One crazy summer!

Well summer, she came and went, and I'm left looking back wondering how/where did the time go?!!!

So I'll step back and do a catch up just so I know what happened over the last few months:

So June 30th was my amazing, fun, and emotional book launch for Boats for Papa! (I sort of dropped off the blogging radar after it happened). It was, in short, one of the best moments in my entire life. I was surrounded by friends and family all sharing in the exciting culmination of a life's work. 

Here is a me with Neal Porter (Roaring Brook Press) my AMAZING editor who surprised me and flew out for the book launch. Needless to say there were many tears of joy hat night. 

It was one of those nights that I wish I could relive over and over again! So much fun! AND I even made a cake shaped like a boat (like Buckley's Mama makes in the book).

After the book launch, I took a bit of a breather-for like a day- but I really was working hard already on Laundry Day, my third picture book. So was basically doing that for the rest of the summer. 

I recently did Story time at Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle for Boats for Papa! It was very fun and I have never been so nervous in front of a group children under the age of 4. 

Also this summer, SO MUCH great press for Boats for Papa has been pouring in. It was reviewed in the School Library Journal Boston Globe, Washington Post, listed on Huffington Post's top 50 picture books of 2015 list, and then a month ago it was reviewed in the NY Times Sunday Book Review! I'm just floored and humbled by the love its received. I couldn't be happier!

In between the book work (evenings & weekends), and my day job, I spent the summer with my husband and my son as much as possible. The rigors of working on a book sometimes mean little time for play, but I tried as best I could to maintain a good life/work balance. I've also been writing a lot. Trying to keep new ideas churning for future books.

And the just finished Laundry Day and sent it off to my publisher last week-YAY! I loved working on such a fun book about two little mischievous badgers. It's totally different that my other two books in a really fun way. 

My second book Before I Leave comes out in February which blows my mind! So I'll have to gear up for that in the upcoming months. I have some other pots on the stove for sure. But for the time being, I am going to try and breath, relax, and celebrate being finished with my book!

I'm sure there are more things in between that happened the past few month. But that's all my brain can recall at the moment...

I have learned though that emailing and blogging were the great sufferers of my time slicing-hence the terrible delay in blogging. But I'm slowly catching up.

I hope you all had a great summer and are as excited as I am that it's fall!

Jx

NY NY- picture book paradise

Hey Everyone!
It's nearly a month after the fact, but I thought I would catch you up on my recent trip to New York! It was super fun and exciting. My husband and I went to meet with my editor Neal Porter to see where the magic was happening with my first book Boats For Papa (due out April-June 2015) and to talk about my next book project we are doing together. So exciting!!! It was a truly magical experience getting to go the the Roaring Brook offices (in the freaking Flatiron Building) and see where my book is going to come to life! I got to meet my AMAZING book designer Jennifer Brown and everyone in the office and they were all so nice! I couldn't have asked for a better home for Buckley and Mama. We laid out the artwork and Neal did a dramatic reading of book. I got a little misty when this was happening as one does when they get to see their dreams come true. Definitely the highlight of the trip. I even got to go to Neal's and meet his kitty, Arthur. It was love at first pet.

We were in town when the SCBWI NY Conference was going on- a sneaky plan on my part so I could see all my friends while I was there and meet with my super rad agent Alex! Alex and I hadn't formally met in person since I signed on with her last year. So it was great to see her in the flesh- not over the phone or email. We even got to have a karaoke jam together while in NY. Now that's what I call an agent.

It was sooo great to catch up with my good friends Lisa, Brooke, and Maple while in town too. I love these ladies. They make it so fun to be in the children's book community and I'm lucky to call them my friends and artistic peers. We even managed to sneak in a little hangout time in between all of the children's book madness. Hot chocolate, Books of Wonder, Pho, Wine... all the stuff that is good in life. (Please Note Aaron on the far left is the victim of a panoramic face melting in the photo and doesn't always look like this-but he loves when the camera makes him look like Sloth from Goonies.)

On my trip, I also got to meet a ton of WONDERFUL folk at Simon & Schuster, Abrams, Greenwillow Books & Little Brown and Company. All so, so lovely and fun and kind. It's a reminder when you get to me so many amazing people why I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to get to be a part of this business.

And if all of this wasn't enough, while we were in town, there were two AMAZING exhibits going on. The first was the Little Prince exhibit at the Morgan Library. They had the original manuscript and drawings from "The Little Prince"by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on display. It was so moving to get to see the early stages of this book that is dear to my heart. Oh and, not to mention, I got to see a Guttenberg bible at the Morgan Library collection. Sort of amazing. The second exhibit we saw was at the New York Public Library called The ABC of it: Why Children's Books Matter. It was incredible. It was a retrospective on children's literature and they had so many original manuscripts and pieces of artwork from classic children's books like: Beatrix Potter, William Blake, John Tenniel- the list goes on and on. A very magical and amazing exhibit that I recommend anyone checking out if you are in NY between now and September.

Lastly, our trip ended with a walk at Highline Park. It was a lovely day and a trip I'll never forget.

Sketching on a sunny afternoon

Happy weekend!

I for one can't be more excited its Saturday. And to start it off withe a bang, I'm doing some sketches for a joint project that I'm working on with my husband Aaron. It's always so fun to collaborate with him and I feel like each time we work together we get closer and closer to having a unified artistic voice. With out last show back in September, we did joint writing and drawing for our comics art show, 1828 Lincoln St. This time we are taking a slightly different approach, with Aaron is doing all the writing and the initial sketches while I am doing the final art. I don't want to say too much more about it, but will show more as we get more completed. 

Other than that I'm just in the process of revising my portfolio and making some new postcards for an upcoming visit to NY to meet with my super awesome agent Alexandra and my amazing editor Neal at Roaring Brook Press. So lots to do-but all art related so its very fun!!! Back to the paper!

Busy summer: Part 1

Hey everyone!
Oh wow! I realized I haven't posted in a month and a half! Goodness me. Time flies is an understatement of the century for me over the past two months. I feel like I've been SO busy I really can honestly say I haven't had time enough to do a good post. I am not sure where to begin!

Well to catch you up to what I've been up to in the art department are a couple of fun things. I've still been refining my sketches for my picture book Boats For Papa (due out Spring/summer of 2015). It's been such a fun and incredible process to be learning as I go. I've been asked several times what the process entails so I thought I'd share it (so far). Basically I've been revising my sketches and then sending them off in book dummy form to my editor (the AMAZING Neal Porter at Roaring Brook Press) and book designer/art director (the also AMAZING Jennifer Browne). They then talk about the changes they'd like to see and we have a conference call and go through the book page by page on the phone (since we all aren't in the same city). Then I make the changes and send it back and we talk again about those changes. That process happens a few times until they fully approve the dummy. Once that is approved, I'll start making the paintings. From them, we'll see, since I haven't been through that part of the process yet.

I was recently in Chicago on vacation and through an act of serendipity, got to meet Neal in person which was something I didn't know if/when that would get to happen. He was there for ALA and we got to meet and have lunch.

It was incredible! He was so sweet and kind and SOOOO smart about books. It was a pure joy and I felt so lucky to get to work with someone of such a personal and professional caliber. It was one of the highlights of my trip for sure!

Also while in Chicago, there was a celebration of 75 years of the Caldecott at the Art Institute of Chicago. They had some original and digital prints of some of the winners and honorees from the last three years.

There were pieces from A Sick Day For Amos McGee Illustrated by Erin Stead, One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, Grandpa Green illustrated by Lane Smith, pieces from Extra Yarn and This is Not My Hat illustrated by Jon Klassen, and an illustration from The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkey, just to name a few. It was so cool to get to see some of the work up close and to be in the presence of artists I admire. It was such a great bonus to get to see the exhibit while I was there! It was very inspirational.

More on the topic of art, as I've been working on my picture book, I also took a wee bit of time to finally print up some little mini-comic/art homage books I've been making for a while. I think I had posted that I'd been working on some Twin Peaks related books.

Well I finally finished the first two volumes and started selling them at a few places. Currently you can find them at Scarecrow Video and soon Sonic Boom Records in Seattle. Also while I was in Chicago my husband and I traveled to comic book Mecca, Quimbys. We brought a bunch of our mini comics and they are currently for sale there as well! Call it nerdy, but it was a bit of a dream to get to go there and sell comics. It was overwhelming almost in the quantity of comics and zines that they had, I wish we had more time to spend there, but we left with a pretty nice heap of comics so it was a pretty good success.

I am thinking of adding a way to purchase drawings and my comics on my website or perhaps set up an Etsy shop. Until then though if you are interested in my mini comics or what have you, you can always just shoot me an email at: jessixag@gmail.com

As for other art related items, as if I'm not busy already, my husband Aaron and I are starting work for a joint show that we are going to have in September at Joe Bar. It will be comics related but also have original art from the comics on display. More on that to come, so stay tuned!

Okay, that is good for Part 1. Part 2 coming next!

Cold and hedgehogs

Hey all
Things have been moving along very well lately! I've been finishing my top secret freelance picture book project (hopefully will get to post images soon), and I've started work on my book "Boats for Papa" which I'm sooooo excited about! I even made some thank you boats for my agent and editor to get me extra inspired! So all is good. I have a bit of a cold today though, so I between resting I squeaked out a few sketches of a little character I'm playing with. Clara the hedgehog! Anyway more to come with Clara, but for now my TheraFlu is kicking in so I'm off to bed!

Woo Hoo!!!

Hey Everyone!

It's official! I sold my first picture book!!! With the help of my AMAZING agent, Alexandra Penfold, Boats For Papa (previously titled Drift if you saw earlier posts on my blog) will be published by Roaring Brook Press in 2015! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited, can you tell? I have the honor and privilege of working with the also A-MA-ZING Neal Porter who will be my editor on the book. I feel like I've won the lottery! I've been bursting at the seams to tell everyone and the day has finally come! I can breath and shout and dance around!

Here's a link to the announcement in Publisher's Weekly: 

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/57265-rights-report-week-of-may-13-2013.html

This is my lifelong dream of becoming a children's book writer and illustrator and it's becoming a reality. Today is a VERY good day. Thanks for all of your support!!!