projects in progress
We have spent some time getting acquainted with Spook (aka - Sugar) our beautiful blue eyed mare. We are thrilled she has joined our family and she has settled into semi-retirement nicely. In fact, she is getting quite domesticated and loving every minute :-) I can’t wait for Cowboy Kenny to visit because he will not believe his eyes. I’ll tell you why. Until she was 2yrs. old, Spook was owned by two women who badly mistreated her. Kenny bought her and through kindness and amazing ability, made her his number one cow-horse. Most of the time they lived in Eastern Oregon where she worked hard to help him earn their living, and believe me, she can do it all. She is now fourteen, still in her prime by most standards but, because Kenny loves and respects her, he wanted her to retire before she got injured from that hard lifestyle. He spoke about it with us several times telling us she was understandably leary of women and nervous around children. We thought abut it long and hard because when we commit to an animal they become a member of our family. Well, we committed, and she is family :-) She is also sweet to me and our seven year old horse crazy friend, Jillian. The two of us call her Sugar, it’s a girl thing :-) Sugar even reaches around to “hug” Jilli when she is brushing her. It is quite a sight. Kenny will be shocked.
I am working on a picture for a friend who is a beekeeper. When I had a shop some years ago I created many things for beekeepers and really enjoyed it. They are an especially nice group of people to associate with. They are religious about what they do and very much appreciated the serious artwork I did for them. If you have noticed over the years, many things concerning bees are cartoons, and when it is your business, you would like a serious view presented. I am very respectful of their industry as we are farmers and I know first hand, ”Pollination is the Promise of Harvest”. A phrase I coined for my beekeeping friends.
I have decided to reformat “Throwaway Dog” into a chapter book, if I am talented enough to pull it off. I must admit it is a lot of work. After phrasing, rephrasing and condensing paragraphs for over a year, I am now trying to ”flesh them out”. What a job! It means I need to re-word practically the entire book :-( Anyway, my plan is to have ten chapters with a few full color pages and some black and white artwork as well. I hope it will cut down on the cost of printing and step up to be a crossover book. I feel the message is a little too old for a picture book. I’m thinking it would be good for students from fourth grade to sixth or so. I was able to preview it at a middle school where I spoke to 15 classes about how to write and illustrate. When setting up my PowerPoint, I got some sour looks from a few eighth grade boys and overheard them saying, “baby books”, so I began by saying if they are truly interested in being an author, they should explore all ways of writing. I went on to say that although my stories are presented in picture books, the message was for everyone, and they are just offered in a whimsical way and that whimsy gives you a kind of freedom no other style offers. That got their attention and it turned out to be a really fun week. It was especially nice when many eighth-grade boys asked if they could buy Throwaway Dog. They had forgotten about it not being in print. Anyway it was a very nice experience and I ended up selling many Perry the Pack Rat books to teachers as well as students, and I was charmed by the big boys who said they were buying them for their brothers or sisters. When I asked what name they wanted it signed to, they would tell me to sign it to them although it was for their brother :-) I love kids!
I will be working every day to complete this book. I am very anxious to get it printed.
Thanks for your interest,
Mardy