HOLLY WILD: Poking it with a STICK!

In my last blog, I mentioned that I was illustrating the science portion of the book. Simple science. No big gadgets or apps. Pure and simple Holly Wild curiosity and a good poking stick is all that is needed. In order to get in touch with nature, you need a few other good things like a good notebook and a good pencil. but that's it--anything else is mere icing on the nature cake. A hand lens, specimen collecting system (Ziploc bags and plastic medicine bottles) and you're in business.

A few tools of the naturalist trade

Speaking of getting in touch with nature and science, the "poke it with a stick" Holly Wildism has been around longer than she's been around. And since we are talking poking sticks, my editorial team would like me to touch on polite poking stick etiquette:

'Nuff said!

Science and nature study need not be complicated. Observation and experience is key. With homemade explorer kit in hand, I can't tell you how many trees I climbed, places I explored and how many snakes I tailed a kid. I grew up in a naturalist's heaven on five acres of pines, hardwoods and ponds and had a wild neighborhood of lakes and more woods--without NO Trespassing signs around. Ahhh--nature! Ahh-mothers! My mother had us kids watching out for wild snakes, wild badgers, wild cats, wild dogs and anything else wild that might harm, bite, scratch or otherwise maim us.

NEVER poke a snake, especially an EMR--just saying!

And, yes, we did grow up with Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes (EMR) and lived to tell the tail--so to speak. We knew the dangers and were careful. OK, we knew the dangers.

But in order to get kids outdoors and stay outdoors today, we need to have them out simply for adventure. Not for a specific study or learning purpose. They need unstructured time to make stick forts and eat lunch in them like explorers. OK, so explorers didn't have Kool Aid and chips, but by golly it helps add to that adventurous feel. Time outdoors for kids to collect things, dig for bones (been there--done that) and make fox traps (been there--done that and punished for it). It doesn't take much in the way of tools or cost much and the benefits are wild, crazy cool.

Notebooks hold feasther, fur, skin, leaves, and small bones nicely.

Kids (and us adults) need adventure without the push of a button or a beep of digital notes. Keep science pure and simple.

Keep it Holly Wild style and POKE IT WITH A STICK--politely! 

HOLLY WILD: The Countdown, Part 2

Even though I have been working on the "science" portion of the book right now (snake species, scientific method, tools), I wanted to introduce you to the book's lively characters. Each one is quirky, quaint and down right vibrant. These folks are the guts, the juice, the fire, and the glue--that help and hinder Holly with her adventure on Beaver Island.

Let the journey begin. And with every story and journey comes the good, the bad and ugly! First the good. Our hero, Holly needs a trusty team to help her on her adventures. Twins, Tierra and Sierra fit the bill and do a good job of keeping Holly on task. Holly's brother adds color--er--black, and ugly smell to the story. Brothers do that--proudly.

*Left to Right:  HOLLY, Boy (Holly's big bro) and the twins, Tierra and Sierra.



*Remember these faces as they are early illustrations and will change as we go along. Another clean-up act for me to do at the drawing board. Redraw the characters so they look consistent throughout the chapters.

Now, for more good. The twinkly, sparkly, nature-fairy kind. Aunt Kitty. The bigger the hair, the bigger the heart and the bigger the brain. Aunt Kitty is a sweet, smart, flower-loving naturalist with a warped sense of humor. Yikes!

"Tee-hee!" (good friends make the best characters!)

And one other good fellow who unknowingly helps direct Holly in her pursuit of saving Beaver Island--artist and storyteller, Charlie Bird.

(One never knows what kind of characters lurk behind bad art and balloons!
The lines of good and bad can often be blurred.)

And what evil are all these good folk battling? What, is right. That unwanted, unliked family who shows up like a noxious, spreading invasive plant specie that is impossible to eradicate. The Buckthorn clan. (Yes, that's where their names came from!)

Spoiled Ivy Buckthorn has been a thorn in Holly's side since the second grade. But what makes Ivy so delicious is you despise her the moment she walks on "stage". From her ponytail scythe to her sharp tongue, you can't wait until this Buckthorn specie moves on--far away.

Then there is rest of the Buckthorn clan, Mr. and Mrs. B (Fern and Alder) and their sniveling poodle pup, Queenie. Queenie is annoying and Mrs. B can be obnoxious, but it's the greedy Mr. B who is the bad seed here. And Holly must help Beaver Island

outsmart, outwit and outlast Buckthorn Builders in order to SURVIVE!

Even though no one is REALLY bad--everyone learns lessons on this adventure. And good vs. evil makes for a great tail--er tale. And everyone is needed to tell this story especially when the story has environmentally educational material in it.

The science is hidden among all the humorous antics and

adventure like a snake or herp in the grass! Which is the best way to learn.

Back to the drawing board for me. I have more good, bad and ugly species to illustrate.

COUNTDOWN to Holly Wild!

 So after three years in the making (even more if you count character development and research) HOLLY WILD:  Bamboozled on Beaver Island (a mid grade fiction) will become a reality. Rejected by Michigan publishers who I am certain only one even looked at, we are going INDY...as only Holly would like. After all, she is a do-it-yourself, explorer kind of girl. That's right. Indy (independent publisher-of self-pub). BTP, (Bear Track Press) who put out Lissy-Lost! (L2) in 2011 after she went OP (out of print) in 2010, is going at it again.

Each week I will blog on the progress of Holly Wild, the characters, the setting, the plot and how this indy book will be put together. So after twenty plus revisions, my editorial team decided to go with the new ms. (manuscript). And let me tell you how many gazillions of illustrations that girl HW (Holly Wild) has me doing.

Who is Holly Wild? Well, if you haven't heard or seen hints of her by now, she is a feisty, earthy (muddy, dirty, scraped-up), ten-year old, in hiking boots and auburn hair (she hates being called a red-head or maybe she hates it when her ultimate enemy, Ivy Buckthorn calls her that).

HOLLY H. WILD:  Curious, mischievous and always at my side. Did I mention annoying? (But, only to me.)

Holly's outlook and thoughts on life: "Just poke it with a stick and see what happens." Holy creeps, everyone knows that. This could also be the reason why she gets into jams and trouble so often.

HOLLY H. WILD:  Brave, creative, inventive and knows no danger--or at least doesn't recognize it.

Holly keeps me up at night, pesters me during the day and is more loud and needy than any BTP pet running around here. She wants kids (and parents) to know about herps, poop (scat is the polite term), and bones and gross nature stuff. She wants someone to hear her. She wants company--kids to GET UP, GET OUT and GET DIRTY--especially in Michigan's wild places with her.

HOLLY H. WILD:  Determined and focused (for maybe ten seconds)

Me. I can't wait until she gets what she wants and get this first book out. But, then I will have to start on book two, because she is already hinting at book three and wants to know where we are going for book four. Hold on Holly--one indy at a time. Speaking of indy if you the reader has ANY comments on ANYthing (the cover, design, or illustrations) please feel free to let me hear about them. I'm open to suggestions and criticism (although I'm not so sure how Holly will take it.)

Look out Michigan--this is one kid to watch for this September in HOLLY WILD:  Bamboozled on Beaver Island. She just might have your kids getting dirty, poking things with a stick and searching for "herps"and asking, "What does the H. in Holly H. Wild, stand for?)"

My Book an eBook

So after eleven years in the making, Lissy-Lost!, my first book written and illustrated by moi, has taken the digital leap to an eBook. 

"L2" (Lissy-Lost!) as my daughter so lovingly calls this book, is now available from Barnes & Noble for the mere price of $3.99. (And you can even download free eBook reader apps at BN for your PC, Android, iPad and Pod and more!)

When I purchased my Nook color I never really thought about having L2 go digital. But after getting the book reprinted I thought why the heck not jump on the bitmap bandwagon.

It started off as an experiment to see how it would go. I download books on my Nook every so often--OK all the time--but only to see how other books look:  illustrations, layout, overall feel. (OK, I love story.) But the L2 paperback book is glossy, colorful and can be flipped to pictures and passages. Pages can be dog-eared, bent and even colored in if you are six (my first book altering art pieces had coloring and signatures in them--Marie still laughs at me as I still sign my name in my books--in a family of six as a kid you had to claim your things).

So now that L2 is out there floating on the waves of electronica, how do I market it?  Any suggestions?  I have read a few blogs and such going over the same problem or challenge. Blog about it, tell folks on FB...umm I ran out of ideas. Why? Because my brain is usually in CREATE mode NOT market mode and moves on to the next shiny thing. 

I have a book signing at our Pinckney Library next week and will have books there to sign and do a small program for kids and I will mention the new "eL2". But how do you sign an eBook? Collect signatures in a drawing program? I did download a kid's coloring program on my Nook and actually thought about having Ruth McNally Barshaw of Ellie McDoodle fame sign her name with her finger and draw her Ellie at the Comic Jam in Chelsea last week.

Will my next book be an eBook? Perhaps not. I like the paper. Heck, L2 is a 30% post-consumer waste and the printer supports the Plant a Billion Trees Program. But with Holly Wild, or HW, you will be able to stick it in a pocket, it will need no batteries or charging and can get it wet in a tent on a dark and spooky, stormy night. And I want kids to draw in it, fold it, color it--interact with it. Make it personal and sign their own name in it. Afterall, reading a book is a personal experience.

Like we writers, illustrators and editors said when we met over a month ago over dinner, we (the public) won't be handing down eBooks to Grandma's grandkids when she dies or saying fondly, "Oh, that was Grandma's favorite app! Who gets it?" There will be no wear and tear and aging of these eBooks. My daughter and I collect old, old kids books and run and fight over who saw what first when we shop for them. I can't see this happening with eBooks. (AND the names and coloring of pictures in those books make them more so endearing.)

Sign my Nook drawing program?

I love my Nook because I do love books. I still use our local library (mostly for a pickup point for MEL books) and even request books from them on my Nook. I'm not right, I know. But my Nook is handy--a portfolio, email and FB at a WiFi touch and I can pull it out and jump into a book at any time--and the kid drawing program occasionally soothes my artist ADD--but give me paper or a paper book anytime for pure fun.

I still love the creating process of sketching and drawing and try to stress this to folks young and old that I meet. After I sold a book to a family last weekend at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market I showed them the sketches I did while doodling and how they became the final illustrations for the book.

I'll always like the primitive feel and smell of pen and pencil on paper. And to draw with a Nook finger is a bit like an Etch-a-Sketch. So I can't see doing any eBook signings anytime soon.

But if you purchase a copy of L2 online at Barnes and Noble, I'll email you a bookmark!

But if you want the old-fashioned paperback it is available for purchase at many fine stores listed on my website.

People Watching at the Market

What does an artist/illustrator do when they can't hit the woods to study wildlife? They study and sketch "People Life" while sitting in a booth at an art show or artist market. People watching.

It's a fun change of pace from birdwatching. And people can be just as entertaining and colorful too, as they go about their nesting, food gathering and flocking activities!

And sometimes illustrators need illustrations of "extras" for backgrounds.  An interesting array of characters, footwear, hats, clothes and characters are set before you.

(Music making, talking, looking and watching specimens)

Varied body types, ages, cultures are all on parade. Enjoy. Get in on their fun. What are all of these people talking about? Pick up snippets of conversation. What is happening? From these sketches you can see that it is summer. Just like "field notes" in the wild, date your sketch.

(Food and art gathering activities and specimens on the move.)

What was the weather like? This was a hot Sunday. Sunglasses, shorts and sandals? Even the day of the week can tell alot about how people dress. How people carry things goes beyond paper or plastic. Backpack, belly pack or bag? How do they move. Are they coming home from church, shopping, going fishing...

(Get front, side and back shots before the flock senses danger and scatters.)

(Flashy male specimen with plumage)

...or selling their art?!

Whatever the occasion take time to take notes. As you People Watch, you may get people watching you watching others. It's a great conversation starter. People are fascinated by someone putting pen to paper.

Go to the beach, go to a fair, go to a farmer's market. Get out and people watch and draw them before they know it.

Spring Memories

I was going through my sketchbook on this blustery chill morning after we built a fire in the wood stove. Ah, memories of days gone by!

One of the ultimately important reasons to carry a sketchbook anywhere. Getting down the story of the BIG in SMALL moments. Can you remember spring?

Now that the morel mushrooms are gone and the nesting bird's homeland security songs are done let's take a walk back in time and sketches to the SMALL moments that made the BIG jump from a yellow-green world to full vibrant green. It's a good rainy day (another) to put off laundry and gardening and instead dream, create and finish projects begun in the winter. So here is to spring and all of the firsts.

The first hummingbird sighting.
The first tiny mouse ear maple leaves wrapped up in shimmering spider webs. Webs that H.B. (what my mother used to affectionately call hummingbirds) will make into a tidy nest. Then there is the first dandelion and the first violet that come with the first toad trill and tree frog song. Singers who come after the first spring peepers and chorus frogs.

The BIG Spring Picture

The first blooming wildflowers along the creek at Brighton Rec Are. The first warblers in search of bugs and nesting places. Skunk cabbage and marsh marigolds poking between the scouring rush pencils. The smell of cut grass and cherry blossoms comes before the fragrant cursed autumn olive blossoms.

The SMALL Spring Picture

And the first beginnings of the first warm, green small worlds hidden in the grass. Warm. Remember warm? Time flies and lately so does rain, so take time to investigate your world and enjoy it when the warm weather does return.

Get out and draw on nature. May you make each moment a beautiful memory--to call on later.

HERE There Be MONSTERS!

OK...so I went from a spring frolic through he woods in search of herps--to a hunt for MONSTERS!

As a an illustrator and artist, my IMAGINATION often runs amok! And this time, with the aid of my cheap microscope and pond water, my imagination certainly ran a-muck and stayed there.

Cyclops, and worms and larva OH MY!

What started off as an innocent day of exploration at the local marsh transformed into MONSTER MANIA! MANIA! MANIA! What wonders lie in a drop of pond water. Beings like cyclops, water fleas, worms and the best and most FEARED of all...mosquito larva.

Water Monsters! What a great way for kids to learn about microinvertebrates...and also an important lesson about NOT to drink pond water. YIKES! I could not even begin to count all these hairy, wiggly, swimming, twirling, darting and dashing creatures that lived in my cup of pond water. More than once I had to make sure that my coffee cup was not at hand and mistake my portable "Monstarium" (A McDonald's yogurt cup used as an aquarium) for my beverage. Despite these creature's grossness and ickiness, they are necessary and important to the health of our vernal ponds, marshes and lakes.

With my Mad Scientist Laboratory up and running I used my pink plastic dropper to place the squirming fellows onto a slide to sketch them. Ah, high school Microbiology I all over again! After every "visiting" session under the 40x objective I returned the creatures to their watery nursery. One day after the Monstarium had been in the sun, I spied a "wiggler" (mosquito larva) hopping about underwater. My little Frankenstein monster seemed happy in his home. It was after I added moss to the cup that things got kicking (Moss is the fave food and habitat for "water bears", a creature I have been hunting for over a year.) The "wiggler" got bigger and more tiny water bugs danced about.

Now, any monster that can breathe out of its butt has my vote. Especially when it transforms into a flying, blood-sucking creature feared by many and is an annoyance to all. I must say, that when I went back to the Monstarium a few days later to check on my creature it had hatched. I opened the lid and out it flew--the wiggler was now a full-grown mosquito--and out of its watery nursery. Oops! Wait til the rest of my Bear Track laboratory pals catch my hatchling buzzing their noggins at night. Now THAT'S scary.

With that experiment over I decided to put away the microscope and sketch my new pet crested gecko, "Peaches". The crested gecko was thought to have been extinct until recently. It was discovered in 1994 on the island Caledonia and has come back with such gusto that they are up on the pet trade market. This amazing reptilian acrobat has a prehensile tail like our opossum and is arboreal--and has cute "eyelashes".

As a cold-blooded, cricket-eating tree climber that eats its own skin, I say you could not ask for a better dragon/monster model. What a great model. (It does look kinda like a reptilian Chihuahua.)

Then I met a young fellow citizen scientist (age 10) in Petoskey. He had two geckos of his own--and proud of them. Their names were "Lightning" and "Strike". Dang! Now those are super-cool names. Why didn't I think of that? But I guess "Peaches" (with his side-kick "Kenny")could strike fear into hearts if he is someday transformed into a dragon. And I may even borrow the name "LightingStrike" for his cartoon dragon character name.

But for now I will continue my "water bear" search and sketch creatures big and small for creepy characters.