Year of the Beagle

My niece and nephew have declared this the "Year of the Beagle" and their tails have not stopped wagging since the judge, J. Donald Jones, pointed to the beagle Uno as the winner of Best in Show at the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club event. Uno is the first beagle ever to win the Westminster show. The judge commented that Uno does cuteness well...something our family has known for years.

BEAGLE BAYS ALL AROUND FOR THE
WESTMINSTER BEST BEAGLE IN SHOW UNO!!!

Willow May Book Review by SFC

I wanted to share the awesome book review for Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival by Stories for Children Magazine Editor VS Grenier. The Stories for Children Magazine is a fantastic site for to find great children's stories and a writer's inspirational treasure trove. Their free monthly Ezine in the is full of imaginative and fun stories for children ages 3 to 12 years old. You will also find articles, puzzles, games, children's book reviews (Willow May will be in the March edition), crafts and poems. Not only can adults submit stories for the SFC Magazine but they also publish stories written and illustrated by children and teens. For you writers out there, you can also sign up for the free SFC Newsletter for Writers that has a wealth of information, resources and tips on writing. If you want to read imaginative stories, meet and learn more about an author, check out book reviews, or pick up great writing tips, visit the Stories for Children Magazine site.

Here is the review:

Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival
By: Icats Nitram
Illustrated by: Pamela McCarville
Published by: All Us All the Time Publishing, 2008
ISBN: 9780979728501
Ages: 4 to 8
Reviewed by: Stories for Children Magazine editor, VS Grenier

What child doesn't like going to the carnival? But what about a Midnight Carnival? And what would be at a Midnight Carnival anyway, if you could stay up late?

Willow May does get to go to a Midnight Carnival and it's nothing like the carnivals you might see during the day.

The Midnight Carnival stirs your imagination with colorful illustrations depicting a colorful Mardi Gras wonder of events. Willow May and her dolly Jane enter into a world of wonder as they stumble across some of the performers at this Midnight Carnival. She sees clowns with one eye juggling black rats, a raven as ringmaster, blindfolded swordsmen, and a vampire who walks the tightrope. But the excitement doesn't stop there. Soon skeletons take the stage performing magic tricks and dancing, until one loses his footing and falls. Only to be swept away in a basket.

The fun and thrill of the Midnight Carnival leaves children and adults waiting for the night in this unexpectedly delightful picture book with a surprise twist at the end.

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone a safe and joyous holiday!

Fun at the Denver Zoo

On a frosty night before the start of winter when snow has already covered the frozen ground and temperatures hover right below freezing we decided to partake in a traditional old past time of the holidays and visit the zoo. What?!? Yes, on a cold evening in December in Denver Colorado we warmed our spirits at the Denver Zoo. From now until January 6th the Denver Zoo is lit up with colorful luminaries and singing out safari holiday tunes. Below are some snap shots of evening’s lighted fun. If you would like to read more about the Denver Zoo Lights visit http://www.denverzoo.org/zoolights/index.asp.

Denver Zoo Lights

Lighted Lion

Lighted Zebras

Lighted Elephant

Unlighted Elephant

Lighted Monkey

Lighted Kitty (BIG Kitty)

Unlighted Weird Animal (Malayan Tapir)

Lighted Fishies

Unlighted Camel

Lighted Giraffe

Unlighted Giraffe

Lighted Seahorse

Unlighted Hippo (honest, he's there)

Lighted Whale

Blurry Zoo Lights!

Grab Your Crayons

The werewolf band howls out rockin’ tunes, the witches get their groove on, and the vampire shows off her beauty. When, where, what, and why, you ask? When is right now, where is on my web page, icatsnitram.com, what is free downloadable Willow May coloring sheets, and why, well, why not? After all, who does not like to color?

Downloading instructions for the Willow May coloring sheets are on the web page. Enjoy and have fun!

Misc. Stuff

Is it me, or do the days in November and December travel at warp speed? I can’t believe it is already mid-November. Am I at all ready for the holidays? Nooooo waaaaay, noooooo hooooow. I am in my complete denial stage at the moment even though the approaching season is hard to deny when my Starbucks has exploded in holiday décor. Sigh.

My partner in macabre and I have been toying around with and working on a little side-project. At the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival book launching party, Pam printed out a bunch of coloring sheets of characters from the book, and they were a huge hit. Everyone said we should do a coloring book, but then we decided to take that one step further and create an activity book with mazes, word searches, jumbles, and matching, fill-in the blanks, connect the dots, how to draw, paper rat dolls, carnival crafts and recipes, and of course, coloring pages. Like I said, just a small little side-project, but I am sure our publisher AUATT Publishing will be all over it once they see our spectacular proposal.

I am also trying to squeeze in some writing. I have a glimmer of an idea for Willow May’s next adventure. She seems to be excited about the concept, but we are still in negotiations on her side-kick(s) and supporting cast. Then I have a couple of other vague story ideas floating around in my head that I am trying to get a better grasp of to at least jot down a few notes. For me, the longest distance in the world is from my mind to the keyboard; I swear I must have a lot of road construction and detours going on inside there.

On top of all of this, my little writing buddy is under the weather. She has an aural hematoma in her ear flap which was caused by an ear infection. We have been having to give her eardrops twice a day which does not go over well at all, not even remotely. Then we were also having to give her antibiotics but they started to make her sick and she wasn’t able to keep her food down. She lost over ½ pound which was 10% of her body weight so now we are having to try to fatten her back up for some other procedures we found out she is needing. She is on my lap sleeping as I write this and not that my universe wasn’t completely centered around her before, but basically for the next few weeks my life will be totally dictated by the whims of a little 4.5 pound calico.

Feel Good Post

Had a few “feel good” moments over the last two weeks that I thought I would share. I went up to the mountains the other weekend to play golf with my Dad. When I walked into the Pro Shop, I am greeted with a very enthusiastic “Icats” by the golf pro followed by how much his kids enjoyed Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival. His son read it to his little sister twice. Then his son took out a piece of paper and started to draw the kraken and told his Dad he thought the mummy was cool too. Then a gal at my husband’s work told him that Willow May is now her son’s favorite book and he can almost read it through all by himself. This is followed by a wonderful and complimentary email from a grandmother who bought a copy for her granddaughter, and is now buying 5 more!!

I guess kid tested and grandmother approved!! Feels great!

Writer's Web Page Finally Up

After a long period of "coming soon", the writer's web page is finally up:

www.icatsnitram.com

More from the Mysterious Willow May Book Party

I want to send a huge thank you to all of those who took time from their busy schedules, some even traveling from far distances, to come celebrate with us the release of our first children's picture book, Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival. Your friendship, support and encouragement is more than any writer and illustrator could wish for, and if you will allow me to use an adverb here, you are a fantastically incredible group of people.

Here are a few more photos from the Saturday Book Party, Victor Grimsby's Carnival of Curious Delights, and speaking of delights, there are photos of the cakes in yesterday's post...the cakes were stunning. The first time I literally did not want to cut into a cake because they looked too amazing, and I LOVE cake, so that is saying quite a bit.

Again, thanks to all who came, and where I know we have really just begun the journey with Willow May, I can't help but be anxious for the next story to come.

Beautiful flowers bestowed upon the writer and illustrator.

"My, what a wonderful book."

"Oh no, the skeleton lost his footing!"

"I can't wait to see how this is going to end."

"What a marvelous book, darlings."

"I loved the illustrations, could I commission the artist for work of my own?"

"Mom, you have got to get one of these!"

"I must have one of your cat designs, they are my favorite."

"Really should have stopped him after just one glass of apple cider."

Willow May Book Party

At the end of the block where balloons swayed from a tree,
there was a house full of music, food, books and glee.

At the Willow May book party there was cake,

and more cake,

there were pumpkin, black cat, and polka-dotted bat cookies,

circus peanuts too,

there were ravens lurking everywhere,

there were tarot cards for fortunes to tell,

or look into Madame Pamela's crystal ball,

there were books to be signed,

and there were werewolves.

Werewolves?!?

Oh yes, there were werewolves!

There were many more surprises at the mysterious Willow May book party, come back tomorrow and see more of the fun.

Willow May Party Poster

Is my sister awesome or what? Okay she is awesomely genius. Here is a poster she did for the big Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival Book Launching Party this Saturday. We are going to put them up on lamp posts outside and then on the main entrance to guide the way to the fantastic festivities. Too cool!

Willow May is Here!

Actually, she arrived last weekend, and I honestly don’t know what happen to this last week. One moment it was October 6th, I blinked my eyes and now it is October 15th. Any hoo, my sister and I had a small little ceremony with Willow May on the 6th. I thought the books turned out beautiful, even though, it hasn’t completely set in yet that we have a book published. It has been crazy these last days as the sis and I are getting ready for the big book launching party this Saturday. To say we are excited is an understatement, but there is so much to do. I feel like for every “to-do” I cross off the list, there are three more added on.

Right now I am working on fortunes for Tarot Cards, or should I say the Tarot of Willow May. We thought it would be a cute party game to have a set of Willow May Tarot cards with fun and silly fortunes. My sister is working on designing the card set with characters from the book and then I am working on the fortunes that go with each card. It is an idea that has taken on a life of its own.

I better get back to those fortunes, but meanwhile, here are a few snaps shot of Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival, and I hope to have some fantastic party photos to post next week from the party.

Book Party Invite

Here is a draft of our Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival book party invitation our publishing company, All Us All the Time Publishing, will be sending out for the big book bash. The invitation was designed by the fabulous designer, the oozer of artistic talent, Pamela McCarville, who also designed and illustrated the book. The outside is the book cover, then on the inside flap is an illustration from the title page with the You're Invited message. On the other side is a take off from the book's back blurb description.




It is going to be quite a shindig, professionally catered, live music, and costumes. Well, that last part might just be my sister and I, that is if we can find a feathered coat and purple velvet wing-backed leotard in time...

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.

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).

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).

Final Sketch Completed - Whoohoo!!

All the preliminary sketches for Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival are done...YEA!!!!! The majority of them have been done for a couple of weeks but Pam was spending a little extra time creating the perfect send off for the Willow May ending. She sent it to me Saturday morning. Can she become any more of a genius? Well, I guess she can. Oh, I so want to tell you about it, but I can’t, it will spoil the surprise ending of the book. All I can say is it is fantastic and I never would have went there. What I had envisioned for the last page was the typical same old scene that you have seen 100 times before, but what she did was fresh and new and lively...in her dark and eerie macabre way. It is killing me not to be able to share more, but I can’t...it really is killing me.

The Universe...Sunday Melt Down

As I have said before, my sister and I have the utmost respect and admiration for the Universe. We understand she is not going to sugar coat our world and hand us our dreams on a silver platter, instead she will test us, put up obstacles, and we will past those tests and conquer all obstacles in our way if we truly believe in our dreams. Okay, I get it, and believe Pam and I have maneuvered our way through several barriers and endured many brutal trials of faith.

This all stems from a series of emails back and forth with my sister, in which one I will quote from her “I want to curl up in a little ball and die.” The illustrations are all painted and scanned including the book cover. Now it is just setting up the book, which I thought an aggressive schedule, but my sister thought she could have completed in 3 days, I was thinking closer to 5, but again the ugly 2.5 rule has raised its ugly head. But this time by circumstances beyond our control, Pam’s external hard drive won’t accept any more of the Willow May’s files. She had 3 drives, and I may have the names wrong, but I believe they are Zeppelin, Alchemist, and Potions.

The problem child was Potions and Pam ended up losing several hours of work, which was crushing on top of the fact neither of us are the best at handle system problems and/or failures. I don’t mean technical wise, I mean emotional wise as in screaming at the computer screen “why are you doing this to me, what have I done to you, why do you hate me so much...” Luckily she had another external hard drive she was able to hook up (did not catch the name), but what an incredibly frustrating and exhausting weekend. I tried to console her as much as possible, but you know how on TV or in books there is that one character who always says the perfect thing to make everyone feel better in these types of situations...yeah, that would not be me.

I think we have once again averted the crisis, but please, how much more do we need to prove the Universe that we really, really, really, really, want to have this book published. We are not asking for her to throw us a break, just to please stop throwing us all these curve balls.

Web Domain Blues

Pam and I are going to set up an author and illustrator web page to help promote Willow May Goes the Midnight Carnival.... and future books. First thing we needed was our domain names, and from my knowledge of SEO, I chose icatsnitram.com for mine, but of course pamelamccarville.com would not do for the illustrious illustrator, please, how plain and boring is that. Thus the quest began for the perfect website name. After a couple of angst full days, she asked if she could have the weekend to mill it over. On Tuesday, she begrudgingly, as she felt rushed in her decision-making, gave me the chosen name, shadowpainting.com. Excellent, I could now purchase the domain names and get started on setting up the web pages. Not so fast as shadowpainting.com was already taken (shockingly, icatsnitram.com was available). Back to the drawing board, I looked up several alternative name such as sketchingshadows.com, which she reluctantly said she would go with, but I could tell was not overly thrilled with it, and if it is one thing that I have learned, it is to constantly over thrill your illustrator. Then out of the blue a name came to me (actually thought it would make a good book title), but I offered it up for her site. Coming soon, author’s website icatsnitram.com and illustrator Pamela McCarville’s site, stealingshadows.com.

Word Popularity

Came across this link from one of the writing list that I belong to that I thought was cool. This all sparked from a conversation of over using that word “that”. Turns out that “that” ranks 7th in 86,800 frequently used words in the English language. Needless to say that there went a few minutes of my life typing in words to see where they ranked and to see if that I could come up with that one word that fell out of the 86,800. Not sure if that is a writer thing, or if that is just a me thing. What was that word I came up with that is not one of the 86,800 most frequently used words you ask? And you probably really did not ask that, but here that word is anyway: Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. Came up in an email exchange that I had with my sister the other day, don’t ask.

For hours of word entertainment here is that link to that site:
http://www.wordcount.org/main.php

Promote that Book!

One great thing about my sister, well there are several great things about my sister that it boggles the mind to decide which sheer genius aspect to reflect upon at any given moment; however, at this moment I am going to reflect upon her amazing design and creative talent when it comes to promotional materials. That’s right we are all about the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival bling! We will have bookmarks, buttons, magnets and posters, perhaps even t-shirts and Willow May calendars. Okay, maybe I am getting a bit a head of myself here, but I have been keeping an eye out for promotional opportunities.

I jot the ideas down in emails and send them to myself to put in my Willow May promo file or if it is from an article in the paper or magazine I cut it out and drop it into a file. I also picked up a couple of books on marketing your book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer and The Frugal Book Promoter, How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t by Caroline Howard-Johnson. They both list valuable promotional tips you may not have thought of and provide a wealth resource information. Caroline Howard-Johnson also has a great newsletter, Sharing with Writers, that comes out weekly with lots of promotion ideas and inspiration too. You can sign–up through her website, http://carolynhoward-johnson.com/. Another helpful book for online marketing is Plug Your Book, Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber. In addition, I stumbled across a Yahoo Group that also provides an overwhelming wealth of information. The group is mainly for those who are starting up their own small publishing companies, but I have found they give a lot of promotional and marketing advice, book signing tips, as well as providing a ton of resources. The group is http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing/. You might want to sign-up on digest mode as they are a very active list. Let’s see, oh yes, one more for those of you who are not the sister to the illustrious illustrator and designer, Pamela McCarville, the book Book Design and Production: A Guide for Authors and Publishers by Pete Masterson. This should be required reading for all involved in the book publishing process whether directly involved or not with the actual production and designing process.

The Pout

There is no end to the amount of joy and love our four-legged children bring into our lives. But sometimes I believe caring for them is harder than the two-legged variety. At least they can tell you what they want. Like today with the calico. I have fed her, given her treats, played sparkle toy, brushed her, strolled through the garden, and yet I have still failed to please her.

We are now in our famous pout position after trying to climb up the curtains, rearrange and shred documents on the desk all while vocalizing her displeasure.

What is not revolving around her today...that needs to be?!?!?

Time Management

Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival is running a tad bit behind schedule and needless to say tension, anxiety, and stress levels have elevated slightly, okay extremely. I don’t think my sister and I look alike, but complete strangers guess we are sisters, and we have even been mistaken as twins a few times. I think it is because we act alike. We have the same mannerisms, same sense of unusual dry humor, and for the most part, the same tastes, opinions, and outlooks. It is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because our ideas feed upon one another leading to this fantastic metamorphosis of creation on a colossal scale greater than we could have ever imagined. A curse because our ideas feed upon one another leading to this fantastic metamorphosis of creation on a colossal scale greater than we could have ever imagined OR allowed time for.

This is the case with the Willow May illustrations. Like on the one-eye clown illustrations. She would send me a sketch and I would go “you know what you could add to this...” then she would go “oh, that is a great idea, and then what I could do with that...” I would continue “oh, that is genius AND you could then carry that over to page 27”. This goes on for several more minutes until we have surpassed that of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. We don’t want to tone down this process, as we want our readers to experience the full effect of The Pam & Icats. It is a heavy burden we have to bear...and learn to better time manage.

What Month Is It?

My sister sent me an email that the stores already have their Halloween candy out. Now don’t get me wrong, my sister and I LOVE Halloween (as well as Halloween candy), but please isn’t it only the first of August? The stock boy told Pam that eventually all seasonal candy will come out the first of the year. A one-time deal, then all over with.

Editing and Illying

Working through a few more painful tweaks on the text and Pam continues to sketch and paint her fingers to the bones on the illustrations for Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival. We have but one preliminary sketch left (whoo hoo!!!!), and I am tickled purple with what has been done so far. My sister’s artwork has always been amazing to me, but I swear, she has raised it 5 notches with Willow May. The clown illustrations took my breath away, the attention to detail and the acrobatic positions of them with the intricate work on the costumes...my mind is officially blown away.