How did we get here?
I'll try to keep this short and sweet. My foray into the world of novel writing began with making a portfolio of children's picture books. I was building my portfolio to submit to agents, who would then submit to publishers, who might then maybe publish one. This process takes years of waiting. Rejection. Things I'm not particularly good at. Something was also feeling...just not ready about my picture books. So I went to the library and fortuitously checked out a book called No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. It explained about writing a novel during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and doing it by the seat of your pants. I had never considered this creative approach, and this type A, outline-making plotter was intrigued. So I wrote my first middle grade novel in a month. Then I spent the better part of the next year figuring out how to edit it and getting feedback from angelic beta readers. During that time, I decided to self-publish. There is a lot to know, but I've taken online courses, read books, and had conversations with published authors that helped me along the way. I am a big fan of being a lifelong learner!
This is the cover I created and honed and fiddled with and...will NOT be using.
Once I finished it, there was something that kept nagging me. So I did more genre research. I sat in on a cover webinar. I tried again. Now I love the new cover! I've been slowly learning to follow my instincts.
I struggled with the decision to make my illustrations the typical black and white or more enticing color, finally settling on black and white for industry standard and honestly to keep my book price accessible to readers. I think it works!
Thumbnails and character design have been a big part of envisioning continuity of look throughout the illustrations. It's a big jump from my typical one-offs!
Fun Fact!
Real life connections...
In the book, Elsie creates little pets that she sneaks along to various places. When I was young, we had so many pets - dogs, cats, snakes, hamsters, bunnies, fish, a bird, a hedgehog, and even a rescued baby squirrel! One of my favorite memories was being in elementary school and taking the squirrel to an after-school May Day celebration. He could curl up in my front overall pocket and nap. It was glorious and a crowd-pleaser!
