Archive for ‘follow that food chain’

March 24th, 2007

Book #3 = Done

I always think it’s funny when people say they neglect housework for their writing. About the only time my house is clean is when I have a deadline hanging over my head. The more pressure, the more I dodge. And polish, and clean out closets, and bake, and just plain goof off. Here’s what ended up in my notebook one night instead of research notes.

 

It’s Mr. E, who fell asleep next to my while I was working. The funny thing about this sketch is how his ear is the focal point. I didn’t plan it that way; it’s just how he was sleeping. But it made it a challenge for me. Besides ears being tricky to draw, Mr. E is deaf. His ear–and the cochlear implant scar you see behind it–define him for many people. So it’s really a portrait in more ways that one.

(Um, okay. I guess I also ponder a lot when I should be finishing something up, too. But hey, now the manuscript’s turned in and my house is clean. It all worked out.)

July 7th, 2006

Series Sells to Lerner

My husband and I just accepted an offer from Lerner for our nonfiction LAST NIGHT FOR DINNER series–12 books!

The series is an interactive, nonlinear look at food chains in different habitats. Remember those CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE books? (Ooo–and now I see they’re being updated and reissued!) Well, in our series, readers pick an animal, learn a little bit about it, then get to choose what it eats. Then they flip to that page and read about the next creature and its choices, and so on, on through the food chain. Of course, there are all sorts of routes through the books and lots of dead ends.

We’re extra thrilled because the story idea came from our own kids’ endless questions (“And what do they eat, Mommy?”). Of course, now we have to actually sit down and find out the answers to all these questions.

Hmmm…20-24 animals per book, times 12 books…YIKES, that’s quite an ark-ful!