Tuesday, September 25, 2007

New Blog - Stealing Shadows

The illustrious illustrator of Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival, Pamela McCarville, recently set up her own blog, Stealing Shadows. Visit her blog to enjoy whimsical illustrations, awe-inspiring sketches, and be amused by her random nonsense.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Neil Gaiman’s M Is for Magic

Finished reading Neil Gaiman’s M Is for Magic, a book of short stories where there is something for everyone. A bit of a different perspective on the quest for the Holy Grail in Chivalry and the usual perspective of the jack-in-the-box, but told wonderfully in Don’t Ask Jack. The compilation also included his story, The Price, which as a huge cat and animal lover, the ending of this story would not have had a particularly good outcome for the family if I had written it.

Then it had those stories that you just shake your head and sigh...I wish I would have thought of that. For me, those were October in the Chair, where all the months convene to tell a story. Then The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds, where little Jack Horner is hired by Humpty Dumpty’s sister to investigate his fall...was it an accident? I suspect fowl play. The book ended with The Witch’s Headstone, which is the one I am kicking myself the most on. The story is about a live boy being raised in a cemetery by ghosts. How luscious is that!?! Was amused with the ghosts trying to teach the boy to make himself transparent and walk through walls. Needless to say, they were not having much success.

However, I will warn you, The Witch’s Headstone is a total tease, just like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and that teeny tiny pirate movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Basically it is one or two chapters of a future release, just enough to get you hooked...which it did. I am just dying now for the book to come out (I know two post in a row with that corny pun, couldn’t help myself, I apologize and will try to keep that down to a minimum in future entries).

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival Book Update

The last two weeks have been consumed with clowns, werewolves, zombies, skeletons, and vampires. No we haven’t been working on my sister’s invitation list for the McCarville Macabre 10th Annual All Hallows Eve Ball, even though we need to start on those as folks are just dying to attend this year’s festivities, especially with the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival coming out. Which by the way, those are the clowns, werewolves, zombies, skeletons and vampires we have been consumed with the past couple of weeks.

We have been finalizing and proofing the book design and set-up making sure all the text properly showed and no clowns or werewolves were trying to escape off the pages. Of course no surprise, but my sister did an outstanding job with the over all book design, and I am loving the title page design. I had given her a little seed of an idea for it and she took that seed and created an entire forest of exquisite enchantment. And to think, that is just the title page, hold on to your seats for the rest of the book! We shipped off Willow May this past Monday and the reply back was the book is absolutely stunning and the color palette was gorgeous.

Until I am holding a finished book in my hands it will not seem real to me and even then, I may need to be pinched...but not hard (that last part is directed directly towards my sister).