Merry Christmas everyone. Looking to a New Year with new opportunities. Hoping to have two books out in 2019. So She Wore Red is in editing and looking to be complete in a couple months. Then waiting on Publisher.
I am working with illustrator on Gawk my 1st in a series of childrens books.
Mary has signed a contract and is sending it back to Ms. Montes, our propective illustrator, along with a copy of “Gawk” and other notes describing the characters in the story. Then Mary will wait to receive a proposal for the sketches Ms. Montes wants to do to illustrate the story.
After they have come to an understanding on the number and subject of the sketches, we know it will take a while before we see those first efforts to bring the story of “Gawk” alive in a unique way. I think we are all very excited to take one more step along this long road to seeing this wonderful story published.
We found a wonderful artistic talent, still in school, and have sent a preliminary illustration contract for her to do the work on “Gawk”. Cross your fingers, we really like her work and hope she can rise to this challenge. Illustrating an entire children’s book is a big deal for an unpublished artist. As we have no experience in publishing, this is a big learning curve for everyone.
Well, things were going so slow, I just stopped and went on vacation. Now I’m back to work and we are still looking for an illustrator.
We found a 2nd reader who gave us great feedback on Gawk, and Mary will be reviewing his suggestions for changes.
On the EDITING front, we found a lovely young lady to be a reader and give feedback on the first book which is titled “Gawk”. It s surprising how little you remember about what it was like to read a book when you were in third grade. Kira patiently read the story to me three times. The first time I marked anyplace where she had a problem with a word or phrase. Then we discussed each place making sure that she understood what the words meant and occasionally selected an alternate word or phrase with which she was familiar. All these changes will go to Mary for approval. Kira is excited that a change she inspired may end up on the book.
Mary Clayton Writing 