The Farther I Go the Further Behind I Am

I have been spreading the news about The Robin Makes A Laughing Sound: A Birder's Journal, teaching school workshops, speaking to fellow illustrators and writers about the picture book process, and lining up book store appearances, especially with my travels in mind. Pretty much doing the same things I did to promote Truck Stuck.

On April 1 I will hang a show of the original sketches which were scanned and then collaged into the pages using Photoshop. I could not have done this by myself. Micah Bornstein provided the expertise and design skills that made the pages so clean and clear. And the whole production was very collaborative between Micah and myself, with lots of input and editorial help from my great editor at Charlesbridge, Yolanda, and the wonderful art director there, Susan. I am still amazed when I look at our first sample pages and my first selection of poems that we were able to move from that raw state to this finished book, one that I am proud to have my name on.

Charlesbridge has created a page on it's website just for the Robin book (I think there is one for all their books) and it has some really neat, special features. They have listed lots of reviews, both print ones and on-line ones. There is a really great Discussion and Activity Guide that can be downloaded, and also 8 Flashcards of bird images that can be printed from the site. I made some of the guide and Donna and Lili in the promotions department pushed it into final form. Just another reason Charlesbridge is a great company to work with.

The launch party at the Magic Tree Bookstore was a great success. I'm sorry if you didn't get a bite of the cake--it was amazing--tasted as good as it looked.

So now it is on to new projects while working to promote this book. Does anyone out there have a publicist? Do you think it pays to have one? I feel as if I'm doing as much as I can and it's not nearly as much as needs doing.

PS--I have a blog post on the Charlesbridge site where I discuss how my poetry develops from initial idea to final, published form. I hope this discussion will encourage young writers to re-vision their writing, not just substitute one word for another and call it revised.