A NEW BLOG

Yes, yes... I can't help myself. I have so many interests that I need outlets for them all. So, I've started yet another blog. This one is called STREET ART NYC. I will post street art that I find around the city at least a couple times a week with the area I found it at and comments here and there. There is so much cool and wonderful stuff out there so please check it out!

SESAME STREET COUNT TO 9

I really liked the odd ones. They encouraged creativity!

STAY AWAKE!

Free coffee day ya'll!

It's national coffee day or some such so McDonald's, Krispy Kreme, 7-Eleven (from 7-11), and Dunkin' Donuts (some locations - ones in NYC included 4-10 - free iced coffee) and some other places are giving away free coffee.



So get your caffeine on and get to work!

P.S -- The paintings of coffee cups came from a site I stumbled upon - Susan Jane Belton. Check out more of her cups! They're great.

BLANKETS

This is a trailer that someone did for Craig Thompson's Blankets:



And then I found this short kind of funny B&W film that some folks did acting out the first part of his graphic novel when he recounts being a kid, when his father would punish him by throwing him in "the cubby hole."



Books like this are fun because you really can act them out!

BOOK DESIGN -- HABIBI

-- AUTHOR/ARTIST Craig Thompson --

Blankets is a really good graphic novel about a new, young relationship. It's a great teen read though it's shelved in the adult section in bookstores.



Since I liked it so much I bought this book.






I haven't yet read it but the design is gorgeous.

This is why books will live on (I hope!). There is a gold foil inlay on the cover and spine and the inside is equally well designed.

This is why books are wonderful!

Getting nonfiction to sell

I've been away doing some research for my new book. I got to ride in a police car. Very exciting!

Anyway, Marc Tyler Nobleman wrote an interesting post today on nonfiction.

Noblemania: Picture book for sale: Twelve reactions to my latest nonfiction work: “[This] made me quite teary. [I]t’s a beautiful [story], and very nicely told” “A great conv...

Mark has had a lot of trouble getting his latest idea to sell so he asked some illustrators to illustrate his yet to be published book to show the potential in it. Take a look!

I really love the covers these illustrators came up with. Very nice work. Here's a sample:


(Julia Sarcone Roach)

His thoughts are that his idea is too obscure or rather that it's not a known subject for editors to see the selling potential. What do you guys think of this? I feel like I've done a few obscure subjects. Charles Atlas - no? Maybe I'm wrong. Do you guys think kids only go for KNOWN subjects?

MEETING A POLICE OFFICER

I'm meeting with a police officer tomorrow and taking a tour of the police dept., etc. I'm trying to come up with questions to ask. So I'm asking for help. Can you guys come up with any good ones? Do you know of ones kids might ask or things kids might want to know? Let me know!

JUDGING ART PART 2

I found a visual version of what I was trying to explain:



Once you get past his accent, I think you'll get it!

JUDGING ART

Twice this week I've had conversations with people about judging art. The first was when I was in the break room at work. I was looking at Selznick's new book.

I like the video for it:



Since I'm very into making videos for my books I wish I could figure out how to cut out the images and make them into different plains like they did... but I digress.

Anyway, I was looking at the book and someone who works in the kids dept. asked if I was going to buy the book. I said that I was just looking at it. I wanted to look at the art. She asked if I liked it. I told her what I thought. She said that she didn't know how to judge art so she didn't have an opinion. I said, "Well, do you like this or don't you?" She said she thought it was okay. She said she didn't love it but didn't hate it. I said, "So you DO have an opinion. You can judge art." Just because I went to art school and I can verbalize WHY I like or don't like or am indifferent to something doesn't mean that I'm a better judge than anyone else. I think people who weren't schooled are afraid to give their opinion because it won't be the right one. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Are you just okay with it? That's all that matters! Go with your gut. That's all there is to it!

A VIEW OF LONDON

I went on another shopping excursion and found some cool out of print books. This one is called:

A VIEW OF LONDON
By
Edward Pagram
Hamish Hamilton
First Published in Great Britain 1963

THIS HURTS MY HEAD

From Publishers Weekly (thanks to Sheila for the heads up...)
"Librarians and book re-sellers say their core activities are now in question after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on August 15 upheld a lower court decision finding that the “First Sale” doctrine in U.S. copyright law—the provision that enables libraries to lend and consumers to re-sell books they’ve lawfully purchased—does not apply to works manufactured outside the U.S. While the verdict stands as a major victory for the publishing industry, which has long fought the “illegal importation of foreign works,” especially textbooks, critics say the broad decision goes too far, and could harm libraries and encourage the outsourcing of jobs. "
Go here for the whole article.

BOOKS WON'T DIE IF THIS GUY HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT!

One man in Texas has up to 50,000 books stored up and he's not done yet! He says he's picky, only buying nonfiction and books hard to get. If books die, go to him!

View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

BALTO FILM

I don't like to post stuff about my books or me or my reviews, blah blah blah. But the reason I haven't been remembering to post lately is that I've been working on this:



This is only the first half. But I'm glad it's done! I have learned a lot while working on it. I figured out how to animate stuff (badly). I did it old school - no program. I know, I'm insane. I literally moved each character one little bit at a time and then froze the image and then moved it a little more and kept doing that. And then there was the sound part. I was anal about that, too, of course.

I guess the lesson here is that you should always try something new. Push yourself. You'll get better at it as you do it and I think you'll be glad you put yourself through hell when it's done! I'm happy I tortured myself.

SKULL BOOKSHELF

Oh my goodness, it's been a whole week since I've posted! Bad Meghan, bad! I got really distracted by the hurricane and then going to work, etc. Excuses, excuses.

Anyway, I came upon a book on skulls and inside was a spread that displayed this neat bookshelf arrangement:



Very creative indeed!