The Magnificent Julie Rowan-Zoch

Through the 12x12 Picture Book Challenge, I have met many talented illustrators, some of whom became good friends (and two of those are also my wonderful critique group mates!). Julie Rowan-Zoch is one of good friends who constantly inspires me.

We exchanged postcards one day recently - that's fun! I need to exchange with my artist/illustrator friends more often - and I was so taken by them, I had to share with the world (or at least the small percentage of the world that reads my blog).

Here are Julie's business card and promotional postcard:

This is the front of the promotional postcard. It's brilliant the way she tied the front and the back together around the central characters.

One of the things I admire most about Julie's work is how she can make a piece look so simple and yet convey such emotions and narrative at the same time.

Is this darling, or what? Reminds me of the fun time I spent in the Netherlands...but much cuter.

 In addition to being super talented, Julie is also generous. She created illustrations to celebrate all her Facebook friends' birthdays. Here's one she made for me the first year I "met" her:

 And this is the one for last year:

a little frog must have told her I've owned chickens for about 12 years

Julie's talent has now been recognized far and wide and she's been signed by the prestigious Wernick & Pratt literary agency. Check out Julie's success story at Julie Hedlund's site.

Hope you'll go look at some of Julie's art at her website and Facebook page. You'll be glad you did!

p.s. following advice from my very wise friend, Sylvia Liu, I am changing comments back to being always open

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

20 years of writing: a long, difficult road

Writing for publication, that is. I've really been writing for much longer than 20 years if you count any creative writing that wasn't done for a school assignment...including schmarmy poetry and stories that led nowhere fast that I penned in elementary school.

And it's not actually 20 years, but because I started querying in 1993 and the first two pieces I submitted were published in 1995, the mid-point is 1994, which would be 20 years.

I hadn't looked at my records in a long time, but I was pleasantly surprised to re-read them. The letters I got from the Indiana DNR were so flattering, I really should frame them.

This was the acceptance letter:

"...the quality was exceptional!" - I should read this line every time I get a rejection

This is actually the first letter I got from them, and they sent the one above after I replied and said I'd be happy to have them keep it on file for future use:

"...you're one of the best writers to approach us lately." - so good for the ego

About the same time that I queried IN DNR, I sent out my first piece of fiction to Ladybug Magazine. It was a story I'd written for the ICL course I'd taken the previous year. The lovely Paula Morrow called me and asked if it was still available (yes, I screamed with joy after I hung up).

 Here's the first page of the story:

one never gets tired of bylines

I must have been on a roll back then. Even my rejection letters were good. See the hand-written note at the bottom? "The story is artfully written - very much so -- Please do try again."

Thus began my foray into writing. Unfortunately, while my writing career started on a high note, there were many depressing low ones in between too. While I never really stopped writing, I stopped submitting for a while.

It wasn't until the past 5 years that things started happening and chugging along again. For that I have to thank The Minnows Literary Group (and Michaela Rossner from Gotham Writers Workshop), my in-person SCBWI group (we need a name, people), and the Penguin Posse - my online critique group (and the 12x12 Challenge), and, my agent, Ella Kennen.

It's enough to make one sing!

So, have heart, if you have only begun writing (or whatever you've decided to do) in the last several years and haven't "hit the big times" yet. Be patient. Don't give up. You will eventually find your groove. Unless you're one of the lucky and talented few whose stars all align like a bunch of stellar schoolgirls in a Madeline story from the get-go, sometimes, it can take a couple of decades to hit the publishing sweet spot, that place where you have arbitrarily defined success, be it having an agent or being picked out by a big publishing house.

Has your career, or a change in life direction, started out promisingly and then took a turn for worse before becoming better?

(I used the PS Express blotter function to blot out the addresses, which is why some parts of the letters look funny.)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Finding a new best friend

the first meager, but tasty, harvest

In spring, a young woman's thoughts turn to fancy...or strawberries...no, wait, it's fancies, though, in my case, it wasn't a romantic sort of fancy. 

There are many similarities between looking for a literary agent and looking for a spouse/life-partner. You want someone who not only complements you (not compliments you, though that is nice too) - whose strengths help to support you in areas where you're weak, and who gently, though firmly, guides you away from metaphoric rocky shores where you might make a terrible wreck of yourself - but also whose presence brightens your day and who gets you, maybe not all the time, but overall and in general.

For my spouse, I also wanted someone who can cook, but that wasn't applicable to my agent search. ;)

In all honesty, while there were a few agents whose personalities seemed interesting and endearing enough, from what I could gather online, I never really had a dream agent, or agents, like other writers I know. Just like when I was in the market for a significant other, I trusted that I would know when I met The Right One. My gut instincts have rarely steered me wrong (though I admit to having been fooled by some highly skilled sociopaths). I suspect my not having had a "dream agent" previously was because, at that point, Ella was not yet an agent, but an editor.

Like a dutiful writer, I submitted regularly, albeit not profusely, to agents and editors. Joining Julie Hedlund's 12x12 Challenge was an excellent investment that forced me to submit since I paid for a gold membership that comes with access to agents who agreed to give 12x12 members a fair reading.

12x12 also proved fateful because that's where I first met [insert superlatives...yes, I'm making you work] Ella Kennen. I gave the nitty gritty fun and exciting details of how I came to be signed by Ella at the blog of my dear friend, and partner in the Penguin Posse critique group, Sylvia.

For this post, I'm going to sing praises of Ella. If only I had taken music lessons for longer than one year of piano and two years of ukelele (don't laugh) - 12 years of choral singing didn't teach me too much about music - I would compose a song and literally be able to sing her praises.

Ella's effervescence, wittiness, and easy going demeanor belie her deep insightfulness and thoughtfulness. Besides being a brilliant editor, she is also knowledgeable on a variety of topics, and is a staunch champion of ideals I hold dear, such as human rights and homeschooling.

I already knew, from myriad of emails, PMs, and DMs I had exchanged with Ella, that she and I got along well (see the second paragraph about complements). When we had our first Google Hangout, we spent a good bit of time giggling while taking care of the more serious business side of things. That was when I knew that Ella, even if she never became my agent, was someone that I'd let into my small circle of trusted and best friends.

It's a thrill to get an agent, for sure, but it's a much, much bigger thrill when the agent is as honorable, caring, and intelligent a person as Ella is. Tangentially, Chinese and Klingons both like to talk honor; I'm still waiting on the genetic results to tell me if I'm part Klingon.

So, dear Ella, here's a toast to a beautiful friendship and an agent-client relationship! xo

Sparkling wine courtesy of the Penguins who gave me this delectable gift basket:

And, a shout-out to sweet Catherine who made a congratulatory video for me. :)

I hope May has been as rewarding a month for you as it has been for me!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Memorial Day and May memories

Today is Memorial Day. As I said in a post from several years ago, I find it very odd that it's celebrated with cookouts and picnics here. In Canada, we only have Remembrance Day, not both Memorial Day and Veteran's Day (which is the same day as Remembrance Day). We don't "celebrate" Remembrance Day; we commemorate it with buying fund-raising poppies from veterans, and having parades and ceremonies in honor of all vets, living and dead. It's a somber occasion when we express our gratitude for those who have fought, and died, defending our country and the values it stands for. Hot dogs and barbecue? Not so much.

Tangentially, bagpipes are always played at these ceremonies. Maybe that's why I associate bagpipes with sadness and have never liked them. Or maybe it's just because bagpipes sound like someone is trying to kill a noisy exotic feline...which is also sad.

And because we're still talking sad here, I have a list of what other things were sad in May:

1) My aunt, my mother's only sister, died. My uncle, her husband, passed away only last summer, so my poor cousins have lost both parents in a span of less than a year. My aunt also died only two and a half years after my mom did. Mom was only 72 when she passed away, so my aunt, being the younger sibling couldn't have been any older than 72. As my sister pointed out, this does not bode well for women in the Fung (Mom's last name) side of the family.

I'll miss my aunt; she was the best cook in the family, with my mom a close second. But, she was in poor health, so at least she's not suffering any more.

2) My sister left for home after a 3.5 week visit with us. It was so nice having her around to chat with, to keep us all company, and to work on craft projects that I start and never get around to finishing. :}

I'll have this to display at Christmas! 

3) A rejection, albeit a nice enough one, from an agent on my birthday. Ouch.

4) The asparagus haven't been doing well. My sister only got a tiny bit to eat during her visit.

5) My favorite dermatologist, and a good friend, is closing his office in our town. I'm happy for him, but sad for me.

So, you may be wondering (or not), whether there was any not-sad news for May? Well, I had an amazing time at the SCBWI Conference. I'm still alive (always terrific news as far as I'm concerned), and I still have a wonderful life overall. Silver lining, people; look for it. ;)

I hope your May has been nice. Anything really good happen to you? I want to hear about it!

Next month may be crazy for me, though, hopefully, it'll be the last crazy month for a while. I start Susanna Hill's Making Picture Book Magic class (which everyone, and I mean everyone, tells me is phenomenal!), Mira Reisberg's Illustrating Children's Picture Books class, and am participating in Shannon Abercrombie's 100 Days of Summer Writing Challenge. These are on top of my regular writing for my sci-fi critique group, the 12x12 Challenge picture book writing, and finishing up the middle-grade novel I'm writing for the Institute of Children's Literature advanced course. Plus, there's still homeschooling and baking (lots of baking!) to be done on a regular basis. Well, I'm exhausted and your eyes are probably glazed over, if you made it this far, so I'll wish you lovely last week of May.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams