Blog Archives - Centipede Dragon

Now what?

6/30/2015

© 2014 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

I’ve written, revised and edited my story, drawn and re-drawn illustrations, tested many color combinations and background textures, laid out the images over and over, taken it to the target audience to get initial feedback, agonized over the cover image and chosen a simple but straightforward title that I think shows Centipede Dragon’s character the best....I’ve even stumbled over the name to which I will affix Centipede Dragon for all space and time.

It’s now time to see what the professional industry thinks.

This process, which has been eye-opening and definitely a learning experience, coupled with an overwhelming amount of information to digest, doesn’t mean this is the way it is in this business in general. Just my personal experiences.

There were several pre-steps that first needed to be addressed, to narrow down the seemingly daunting list of traditional publishers I ended up researching in-depth:

1) Did I want an agent to represent me and my book or did I want to do it myself?
2) What size publishing house did I want?
3) Did I have constraints on when I wanted it published? How patient could I be?
4) Who is their children’s book editor? What are they looking for?
5) What does their current list look like?

We'll answer every one of these questions.

Summer time is the time for CRAFTS

6/26/2015

As the official summer vacay has begun for many in our local area, I have neglected to mention that you can find several craft activities to download, print and do with your kids!. Please visit the events page on this site (http://centipededragon.weebly.com/crafts.html) to find out what Centipede Dragon has been up to this past year, AND what your kid can be up to this summer!
‪#‎centipededragoncrafts‬ ‪#‎summerkidscrafts‬ ‪#‎papercrafts‬ ‪#‎paperlanterns‬ ‪#‎batik‬ ‪#‎watercolor‬ ‪#‎magicalscalechallenge‬ ‪#‎magicscales‬ ‪#‎centipededragonbookmark‬ ‪#‎centipededragoncoloring‬ ‪#‎coloringbook‬

What’s in a name...part 2

6/23/2015

Centipede Dragon versus the Nefarious ReptilLion, first title for Centipede Dragon book 2

We’ve covered so many aspects that go into developing a children’s picture book, but there’s one more all-important one: the title. Like the cover image, the title must make the book stand out from the tens of thousands of children’s books in print today. Also, the title imparts important clues to the nature of the story within.

My title changed very little from the beginning. My protagonist was such an unusual creature that I felt his name alone held enough “intrigue” to pick it up and thumb through it. And since this book introduces the series, I also felt the title didn’t have to be anything more than a straightforward and bold statement. I did consider a question for the title: "Who is Centipede Dragon?" But then, I used that line in the introductory text in an early draft of the manuscript:

Who is Centipede Dragon?
He is part centipede, and part dragon!
He is a benevolent creature who takes the shape of many forms.

What I wanted to make sure is that the parents, our second (but not secondary) audience, knew that Centipede Dragon was one of the good guys. Sure, we may be more amused and entertained by the antics of the bad guy/gal, but, we also want to have good role models as well. Enter Centipede Dragon, stage left!

I was also pretty adamant about putting the word “benevolent” in the title. Initial manuscript critiques questioned whether the vocabulary might be too intimidating or off-putting...a valid point. But “benevolence” was used in the research to describe Centipede Dragon so, to keep some authenticity, I did not waver on using it.

And, I was hoping that the pre-reading set would get hooked by the pictures!

Now, take a look at this first crack at the cover for book 2. What are YOUR thoughts on the title and cover image?

Cover girl…creature…dragon…centipede.

6/19/2015

Now that we are entrenched in illustration and layout issues, we have to address two equally important topics: cover design and book shape.

If you don’t have a great cover then all your efforts have gone for “nothing,” from a sales standpoint. The cover is mainly what gets people to pick the book up and page through it. Now, the billion-dollar question is: what makes a great cover? The graphic shows that my cover has undergone hardly any changes throughout this arduous process. The first was based on an early picture I had envisioned where the centipede part was separated from the dragon part. From a design standpoint, with the echoing swirls, I thought this image made a beautiful cover. Then I realized I should stick with a Centipede Dragon in his most recognizable, intact form. I don’t want to freak kids out with this ripped-apart version. Your thoughts? Did my cover intrigue you enough to open the book? Does it give you a sense of what kind of creature he is? What type of cover attracts you?

Choosing a book shape was a bit more tricky. You’ll see I have gone through 3 different shapes, starting out with the vertical format for a VERY practical reason. When books are shelved, the horizontally-orientated ones–called landscape–either stick way too far out of the shelving, or if shelved vertically, then the spine text is no longer apparent, thus leaving the book unidentifiable. As I began the illustration work, I noticed because Centipede Dragon himself is long and skinny, that the landscape format would be more suited to him. I was never pleased with this choice, but felt I was making the best artistic decision for the book. I finally settled on a square format for an insurmountable technical reason. For some reason, Amazon displayed the pages of a self-published landscape-orientated book rotated at 90 degrees! This will in most cases turn viewers off to paging through your book, and thus defeats the whole purpose of "looking inside." Square shape therefore did the trick, and what's more I liked it so much more than landscape!

A picture is worth a 1,000 words…or 17 at least.

6/16/2015

Centipede Dragon sheep tales, theories about missing sheep

I want to talk about how to marry the pictures with the words. In the process of writing a story, it’s somewhat necessary to at first be very descriptive and exact about what’s going on. Words paint a vivid picture of setting, give much more insight into character, and describe the action that takes place. So, how can one convey a story without these words?

Let the pictures fill in these gaps! What we’ve learned at various SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) conferences is that allowing the illustrator to run with an idea that you as the author sets up, not only allows the illustrator’s creative juices to flow, but is also the greatest type of collaborative process that subsequently shows in the final product.

Here’s an earlier version of the final page 6 as an example. I’ve written that the sheep have gone missing. During the writing sessions, the question asked was, what happened to the sheep? At first, I said, “Who cares? Can’t I simply say they’re just missing?!” Then I realized this is a valid point that some kids might get hung up on. At the same time, if I write out the possibilities, it will stop the flow of the storytelling, and thus halt the plot from moving along at the brisk pace that little kids need to stay engaged. To make sure the story doesn’t get too slow and explain-y, there has to be some kind of compromise that gives the reader enough information as to what IS going on, without getting bogged down in explanations. So in the example, the reader gets a good balance between the statement of fact, that the sheep are missing, and what may have happened that led to their disappearance.

In the “Before” version, I also have Ben doing the “imagining,” as to what might have happened. This is not bad, but really isn’t necessary that we explicitly say that Ben does the imagining. The simpler “After” version is enough information to allow the story to continue along its way. But what do YOU think? Should Ben have stayed in this image?

Getting back to basics

6/12/2015

I wanted to go back to the topic I did about book dummies. In general, what we gain when making a dummy is learning how to pace out our plot so that all the action/interest isn’t clumped into a few pages of a 32+ paged book. We SEE clearly that when we physically separate out our text, even simply dividing the number of sentences equally over the total number of pages, we might realize that 5 sentences right in the middle of the book contain ALL the action. I then wonder how kids might even get there, and, why they would be compelled to read on once they got through all the action. I’m not sure I’d even make it to the action point, and I’m an adult with a supposedly longer attention span!
In the graphic, I wanted to show what happened when I tried this little exercise out. You will see there are 1.5 sentences included on this page, so good that there’s not many words on the page! However, there’s gasping and shivering and bowed heads and sadness…WOW, so much going on in less than 2 sentences! What one picture could capture all that?

For those of you who have the book, you know how I ended up resolving this issue. But this compartmentalization process not only can show you how you might need to “spread” the action or suspense out in some other way, it also gives you a good way to define a focal point for each illustration.

We'll come back to this topic again!

Don't forget!

6/9/2015

Charles Beatley Central Library presentation June 2015, magical scale game challenge

Just a reminder that this Saturday, June 13 at 11am, I will be reading Centipede Dragon at the Charles E. Beatley Central Library in Alexandria. Then, I’ll be running around “Loco bananas” style with more magical scale throwdowns from the kids!

Taking it the pint-sized masses

6/5/2015

A pivotal moment in my journey with Centipede Dragon was when I read it to a kindergarten class. This was truly the first relevant test for Centipede Dragon; frankly it doesn't matter how many of my friends say how much they like the book (though that is so appreciated for confidence-boosting, and really keeps me going). What really matters is if the target audience likes it.

Riding on the wave of the kindergartners, I still had to acquire more data points. Luckily, I have a friend who is a part of a Mom's group and who was therefore able to get me into presenting to her group. Although the age range was a little younger than my book's target (I'd say there wasn't a kid older than 2.5-3 years old), it was a great turnout and if there's anything I've learned, is that you never know who might become a fan!

In this ~3 minute video clip, you will see the part of the presentation where I tested out a new activity on them...never did it before and so there were many variables for which I simply didn't know how would work out. And though it was a vortex of movement and chatter throughout, the kids were simply fantastic.

The biggest help was looking out at the attentive and supportive faces of the parents. Thanks again to this Mom's Group. I'll see you soon!

Please go to this link to see the presentation: https://vimeo.com/108895776

The BIG picture: part 1

6/3/2015

First color palette for Centipede Dragon, initial color choices for Centipede Dragon A Benevolent Creature

A signature of my book is its color palette, or, the collective color scheme chosen for illustrations. The feedback I have gotten about my color choices has been (all but one comment actually), fabulous…Hooray! Which is truly gratifying given the collage I present with this blog: these were the initial colors from the 2005 version of the book, which may have better suited the one review that thought my colors weren't vibrant enough.

Bold, contrasting colors supposedly capture young children’s attentions longer. So that’s where I started my color tests, having decided to gear my book to a younger audience. Color is also CRUCIAL to the overall tone of a book, as bold, bright colors are going to stimulate, while pastels tend to soothe or relax.

The style of illustration also influences color choice. Had I gone with a sketchy, less graphic style, I likely would've chosen soothing colors. Ultimately, I wanted to LIKE the colors as I'll be living with them for a LONG time.

In the end, I fell into my final color palette simply by testing numerous color combinations. That, coupled with seeing how some colors “settle” into the background while others scream “Look at ME!” influenced my final palette. And for the better, I might add!