actually happened. It was such an honor and SO much fun to chat with Maria while getting to draw live in real time for Facebook. In case you missed it here's the Facebook link:

https://m.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10151146327034999

You can see me work and learn a bit about my process, upcoming project, and which animals I DON'T like to draw!

More to come soon on my other recent activities... stay tuned!

jxoxo

Laundry Day Book Launch and Youthcare Drive!

Wow! It's already time to welcome my third picture book, Laundry Day, into the world! It will be held at Secret Garden Books in Seattle on February 7th at 7pm. Not only will I be doing a book reading and giving out goodies, but I am also organizing a donation drive at the launch for YouthCare, a Seattle non-profit that helps homeless youth in the city. If you plan on coming, see if you could bring one (or more) of the items below. We'll be clipping up the donated items to a laundry line in the store in conjunction with my book's theme- hanging up laundry!

Any donations will be so greatly appreciated for this truly heroic Seattle institution! Here's a current list of items that YouthCare needs:

New underwear
New socks
Backpacks
Jeans and coats
Alarm clocks
Plus sized clothing & shoes
Reusable Water Bottles
Sleeping bags
Blankets
Travel-size hygiene supplies
New razors
Dental Supplies
Gift cards (Target, Fred Meyer, QFC, etc.)
Orca cards & bus tickets

I hope you can make it to the launch!

For more info about YouthCare, visit: http://www.youthcare.org/

2017 and... we're OFF!

Aye Carumba! It's already 2017 and I am already behind on my blogging. (Good thing I didn't make it a new year's resolution to blog more!)

I'm so happy to start off the new year with some fun news!


On January 28th form 9-10am, I'll be participating in a webinar series for SCBWI (YAY!). I'm joining such children's books greats as Tara Lazar, Josh Funk, and Linda Ashman!

I'll be chatting away about polishing person style (for your books that is). Finding your voice both visually and with words is no easy task, but we all have it in us! Here's a link for more information and how to register for the webinars:

https://inlandnw.scbwi.org/events/from-bright-idea-to-the-final-page-turn/

I'm always excited at ANY opportunity to geek out and talk about picture books and the craft of making them. So join me and the other amazing writers for some serious geek out time!



There's more to chat about, but I'll just make another post, so I feel more encouraged that I'm blogging more. ;)


Happy 2017!
jx