Friends,
Apologies for not blogging while my new website was built (shout-out to the super talented Ilsa Brink for creating this site for me!). Over the past few months, the art for my book was completed (a HUGE shout-out to the amazing Corinna Luyken). The book is now being printed and we are gearing up for the fun, promotion stage!
Corinna and I recently completed signing more than 2,000 “tip-ins,” which are pages that will be added to the book during the binding process and distributed to select book stores so they will have signed copies available for their promotions. I got really good at my signature once the muscle memory finally kicked in. I have to say, though, I wish I had a fancy signature like Corinna’s because it would have been a lot faster!
The book also made its debut at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter meeting in Denver. Some of Corinna’s lovely art for the book was on display, as well as a complete F&G (this stands for Folded & Gathered, meaning the pages aren’t yet bound). Though I wasn’t at the meeting, I’ve heard from Penguin that the buzz was very good! Check out this video tour of the Penguin booth to hear about all the great titles they have coming out this year, and take a listen at the end to the mention of “Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse!” I was watching this video alone at home with no idea that they were going to mention my book, so imagine my SQUEAL! when they did. I woke up all my sleeping pets. That’s my book! And it’s out in the world!
Picture books take a long time to produce. I had no idea about the amount of work and care and people! who are involved in the process. Mine will be published just under two years from the date it sold, and that is actually pretty fast. But, there have been so many incredibly exciting moments along the way, moments that I’ve just burst into happy tears, that in a way I’m glad it’s been drawn out, because I have so much to enjoy, and I don’t want it to go by too fast. I told my husband I should try and make a list of all the times I’ve burst into those happy tears, but he was like, seriously, that would be a very long list. I may just do it anyway, though.