"The Moment Before I Lost My Mom" Kids Book Project Progress for SCBIW Portfolio Preview. . .and eventually Self Publish by April 2020
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@Squirrel-Size I like number 2 best in these sketches. the characters are right in the center of the page but the foliage on the sides is higher on one side than the other so it seems to balance out somehow. At least for me! Sweet!
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@Kasey-Snow Thanks, yeah! I've both read and watch the Secret Garden. I love that story! I think it could have for sure been some of the inspiration for the building of my little flower garden. Tasha Tudor was also another big inspiration for my garden building as well.
@BichonBistro Yeah! Thats exactly what I was going for in #3! I was wanting mama squirrel to look a shadow or an angel of sorts. I think it could really portray that when it gets colored.
@coley yeah, I think #2 is for sure one of my top favs! Its hard to pick! Thanks for your input!
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Absolutely stunning book. All your illustrations are so moving... can't wait to see the final product. Regarding the cover page, 2 and 3 are my favorites. I love them equally. Perhaps you can choose your favorite for the cover and use the other as a vignette to close the book.
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@Su Awe! Thanks! Thats a great idea, I might just do that
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Almost made my goals for this week. These two spreads could use a few more hours of work, but this is how far I got. I also had my editor (my grandma, she is a retired English professor) look over my text for me. She gave me some good suggestions and yummy pancakes too!
Goals for this week is to finish all final details, do some last minute edits on all spreads, add final text and finish cover. A tall order! Wish me luck you all!
(P.S. I'm keeping the final spread (#12) a surprise for you all!)
#4
#7
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I also choose 3
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Okay, I've been gathering title ideas for several months now. I've gone through them all and kept only the ones that are not used by books already. Here is the collection I have:
- I Remember Too
- I'm Happy Too
- I Can Remember
- How I Remember You
- A Little Place to Remember
- Flower Squirrel
What do you all think?
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@Squirrel-Size I like A Little Place to Remember the best
But that's just one person ! I love the new sketches you posted a couple days ago!!!! -
Hi!
I've been thinking quite a bit about your copy for the book. Did you think about Sarah Lawrence's post (right after your hummingbirds illo post) regarding some suggestions for improving the text? For me she was spot on. Varying the thoughts and emotions and adding sensory words makes the story richer and deeper. I found that repeating the word happy or happiness often to be distracting and made it less special. I'd recommend typing out the story and studying it separately from the art to see if you like it. The story is very important and should be able to stand on its own. Then when you combine it with your gorgeous art, they can soar together.
If you could post just the final text for the book, it'll help to see what title works best with the story itself.
Best,
Su -
Wow! I'm really loving looking at the work you've done so far on this project. It's really inspiring!
I also like "A Little Place to Remember" as a title. -
Thanks for the input @Coley! I appreciate it!
Wow, thats some good tips @Su! I'll play with that this weekend with my "editor" I'm sure we will figure something great with the text! I'll try to have the "mostly" final text posted early this next week. Thanks so much Su! I need all the help and suggestions I can get!
@kanari-illust awe, thanks girl! And thanks for title input too!
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@Squirrel-Size I agree that "A Little Place to Remember" is the best choice of those listed.
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@Squirrel-Size When you have just the text manuscript together, read it aloud to see how well the words flow. Also, have others read it aloud to you so that you can hear if there are any problem areas. Picture books are meant to be read aloud while the child reads the pictures.
Looking forward to seeing (and hearing) your final work!!
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@Su Great idea! I've actually not read it aloud yet or had a friend read it aloud, I will get on it! Thanks
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@Squirrel-Size just a thought based on your book’s text and a double meaning to growing (not just of flowers, but of memories, connection with your mom, etc):
“The Growing Garden” -
@BichonBistro Oh! I like that!
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I know my deadline was Sept 1st. But I left this week (Sept 1-7) as a cushion week. In other words, I have until this weekend to start printing it out and binding it together for the dummy-book stage. So I'm still doing last minutes changes!
I also have several other additional unrelated pieces I need to finish and print for my portfolio. Originally the cushion week was really meant for finishing my portfolio pieces. Ugh! Deeps breaths Squirrel.Here is spread 8! Its finished:
So this weekend, me and my editor were going over the text again. We went over some helpful suggestions I've gotten here on the forms and I feel like the text is really getting to a better place!
We are playing with the idea of having the beginning of the book in past tense and then the end in present tense.
We also came to the agreement that we really needed something else between spreads 11 and 12.
So I worked on several ideas, then came up with this spread below:(The text before this spread: "And then she could be happy too")
(The text after this spread: "But when I remember her, I can be happy again")
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Okay art peeps! The update is that I've totally missed my deadline and running on fumes now!
I only have 3 DAYS LEFT before my dummy book is due and it's not even printed out yet! BaaaaH!
I'm working full time by day and only have the evenings to work on my book! And on top of that I still have some portfolio pieces to clean up and print out! All nighter here I come!Okay, I got spread 12 done! But I am still tweaking the text. I'll prob be tweaking it till its printed. (Ha tweaking! Don't worry, i'm not high, at least not on drugs, more like nerves) I just need to keep reminding myself that this is just the dummy book stage.
The cover!
I really, really want the cover to be finished and in color for the dummy book! POOP POOP! All nighter, here I come!
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@robinleigh49 Thanks
I would love to grab some coffee with you -
Stayed up till 1am last night, but then decided I should be a wee bit healthy and get some wink eye before going to work this morning. I'm going to really need some coffee this afternoon
yum.
So I got my cover to a really good place, I still want to add some detail to the squirrels, and then splash some color everywhere. But Dummy-book wise, I think it will do. "That will do pig, that will do." Oh! now I really want to watch that movie"Here I'm Happy" is a title place holder, but it has been growing on me though. What do you all think of that title? I Googled it and I couldn't find any books with that title which is a good sign.
I also spent several hours yesterday playing with the text when I should have been drawing. Oh well, but my editor is really happy with the text now.
Oh, also since I've got the text to a good place, turns out I will be adding yet another page, so I'm gonna be doing that tonight in addition to finishing the cover and cleaning up portfolio pieces/sketching companion pieces to my portfolio pieces. Baaaaaah! Hang in there Squirrel, hang in there! Oh no! its happened! I'm talking to myself in third person! Or at least I think thats in third person? I don't know. . .
