BRAVE MOLLY trailer

My friend, Andy Musser, animated this beautiful trailer for BRAVE MOLLY! Thank you, Andy!

BRAVE MOLLY will be released on April 30th (next Tuesday!) from Chronicle Books. You can pre-order by visiting your local, independent bookseller or by clicking here.

"Readers struggling with their own shyness will find inspiration in this plucky heroine... Brave indeed".  -Kirkus

Look what came in the mail!!

My very first copies of my very first book as author/illustrator! I was afraid to open the package so I moved it around the house for a few days. The kitchen counter, my bedroom floor, my studio. But I finally summoned a bit of bravery and opened the package and cried a little and cheered a little. Phew! So many feelings about one little book.

BRAVE MOLLY will be released from Chronicle Books on April 30th. I hope it will give you feelings, too.

You can find a copy at your local independent bookstore here.

Brave Molly

BRAVE MOLLY, my first book as author/illustrator, comes out April 30th from Chronicle Books. (squeeeee!)

If you're at CCIRA this week stop by the SCBWI table Friday morning to say hello! I'll have BRAVE MOLLY postcards, stickers and activities and I'd love to say hi in person!

Also, things have been pretty sleepy here on the blog but if you'd like to see a bit of what I've been up to, please swing on over to Instagram.

BARK PARK!

Happy release day to BARK PARK! Thank you to Trudy Krisher for writing such a joyful story and to the wonderful folks at Beach Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to illustrate Trudy's words. And thank you to Kirkus for the lovely review. You can read the full review here.

"There’s a place for everyone at this dog park, with an inclusive, cheerful atmosphere and a subtle message that everyone can play together and get along. (Picture book. 2-7)"

(You can read the full review here.)
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100,000,000 books!

On February 27th, COAT OF MANY COLORS, written by Dolly Parton and illustrated by me, was presented to the Library of Congress as the 100,000,000th book gifted by Dolly Parton's
Imagination Library. That's A LOT of books to A LOT of kids!

I had the good fortune of attending the celebration and bumbled my way through a moment on stage with Dolly and Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden.

Thank you to Dolly Parton, the amazing people of the Imagination Library (especially David Dotson), and to everyone at Penguin Random House. It was an unforgettable day!





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An interview...

Joanna Marple of the wonderful blog, Miss Marple's Musings, was kind enough to invite me over for a chat. Thank you, Joanna!

Also, please take a moment to check out Pubfor PR, an auction set up by kid lit folks to aid hurricane relief for Puerto Rico.  You could win a phone call picture book critique with my amazing agent, Marietta Zacker, an original illustration by Pat Cummings, or having a character named after you in Rainbow Rowell's next novel! (Along with lots of other awesome things!)

Oh, hi!

Please forgive the long radio silence.  I've had my hands rather full with these two. :)

(Photo by Monet Nicole)

Behind the scenes...

Oh, dear.  I'm afraid it's been too quiet here on the blog the past few months.  But, there's been lots going on behind the scenes.

This past fall I illustrated my first board book, Blanket of Love, written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and published by Little Simon.  This sweet little book will be released on May 16 and is part of the New Books for Newborns series.

Another book in the series, Mama Loves You So, was illustrated by Simone Shin.  I had the pleasure of meeting Simone at last year's SCBWI L.A. Summer Conference and am especially fond of her work. I hope you'll take a moment to look through her lovely website.

I'm also putting the finishing touches on the illustrations for Bark Park, written by Trudy Krisher and published by Beach Lane Books (I've had such a good time drawing dogs!) and am getting started on illustrations for two new picture books.

There've been other things afoot as well, like frozen pipes (now repaired thanks to my handy husband), an angry cold (mostly gone, but not quite), attending the Women's March in Denver, and some beautiful, snowy days.  Also, I totally failed to send out holiday cards this year.  I didn't send even one.  Oof.  Maybe I'll get organized in time for Valentine's Day.

And just one last thing... I missed the first print run of Carson Ellis's "Onward" posters, but I did snag a pack of her "Onward" notecards.  Maybe you would like some, too?  (All proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood).

Book Birthday!

Coat of Many Colors, written by Dolly Parton, illustrated by me, and published by Grosset & Dunlap, was released yesterday.  I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this lovely story!

You can order a copy here or pick one up from your local independent bookstore.

Painting...

Dolly Parton!!

COAT OF MANY COLORS, written by Dolly Parton and illustrated by me, comes out next month.  Hooray!  Also, this (!!!!!!!!)...

Publisher's Weekly announcement (Hooray!!!)

A travel update...

Last year, my husband and I traveled around the country in an RV named Daisy.  We promised to keep a blog documenting our travels, and while we did do a few posts, I'm afraid said travel blog never quite got off the ground.

Before we headed out on the road I imagined lots of free time spent sitting around nightly campfires, learning to play my ukulele, working on cross-stitch projects, and writing lots of fun blog posts with photos and descriptions of where we'd been, what we'd seen and experienced, and where we were heading next.

In reality we had maybe 3 campfires during our ten months of travel.  I did manage to eke out one small cross-stitch project and learn a couple of new chords on the ukulele, but all in all, the free time I imagined was mostly non-existent.

Between keeping up with work deadlines, trying to post once in awhile on my own blog, researching new places to stay every few days, navigating new towns and grocery stores, trying to find good dog parks, dealing with RV maintenance stuff, and general exploring, there wasn't much time for blogging.  Also, it turns out that navigating a career change for Bill, learning to work in a tiny space for me, and sort of just figuring out what a marriage looks like when you squeeze it into less than 100 sq. ft. with two bouncy dogs, all felt kind of private.  

Our awesome black lab, Domino, wasn't able to finish the trip with us.  While we were in Oregon last summer our eternally gung ho girl finally succumbed to three years with cancer.  She was the coolest and we miss her a lot.

So, I guess the super short version of our RV travels is that it was wonderful and hard and I'd totally do it again IF I had a very light work load or was going to take a break from work all together.

Last October, with several new projects and tight deadlines rolling in and some health stuff to take care of (everything is ok now), we headed home to Colorado where we settled into Bill's parents' cute little cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park, which is where we're still living (since our house is rented out).

Eventually we'll move up to Washington State and occasionally we talk about heading out in the RV for a month or two, but for now we're enjoying summer in the mountains and having some free time to sit around campfires now and then.  

Here are a few snapshots from our trip, but for great photos of some of the places we visited and the wildlife we saw, head over to Bill's photography website: www.WHughesStudio.com

Here's to big adventures, well loved dogs, and safe trips home!

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Spring & baked goods!

This is an illustration I did for a new agency mailer.  Each illustrator was asked to choose a season to illustrate and after watching The Great British Bake Off over and over on Netflix (when will they add another season?!?!!?) I opted for Spring and baked goods.  Anyone for a slice of Princess Torte?  In other agency related news, a big congratulations to my wonderful agent, Marietta Zacker!  Nancy Gallt Literary Agency is now Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency!  Huzzah!

HENRY WANTS MORE! in the wild...

Hooray!  I finally spotted HENRY WANTS MORE! (written by Linda Ashman and illustrated by me) out in the wild and among friends.  :D

Monday hello...

I've been deep in a drawing/painting/deadline cave for the past several days and will have to stay there for a few more weeks.  But, I thought I'd pop out for a quick second to say hello (hello!) and to share a post from Picture Book Builders in which the wonderful Linda Ashman interviews me about our book, Henry Wants More!

In other news, I'm super excited to get my hands on a copy of Julia Denos' new book, Swatch, which came out on March 15th.

Also, if you happen to be in Seattle on March 26th, check out my friend, Jessixa Bagley's, reading at Mockingbird Books where she'll share her latest picture book, Before I Leave.  

Ok, now it's back to the cave for me.  See you in a little while! :)

More kitties...

Kitties...

Mice...

Book Birthday!

HENRY WANTS MORE! comes out today!