Lizjonesbooks

Cynthea Liu is using the launch of her book, Paris Pan Takes the Dare, as an opportunity to support Tulakes Elementary School in Oklahoma City-- an impoverished school district in her home state of OK.

Click on the image above to bid on many fine prizes in her online auction-- or just donate money to a worthy cause(and spread the news!!)

Major kudos to Cynthea for ensuring that her own joy at seeing her words in print will spread to some kids in dire need of sunshine in their lives!

Life craziness has prevented my drawing lately, but this topic reminded me of a drawing I did a couple months back, so I scanned and played with it a bit.

This is an image from a dream I had-- someone held a small doll's house out for me to see, in the kitchen of my childhood home. I peered inside, and suddenly was there, in a room with someone playing on a piano, and dark blue thunderclouds and a brilliant white horizon over a plain outside the windows. Within the dream, every time I walked in or out of a door, I was somewhere completely different-- and a hundred years had passed.

I still mull that one-- makes me think about all the layers of the world, large and small, that spin along around us, unseen. It would be so interesting to be able to walk through them at will...
and then come home.

We're assembling the course schedule this week... and then I'm going to be spending some serious quality time at the library.
I have a feeling that there will be books on our list from all the various responders on my last post-- great suggestions!

Coming up with a reading list for an intro to YA lit class this fall.
There are sooo many good options to choose from, I know-- maybe you can help?

Let's say you've got a kid who isn't familiar with the genre, and about ten books to assign.
One slot is already taken up by Twilight(yeah, I know. But we're succumbing to pressure from the kids). Other definites are Speak (LHA), I am the Messenger(Zusak), and Persepolis (Satrapi).

That leaves 6 other books to show this kid the best of the genre...

What would you choose?

Christine Monroe is a Minnesota cartoonist, painter, and children's author. She graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1984. Since that time, she's exhibited her oil pastel work, maintained an award winning comic strip in two papers, and written and illustrated a number of children's books.

I guess it's a bit of a stretch, combining these two topics...

But I think you could say that this lizard has an instinct for celebration.

The Graphic novel Winners were:

Midgrade:'



Rapunzel's Revenge-- a delightful reworking of the fairy tale by Shannon,Dean and Nathan Hale

and YA:



Emiko Superstar-- a tale of art, and love and finding oneself from Mariko Tamaki and Steve Ralston-- on of the last of the Minx publications.

I loved both of these stories, and am very happy that they won-- will be posting about the others we reviewed this week. We had so many good stories-- I'm really excited about the new developments in this genre!

Click on the Cybils image above to see the other winners on this year's list.

Congratulations to everyone!

This is a detail from a picture I did some years back when Dan and I did a lot more climbing-- he'd requested that I do a cliff. Of course, I felt compelled to add a little more story to the picture than just the story in the layers of stone-- though that's a pretty huge story all by itself.

When I saw that today's prompt was "time", I got to thinking about this image... and then about last week's "flaw" prompt as well.

Time batters us, like ocean batters the shore. The weakest structures are the first to rejoin the sea, while the strongest remain, twisting interesting shapes into our faces.

Are we shaped more by our weaknesses, or our strengths?

It's been a crazy month, and I have really missed having time to do illo friday. This one was kind of cathartic for me-- one of those times when I connected with the word and an image popped into my head immediately.

Maybe it's the economic crisis, maybe war, maybe something closer to home-- but I bet you've been where this guy is. The walls hold a lot of shadows, some nights...

We're all hoping that rumors of livejournal's demise are premature.
Just in case they aren't, and if you like this journal-- in the event that lj goes belly up, I will be switching to my back up space over at blogger:
http://lizjonesbooks.blogspot.com

I really like lj, so unless it disappears, this will remain my blog. I would really miss the friends page on the other platforms... I like facebook well enough, but it's no replacement. Here's hoping none of this is necessary!

I'm linking directly to the graphic novel finalists, since this was the panel I worked on. We read some really wonderful stories this year, and came across very different issues in the process than we did in last year's reading. I will be blogging about these stories later in the week-- congratulations to the finalists in all the genres!

I wish everyone a year full of good news crowding out bad news, love, friendship, and good health.

Harry and Thelma were so similar.
Both loved dancing barefoot in the moonlight, for instance.

And the last of my black friday images--

I always think that milkweed seeds look like tiny balloons, floating in late autumn winds.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Here's an owl composed of the things that owls like to eat. If you click in for a closer view, you'll see a lot of birds, and mice, and bats, and the occasional weasel...
Wise old owl? Or just a hungry one...








Image now available on My Cafepress Shop

It is this sheep's considered opinion that berries always taste better after a hard frost.

Mama bear found a vacant tree, just in time for the first real storm of the winter.

In honor of Black Friday, I'm going to post a bunch of images I've done over the past few weeks and had no time to post for Illustration Friday.
(the black is for the black ink of the originals)

I doubt I'll post these in order, but I think I've got one for each of the prompts.
Four of these five are postcards I did for an online exchange.(the owl is the exception)

Why "Pretend" for a still life?
When I think of still life, I think about how we're pretending that we can hold on to the ripeness and beauty of things at their peak. Stillness is a lie, in a world of perpetual transformation.

I am thankful for friends and family near and far, time to spend, and stories to share. Hope you all had a wonderful day!

It was a fine Thursday evening, so Lucius and Cuthbert repaired to the tower for a bit of bat fishing.

Buy this print on Cafepress

Sally Hobart Alexander.

who, incidentally, has this excellent book which came out in 2008:



Which I will be writing more about soon... great story!

I'm a bit late in posting this Fishobirdous-- and I can't remember anymore who asked for it. But here it is, for what it's worth.

Fish and bird are thinking the same thing-- I've got you JUST where I want you! Too late for you! Hahahahahahaa!

Edited to add:
This print now available(in various forms) on my cafepress shop

I wonder if she'll notice that her candy supply is suddenly so much less...

This is just a reminder to vote for your favorite children's books over at the Cybils Blog.

Everyone is eligible to vote-- but you only get one vote per category.
Once a book as been nominated, you don't need to nominate it a second time, so make sure you check the lists of nominees before you add your own choice!

The last day for nominations is October 15th, so make sure you get over there soon.

I'll be on the nominating committee for the graphic novels again this year, and I can't wait to read this year's stories!

Here's another piece of evidence that when I called these bug sketches, I was using the term in the very loosest sense.

So I'm all backed up on my illo friday images again. My schedule is packed-- There's fall canning to be done, 1/4 of a living room floor to be sanded (still), homework to be checked-- and of course, fall students are sending papers.
Usually, all of this would be fine-- I would just squeeze in an image before bed. But right now, my writing is getting all the creative juice.I'm participating in jonowrimo, in which writers support each other in their writing goals. It began on Sept 15, and will end November 30th.
My goals were to complete revisions on my midgrade novel, "My Essay on Government Cheese", and to do all the research and outlining for another novel (YA with an emphasis on the A) that I've dubbed the Blackbird project.
I'm planning to have both of these goals accomplished by November first, at which point, I will switch on over to Nanowrimo and write the text for the Blackbird project.
I haven't been updating much here, though I've posted updates over on the jonowrimo community.

But I do miss my illustrating time, and once the pears are sauced and the grapes all juiced, I'll be back. Here's a little quiet space for resting your eyes, in the meanwhile.

I was tickled to receive this book among a set of arcs from Bloomsbury and Walker this month. Partly I was excited because Carrie is my friend, and I'd never had a chance to read one of her books-- but I've also heard such wonderful things about her earlier work that I knew I could expect a great story. I was not disappointed.

I don't know whether Carrie has done novels involving magical worlds before now, but I can say with certainty after reading Need that she knows just what to do with those ideas. Her pixies mesh beautifully into the rural Maine landscape and culture... I felt surprised I hadn't realized they were there before.;o)

Fantasy elements aside, this is primarily a story about kids and family; about dealing with grief and acknowledging differences. The characters are well realized, and the lists of phobias work well as a structural element. The pixies are certainly evil here-- but they're a complicated evil, more like real life. You care about these characters-- there's so much love in this story. At the end, I was even a little sorry for the bad guys. (just a little)

All in all, I'd say this was a very satisfying read. But you don't need to take *my* word for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Need-Carrie-Jones/dp/1599903385

Go. Read. Enjoy!

Maybe so, but I think you just need to hear people's stories...

And if you are a lover of literature, you definitely should
read this one for 94 year old Robert Giroux
( think Farrar Straus Giroux).

What an amazing life.

I wanted to incorporate some of the fractal generation software and fractal brushes I discovered yesterday in today's Illustration Friday image-- and what a great word this was, for chaotic additions!
The clutter here is autumn-formed-- leaves falling, birds leaving their summer grounds.
It's probably my favorite kind of clutter.