I just heard more good news for Tracings—it was selected for the 2008 Storytelling World Awards! I feel so fortunate about the reception of my first book. And I love all the letters and e-mails I’ve received from readers of the book. One of my favorite letters came from a family who had also sent packages to Europeans after WWII. After reading One Thousand Tracings, they decided to try to find the family they had helped in Holland. By searching the Internet, they were able to track them down after all these years, and now the families are planning a reunion to actually meet each other in person! I have met many of the Europeans my grandparents sent packages to. I am so thankful that they shared their stories with me, and am happy that the book has helped other families share their stories.

I’m having a ball working on my current book—Pennies for Elephants. Here’s a sketch:

Originally published at Adventures at Wilder Farm. You can comment here or there.

… for Pennies for Elephants:

Originally published at Adventures at Wilder Farm. You can comment here or there.

For the past year, my husband, Dave, has been encouraging me to start a blog. We get so many terrific questions from readers and illustrators who visit my website, he thought it’d be a good opportunity to share the day to day adventures of creating children’s books, answer frequently asked questions, and share information about my working method and current projects. I had resisted until now, but the recent selection of my book, One Thousand Tracings, as a Cybil Award Finalist for a non fiction picture books (an award created and given by bloggers) has prompted me to plunge ahead into the blog world.

I’m naming my blog Adventures at Wilder Farm for two reasons. First, because my husband and I live tucked away in the NH woods at the end of Wilder Farm Road. Here, black bears, moose, deer, fox, fishers, and wild turkeys roam through our land, browse in our garden and leave a highway of tracks in the snow. Secondly, Adventures at Wilder Farm was the title of the first picture book manuscript I wrote and illustrated. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started it! The story was never published, but it did help me find my agent and a few weeks later, helped me get my first publishing job - illustrating “Ugly” by Donna Jo Napoli with Hyperion Books for Children. Three years later, I’m now working on my sixth book (my third as author and illustrator) and I have three more picture books in the works. So I have a very fond connection to the name.

Dave and I both plan to write this blog. Dave works closely with me. He designed my website and is a valuable editor and critical eye to my work. He solves all my technical headaches with computers, scanners, digital cameras and printers and plans to share a lot of his experience on this front with readers.

Originally published at Adventures at Wilder Farm. You can comment here or there.