Been a while

It's been so long since I posted anything on our blog that I actually forgot my password!

Not a lot new here...

I have been shopping around my dummy with a little more heart then in the past. I really love this little book (I think most of you know how that goes, we create a lot of things but few that we actually LIKE) but am not getting anywhere with it. I know what I should be doing, a real writer would send it out, forget about it and  get on with the next project.... of course, I am not a real writer. I get too attached to the character, is that because if you are also the illustrator it's a double edged sword? You fall in love with the writing/story as well as the images?  The latest reply was a very sweet email rejection and the dummy returned home in it's recycled paper envolope 3 days later. Sigh, they just keep returning, dummies are very much like grown children. You send them out into the world, they experience failure and then return home, dragging their tail between their legs!!! Another copy of it is still out there somewhere, the older brother....I shall hope this kid fairs better:)

Latest doodle from me.

Cheers,

Chris

Comments

[June Goulding]

I so hope that dummy finds a good place Chris.
Lovely movement in this image. I think I can hear that music!

[christripp]

Thanks June.
I hope so too, so I can just fagedabadit and move on:)

[sharon lane holm]

Oh I love the art!! I too have a character I am in love with-this cat I keep drawing, and trying to dummy up. Yes, you can write, you can draw DB-Mrs Shawartz just has not found her home yet. Just like our kids.

[Ilene Richard]

I too wish you the best in placing this dummy. The art is really charming. Ilene

[christine tripp]

Thank Sharon ("DB", you always make me smile:) and Ilene!!!:)
Just to clarify, the dummy that's been out there is not related to the illustration I posted. This one is just something I did last week, the dummy is about about a little cartoon dog, I think (though I haven't looked back on the old blogs) I put up the cartoon illustrations for him last year. Funny how sometimes there is one idea and character you just can't shelve, especially when you hear stories of dummies that do make it being stories that came to the author overnight, written up in a few days and accepted fairly quickly.
I think if you dwell on the same book for too long you lose your perspective about it.
That's probably why you get advice from those who have done this longer to put it away and bring it back out to take another look at it in about a year. Just so that you can be more critical, less attached.
Sharon, is the little cat you put up on your blog THE cat your speaking of?

[sharon lane holm]

chris- no that was the fund-raiser art for foreclosurecats.com Donated that piece of art.This is a different kitty, think I posted it on PBAA a while ago,one in color another in pencil (she was shopping,grocery cart-the 1st was a city block-oh thats on my web page)Glad for making you smile!

[Nancy E. Wood]

Hello -- I'm not sure you'll get this, because the date on it is 2007, but I just had to give it a shot -- I found your blog by accident (googling "dog with tail between her legs"), and what a delightful find! I just HAD to write you and thank you for your excellent work, and send you some of my good juju... I'm so sorry you haven't yet received the YESSES that you deserve -- not YET, that is, because you will -- you are an amazing and sensitive and artist! I was a voracious reader as a child, and I truly feel that a good deal of my outlook on Life, my appreciation, and my sensibilities of whimsy came from the children's book illustrators who peopled my world with wonderful characters (human and other) of such quirk and charm, and also such inviting, warm, and winning, individuality and joy. You definitely capture that, and please keep your visioning for yourself about RECEIVING as positive and consistent and eager as you can, because you've definitely got the gift, and I'm quite sure great success is just coming up the walk or even waiting in front of your door... Thank you so much for the delightful time I spent with your charming images this morning... please know another of us is out here wishing you the very best!