A NEW YEAR A NEW BLOG A FIRST POST

Hello and welcome! This is the start to a new year, and for me, the start of a new blog. Of course, being the artist design-thinking person that I am, I will want to rearrange the look of this blog. All in good time I guess. For now, this will have to do.

Here are a few reoccurring topics that I have in mind:

1) THE EDUCATION OF AN ILLUSTRATOR: illustrator interviews. Of course the questions I ask will have my slant to them so stay tuned for that.
2) FROM THE EXPERTS/IN THE FIELD: Bookseller interviews, librarian interviews, and teacher interviews. I’ve yet to see this and would like to try. I have a lot of questions I’d like answered! This is a good place to see a dialogue started I think.
3) BOOK DESIGN: Now and then perhaps I’ll have something to say about that. Heck, maybe I could even do a few Q&As with designers.
4) BUSINESS TALK: publishing news…my opinions on it… that sort of thing.
5) CREATION STRUGGLES: If I have any new insight (or NOT) on what I’m working on I will share that
6) WHY ART MATTERS: I love all sorts of art forms and may talk about them from time to time because I think we can all draw inspiration from them. I know I do daily when brainstorming, coming up with ideas, and so on.

Lastly, if you don’t know me know this: I’m opinionated. Feel free to voice your opinion also. In fact, I welcome it! I want nothing more than a good dialogue between publishing and book loving folk and I hope that I can somehow foster this in some small way. But I do wish that whenever possible you do post your name and not “anonymous.” Also, please don’t get mean. Somehow, though, I fear that I may be left with one poster here and there and may be talking to myself most of the time. That would be sad, though, wouldn’t it? Please don’t let me talk to myself!

For me this blog will be a place to throw out ideas, let others throw out ideas, and feel safe to sometimes “tell it like it is.” I am not using this as a place of promotions so you won’t be seeing a lot of new book release announcements or awards that I’ve just won. I already have great places for that.

On the topic of "telling it like it is," I remember a while ago I agreed to do a series of booksignings, which of course to an outsider one would consider good self promotion. I had blogged about how I thought doing some of them were a waste of time. An anonymous poster called me a “diva.” This still bothers me because if you know me you’ll know that I’m far from it. I’m just an honest person. So my plea to you now, if you’re still reading, is to please not fault me for my honestly. Know that I’m just giving people my perspective/reality on children’s book publishing. It’s not all pink bunnies and roses. It’s a struggle like anything else but it has its rewards. But it could be far more rewarding if more people felt comfortable talking about the struggles because then we could collectively figure out how to improve things. And if there is no way to improve things then we can at least commiserate together.

So now I’m throwing open the floor: if you have any great topic ideas for me, let me know! Anything else to say? Go for it. Just don’t call me a diva… unless I become like Hunter Thompson was, who (bookseller lore has it) demanded that booksellers wheel him around on a cart after the bookstore was closed to pick out books so that he could do his personal shopping for an hour while his “nurses” “medicated” him.

Faithfully yours,
Meghan