Day 8 of Holiday Specials

I particularly love today's special for the 12 Blog Postings of Christmas on the All Us All the Time blog. Purchase the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival book from their site (it is even on sale!) and besides getting the free bookmark, button, book plate and character trading cards, if you order today, they will throw in a free Willow May tote. The great thing about the tote is no wrapping needed, you can just present the gift in the reusable adorable canvas tote. Hop on over to my site and print out some of the free coloring sheets to add in, throw in some crayons or markers and you are set with one neat gift. If to a child (because this book also makes a cool gift for adults who are fans of features like Nightmare Before Christmas and the Addams Family as well as enjoying to color, you know who they are), you could also include a coupon for a free reading, I suppose you could even include that if giving to an adult, it would depend on the recipient whether that would be awkward or not. You can visit the All Us All the Time Blog for the details and promotional code.

Also for more great book ideas check out the Red River Writers' Christmas Event (RRW Christmas Exchange) on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32917461597.

Okay, I will stop with my special promotional announcement and let you get back to your normal Monday programming.

National Best Books 2008 Award-Winning Finalist

Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival has been honored again, this time as an Award-Winning Finalist in the Children’s Hardcover Fiction Picture Book category of the National Best Books 2008 Awards. The cast and crew were unable to get together in person as this is an extremely busy time of the year for them, but they are always together in spirit. We were able to catch up with a few of them to get their comments on winning another award for their performances.

The zombies, who you may have spotted a couple of weeks ago, participating in the 2008 Zombie Parade, were thrilled with the news. They spent months training with Europe’s top circus performers for their acrobatic role in Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival. They appreciate being recognized for their hard work and dedication.


Gabrielle, Luna, and Vivian, the dancing witches who played themselves in the book, were once again quite humbled by another award and promised to turn the odd little fellow back from a toad despite the protest from his armadillo.

The werewolf band along with the skeleton brothers are nearing the end of their 2008 World Wolf-Bone Tour. They said they would be giving a shout out to all those fans of Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival at their next full-moon performance.



Evelynn, the vampire who played the high wire performer, is back in her native country Romania to spend the upcoming holiday with relatives, wanted to send her undying gratitude to the rest of the cast and crew and to USA Book News for this honor.

I too want to thank USA Book News for this recognition and support of small independent publishers and writers. I also want to give a special thanks to All Us All the Time Publishing, the illustrator Pamela McCarville for bring these characters alive, and the editor Valerie Mass.

As I said, the cast of Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival is very active this time of year, especially the last day of October, so be on the look out for them, they LOVE to give autographs.

More Coloring Sheets

At the Starbucks reading last week we had a few requests for coloring sheets with the dancing skeleton and alas we did not have any, BUT we do now! I just added to my web page, icatsnitram.com, not only the dancing skeleton, but the flying rat, circus tent and two puzzles. If there are any other Willow May characters that you would love to color, please let me know and I will see what I can do to also add them on my web page.

Starbucks KinderCare Reading

The illustrator and I did a reading to a group of KinderCare children at Starbucks last Thursday. It was kind of like a summer field trip for them and it was cute as they all wore shirts that had “Summer Adventure” across the front. Of course listening to Willow May is always an adventure. After the reading we handed out coloring sheets, crayon boxes with character stickers on them, buttons and temporary tattoos. Starbucks handed out a slushy lemonade drink with a snack. It was a great bunch of kids, so polite and well behaved. I want to thank Anna at Starbucks and KinderCare for giving us the opportunity to entertain them a beautiful summer morning. The day before we were having 100 mph wind gust (perhaps exaggerated), but just a light breeze Thursday morning, and we finished right before the 100-degree hotness set in for the day. There are more photos on the publisher’s website if you want to take a look.

Starbucks Reading

I am terribly delinquent in posting this entry on the Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival Starbucks reading from the beginning of the month, but hopefully better late than never?

The illustrator, Mr. Icats, and I had a great time and want to thank all those who attended and to Anna West of Starbucks for hosting this event. Besides Starbucks goodies the kids also received Willow May coloring sheets and crayons, bookmarks, buttons, and temporary tattoos. The buttons were a huge hit and the favorites seemed to be the rock star werewolf, the dancing skeleton, and walking birdcage.

To see more pictures of the event you can visit the Photo Gallery on the publisher’s website. We are scheduled to do another reading at Starbucks on 7/10 at 10am for the KinderCare group. Again, thanks to everyone who came and I hope you had as much fun as we did.

Mr. Icats with a Willow May fan

Indie Excellence 2008 Finalist Book Award

Willow May goes to the Midnight Carnival was named a Finalist in the Indie Excellence 2008 Book Awards. When I told the cast the news, to say they were excited would be an understatement. They threw a huge party to celebrate with cupcakes, music, and dancing. The Raven, who played the ringmaster, gave a humorous yet riveting speech giving a special thanks to the illustrator, Pamela McCarville, who did a fabulous job on his costume and the over all setting of the book. The Werewolf Band, who are true musicians outside the book, played all night long including a crowd favorite, Werewolves of London. Evelynn, the vampire who played the high wire performer, also thanked the illustrator for making her beautiful. She then thanked the production staff for accommodating her working hours and special dietary needs. The Zombies were ecstatic with the recognition of their acrobatic maneuvers and did want it known that they did their own stunts in the book, no stunt zombies were used.

Gabrielle, Luna, and Vivian, the dancing witches who played themselves in the book, were quite humbled by the award and apologized to management for the week delay in production when they turned the odd little fellow into a toad (a contractual misunderstanding). The tiny fellow thought the witches should personally apologize to him for the incident, but the dancing skeleton and his brother told him to leave well enough alone and gave him a cupcake, which was then stolen by his armadillo.

Unfortunately, Willow May, the star of the book was unable to attend the party. She is busy being written for the sequel, Willow May Goes to the Midnight Zoo. However, via satellite feed from the pages of her new book, she apologized for not being able to be there in person, but said she was there in spirit and thanked them all.

I too want to thank the characters of the book in addition to all those involved in this project, especially the illustrator, Pamela McCarville, and the Publisher, All Us All the Time Publishing, for making this dream come alive. Thank you everyone for your support and encouragement, and thank you National Indie Excellence Book Awards for this honor and supporting small independent publishers and authors.

The Shoppe and Tattered Cover

My sister was down last weekend and we decided to go have brunch at our new favorite cafe, The Shoppe. This time my husband chauffeured us and we all opted for the cornflakes. We also all went a little wild and threw in some bananas. My husband totally enjoyed himself, he later said he loved the atmosphere and they had great coffee. We planned for our next stop to be All In A Dream Comics, but unfortunately they did not open until noon and our chauffeur had places to be that afternoon. From there we headed over to the Tattered Cover Bookstore. After perusing their magazine selection, we headed over to the graphic novels where I grabbed a couple of Neil Gaiman but then ended up relinquishing one to my sister who also picked up a Terry Pratchertt. On our way to the children’s section we passed the humor books and I could not resist adding another book to my Edward Gorey collection, The Secrets: Volume One, The Other Statue. I think we know I will also need Volume Two, The Night Bandage.

Next we headed downstairs to the children’s section when what to our wondering eyes should appear....WILLOW MAY!!!!

I don’t think anybody thought it was strange for us to be taking our pictures next to it, do you?

Englewood Public Library Author Open House

To kick off National Library week, the Englewood Public Library hosted an Author Open House this past Sunday with over 50 Colorado writers and illustrators. The illustrious illustrator, Pamela McCarville and I had a fabulous day. It started off with us being escorted to our table where two book bags, pens and thank you notes were awaiting us. Then we had our photo ops with the children's librarian, Karin Martin. Talk about the star treatment. Next we were called into the reception room for quite the spread. I wish I had taken a picture but trust me; it would have made your mouth water. But that is not all; we also had a harpist serenade us all through the day.

We dressed up our table with a mini version of our ringmaster Victor Grimsby in his purple feather coat and three of his little rats in hats friends (the rats ended up stealing the show from the raven ringmaster). We handed out Willow May bookmarks and coloring sheets with some of the characters from the book as well as a small box of crayons with a sticker of one of the characters on the box. Those were a big hit with the kids. For those who bought our book we gave them a Willow May bookplate and button. We also had postcards of our next Willow May midnight adventure, Willow May Goes to the Midnight Zoo and postcards for a Graphic Novel Pamela is illustrating, Dark Wisdom. Then we also had a sign-up sheet, but only three people signed up. Kept forgetting to point it out to people and we mainly had kids coming to our table. We also got too busy and only took a couple of pictures between us; we almost needed a 3rd person for photo taking detail. We thought we had about every aspect of the promo thing covered but in looking around at the other writer's tables, we saw that one writer had made print outs of their book reviews for people to see. What a great idea!

It was fun to visit with everybody and it was really fun to shop around for some great reads. Needless to say, we put those book bags to use.

I received an email from the library yesterday that 450 people came to the event. Wow, what a turn out, no wonder why I am still exhausted. I can't say enough about this fantastic event the Englewood Library hosted and if you missed this years please plan to attend their 10th annual open house next year to kick off National Library Week.

Visit the library's website to see what other fun events are taking place this month.

Englewood Library Author Open House

The illustrious illustrator, Pamela McCarville and I will have a table at the 9th annual Englewood Library Author Open House, "Meet the Faces Behind the Books" this Sunday, April 13th, from 1pm-3pm. We are honored to receive an invitation and to be a part of such an amazing list of Colorado talent. What a great opportunity the library is providing to come and find great books and meet the local creativity behind them.

At our table we will have Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival coloring sheets, puzzles, bookmarks, postcards and buttons. If we have room, you may even spot Mr. Grimsby and his rats in hats.

You can visit the Englewood Library's website for more information on this event, including directions and a list of participating authors.

Hope to see you there this Sunday!

Willow May Book Review by Midwest Book Review

I found out through All Us All the Time Publishing that Willow May got another 5-star review from Midwest Book Review (yea!!!!) .

You can find the review at Midwest Book Review or on Amazon.com.

Gallery Showing

The illustrious illustrator of Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival will be showing her work at the Madison and Main Gallery in Greeley, CO, now through the end of April. Here are the details:

Madison and Main Gallery
"Illustrator Gallery Show"

Come see Pamela McCarville's original paintings for her
children's book, Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival
written by Icats Nitram, published by All Us All the Time Publishing,
in addition to the art work of other regional illustrators at the
Madison and Main Illustrator Gallery Show on display
from March 3rd through April 25th
with an artist reception March 7th, 5-7 pm.

Madison and Main Gallery, 927 16th St., Greeley CO 80631

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.

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!

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...

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).