hometown

I've been traveling so much that I tend to forget about the place where I actually live. I've been in the Boston area for more than 12 years now, on and off, and I think it's one of the best places for a children's book author and illustrator. I love when children's books seep into the real world like...

a children's bookstore called Curious George,
or a tree made into Pooh's house,

and a statue of ducklings.

egg auction

So on Saturday, I drove 2 hours (I kind of didn't realize how long of a drive it was going to be) to go to the Open Fields Egg Auction where, if you remember, I contributed an egg to be auctioned off. And I'm really glad that I did. Like the snowflakes, nothing compares to seeing the original art in person. They were so lovely, I was quickly circling my list to for possible bidding. Did I want Marla Frazee's? Ashley Bryan's?

Or should I bid on my own? But, unlike Robert's Snow, the auction for the eggs is done live, not anonymously online. So, if I tried to up my own egg price, it would be quite obvious that I was a big loser. Darn!

Luckily, I didn't need to--it went for a very respectable price. It did make me wonder what that broken egg might have gone for.

And I got to get in on the action as well. In a heated competition with a grandfather who seemed to be buying up all the eggs (he must have thought of them as investment property) I finally won the egg I had my eye on...

It's called Twilight, by Mary Peterson. She's not a children's book illustrator but she's a beautiful egg painter, don't you think?

darpl

During my recent trip to visit my sister and her kids, my niece gravely informed that she when she grew up she was going to be artist like me(as well as a princess and soccer player). "Really?" I said, "Then let's draw a picture. Draw me your favorite thing that we did together!"

I thought that was a pretty good, open-ended subject-- I particularly wanted to see what the four year old mind remembered and treasured. And there was plenty to choose from, we did SO much. We did our nails,

visited the U of Chicago campus,
went to the aquarium,
and music class:
Like I said, plenty to choose from, right? Well, she drew me this:

Ah, darpl! Of course!(When I asked her what darpl was she laughed and ran away).

apology

So, I've been traveling, writing, and having many a technology crisis...but that doesn't excuse the fact that I've let my mail pile up unopened. It's only today, after being stricken with germs from my sister's kids, that I have finally began to peruse the pile.

And there are fan letters in there, quite a few and almost all from kids. One line breaks my heart, "I'm related to Dun-Wei," one boy writes, "because I moved to this country and nobody wanted to talk to me."

Dear friends, I'm sorry. I truly apologize if you never heard from me, I never respond to your comment or you only receive a response a year after you sent me something. Despite my thoughtless actions, I treasure each one of you. So many of you have told me what my work meant something to you; and when times were hard your words helped me believe and gave me strength. Thank you. You are wonderful! And I am a disorganized mess.

kite flying

I've just returned from a week of visiting my older sister, niece and nephew in Chicago and what a time it was-- keeping up with an active 4 year old and baby is exhausting. But fun! One of the many things we did was go to a kite festival.


This was especially heartwarming for me due to the obvious connection to my book, Kite-Flying. That book was inspired by my own childhood memories of flying kites; it was a lovely circle to experience it again, this time as an adult watching a child enjoy it for the first time.

Because with the wind blowing, we made the kite,
decorated it (that is a drawing of a bird, by the way)

and then flew it in the sky.

It joined the rest of the kites--talking to the wind,

just like the book!

e-card

Random House just made an e-card with the art from Bringing in the New Year! It is very neat--with an animated dragon and exploding fireworks.
Did you forget to send out Chinese New Year greetings? Because it's perfect for those late wishes, if I do say so myself.

interview of me!

Jama Rattigan has posted a thorough and lovely interview of me at her alphabet soup blog. She's also offering two personalized autographed copies of The Year of the Rat for two people who leave a comment there no later than Wednesday, May 7, 2008. Read it here: http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/106681.html
Thanks, Jama!

ten

Yep, ten. Ten years that is. Charlesbridge, the publisher of my first book "The Ugly Vegetables" has just agreed to put out a 10 year Anniversary edition of the book! The book is going to be redesigned with a new cover, some new spots and backgrounds. Very exciting!

For the new cover, I want to do a throwback to the work I did for Weekly Reader. These pieces are what caught my editor's eye and inspired the whole book:

conversations with Barbara McClintock

Last night, Elaine and I went to the Foundation for Children's Book talk with Barbara Mcclintock. These foundation events are great fun, the more I go to them the more I enjoy myself. And I am a big fan of Barbara McClintock's work as well so, of course, that was a large part of the enjoyment factor. She is just like her books-- lovely, elegant, tall...okay, her books are not tall but they are lovely and elegant:


And this is just a snippet of her lustrous body of work. Her work is also very shiny because of all the awards she has won: four New York Times Best Books, two Time Magazine Best Books, six NY Public Library 100 Recommended Books, two Parents Choice, an ALA Notable Book, a NEBA and probably many more stickers and trophies that are too redundant to mention.

The conversation was extremely interesting. I loved hearing about her process,her path, the ideas behind her work. In fact, talking about Adele and Simon set in Paris gave me a squirt of water for a set-in-China book idea that has been blossoming in my head...so these events are good for personal work as well!

However, my favorite anecdote from the conversation was how Barbara learned how to be a children's book illustrator. Nineteen years old and in North Dakota, she called Maurice Sendak on the phone(!) for advice. Which he gave her(!). This brought her to NYC, where she called up publishers from the yellow pages and met with them (!). Then, after having her book dummy rejected sixteen times(!), it was accepted. And it received a NY Times Best Book Award(!). All I can say is...wow.

I think times have changed(or at least Maurice has, from what I've heard!). Ironically, the only thing that is timeless from her story is that almost every publisher she met with told her that children's books was a nearly impossible field and it was extremely hard and competitive. Hmm, I guess things really haven't changed that much. I'm realizing more and more, going into this industry is truly an act of faith.


But I am glad that I have found fellow believers.

the fold

Fellow Fusion author, An Na's book "The Fold" just came out today and I look forward to reading it with great interest. In it, an Asian girl is offered the chance to get plastic surgery done on her eyes to give it the coveted caucasian eyefold.

And this surgery is quite common across Asia, especially in Taiwan. Having those eyefolds are mandates of beauty; something I experienced up close and personally.

Because at my photo shoot for my new author photo (my new novel is a Chinese folktale-inspired fantasy--since it takes place in an imagined reality, I thought it fit to have the author photo be a bit of a flight from the imagination as well), my eyes were the first thing that were changed. The make-up artist, after taking off my glasses, cut pieces of thin plastic and glued them to my eyelids and, voila!, I had eyefolds. I had misgivings about the entire procedure but was persuaded by the studio workers' coos of admiration.

And that is how they took me bouncing into the studio looking like this:



and changed me into this:

Yikes! (I also was instructed not to smile in the photos which is why I am smirking in all of them). Obviously, I have regrets.

Because now I, the me I know, am unrecognizable in the photos (the only good ones were the ones where I was looking down when the fake folds were not as noticeable). I realized, in that moment I allowed myself to choose between being "beautiful" and myself, when the original goal of the photos was to achieve both. I hope the character in An Na's book realizes the same.