Summer Slowdown

The illustration above appears in September’s High Five magazine, available now. It truly was “So Many Sunflowers!” (Inside info: they edited out about 8 flowers at the bottom underneath “So Many” so I drew even MORE than seen here, haha).

My quiet summer is starting to disappear among a flurry of new assignments (all for Highlights). I’m grateful to have enjoyed a lot of long beach walks and poking around all the lovely tourist spots close to home.

I’m sharing a classic cutie for young artists - newer subscribers might have missed these axolotl drawing and story sheets.

I finally made a Human Intelligence badge for Beth Spencer’s #DTIYS movement - big congrats to Beth for being featured in Forbes Magazine and Fast Company. I had to sneak a few alternate versions in as well.

I submitted my new winter-themed picture book dummy for a critique at the NESCBWI Squam Writing Retreat in early September. I’m excited to meet new author and illustrator friends and have a few days at the beautiful Squam Lake. If you are going, let me know! It’s stressful for me to sign up for ‘away’ events if I don’t know my roommate or have a core group of friends going, but I try to remind myself that I always end up making new friends and having a great time. Introvert problems, am I right?

What I’m Reading: Death at Morning House, Maureen Johnson’s latest book. Actually, I’m impatiently awaiting its snail-mail arrival from a far-away indie bookstore that needed some support.What I’m Watching: the Paris Olympics. We were most interested in catching table tennis (our family sport) but enjoyed watching all of it - cycling, volleyball, badminton, kayak cross, sharpshooting, gymnastics, swimming, etc. What I’m Listening to: I just finished the Demon Copperhead audiobook by Barbara Kingsolver. For whatever reason, I misunderstood the premise of the book and had been ignoring it for months. It was a beautiful heartbreak, and I’m so glad I finally gave it a try.

And last but not least, below is my August KidLitArtPostcard piece. Wishing everyone one more splash in the water before it’s back to school! Next month I will have fresh printables and information about school visits for the upcoming year.