My earliest memory of wanting to publish/illustrate comes from when I was in first grade. My parents placed a set of beautiful, brand-new encyclopedias within my reach. Besides the cool pictures, I noticed in the front of each of those regal books was an untouched, blank piece of paper, begging to be covered. I proceeded to put my mark in the very, very expensive books…needless to say, that didn’t go over well.
Another memory is from fourth or fifth grade. Our class performed a musical written by Mr. Hyde, our music teacher. It was titled, “George Washington, The Father of Our Country.” There was a contest to design the program cover and I won. That was huge for me. It was my first real published piece of art. I held onto it for a long time. It was proof that I had what it took to make my dreams come true. Of course when I looked at it in later years, I noticed that old George didn’t have a top lip, but hey, the judges saw something.
B. and I are going away for a focused work time this weekend. We are leaving behind all of our responsibilities to dive into the book once again. It’s a lot of work, but we are ready. Rest assured, we will not be defacing any encyclopedias…and hopefully, with our amazing editors, we will avoid any blaring mistakes like a lip-less George.
Wish us luck! And come back to see our progress.