Braving the heat

The initial rush of interest in The Littlest Knight has died down, and with the summer heat upon us, I haven't given much thought to doing any more marketing, opting to wait until the school year starts again; however, the good folks at the Osgoode Medieval Festival invited me to do a reading this past weekend.  The weather was sweltering hot, but attendance was fantastic.  I found a nice shady spot under a tree, gathered a few parents and their kids, and read The Littlest Knight.  (Thanks, also, to my attentive and supportive friends who I've known since as far back as grade two!)

 

One thing I realized is that I probably need an abridged version of the story for events such as this.  It's going to be something I work on so that I'm not reading straight from the text, but speaking more around the illustrations.  I could tell the kids would be more interested if they were engaged, so I broke from the text several times to ask them questions and make comments.  Eye contact was really important.  They stayed to the end, so I think they enjoyed what they heard.

Another lesson learned?  When the humidex is set to hit 40 degrees, choose a blouse with short sleeves and skip the bloomers! :)

Happy Canada Day!

In honour of Canada's 146th birthday on July 1st, I actually have two book recommendations.  These are books I first saw as board books when my son had just about outgrown board books.  Of course, even at the age of 5, he still occasionally enjoys a well-written and well-illustrated board book such as these ones, and they are available in a more standard paperback format for older children.  The books are written by Canadian author Kim Bellefontaine and illustrated in simple and bold way by Toronto-based illustrator Per-Henrik Gurth.  The text and pictures in the books will win over children and adults alike, and each page evokes a whimsical Canadian childhood scene.  It's all a lot of fun.

Bellefontaine first wrote ABC of Canada and continued with Canada 123.  I believe they are also both available in French, and, for our American friends, there is also ABC of America.  All these books can be purchased at Amazon.ca.  The ABC of Canada was the first gift I purchased for my nephew who was born in January 2013.  Although he lives in the U.S., I hope this will help him appreciate his Canadian heritage from a very early age.

Happy Birthday Canada!

C'est l'heure d'aller au lit! (Time for bed)

In my role as mom to a 5-year-old, I have had the privilege of being able to read hundreds of children's books over the past few years.  I figure I'll use this blog to highlight some of the books that we've read which Cole and I have really enjoyed. 

This first book is one that just resonated with me as a mom.  It always seems that my son can find a way to postpone the inevitable, and this can't be more evident than at night when he is supposed to be settling down to go to sleep.  C'est l'heure d'aller au lit! ("Time for Bed") is written cleverly by Andrée-Anne Gratton with captivating illustrations by Fil and Julie.  It tells the story from the perspective of little Caroline as she finds one thing after another to delay her bedtime.  We get to know what goes through Caroline's mind as she sees how her mother reacts, but, in the end, it all turns out, and you just can't but help loving the little girl in spite of the frustrations she puts her mother through.  It's probably a familiar story for most parents, but it's such a refreshing presentation of the dilemma, and a reminder that "you're not the only one who deals with this."

Although we borrowed the book from the library (which is the case for most of the books we read), it  is available in French from Bayard Canada and in English from Amazon.

Book Signing

Last week, Darren and I had a very successful first book signing at Tag Along Toys, a locally owned toy store which is carrying The Littlest Knight.  Many of our friends, and some of Darren's family, came by to show their support, buying copies of the book at the event and getting them autographed and/or personalized by us.  We also had "swag" on hand for the kids: colouring pages, stickers, and pins with pictures of various characters from the book.

 

A few months before our book was published, when I was first looking into the idea of having a book signing, all signs pointed to doing it at a book store or a café since that's where most authors seemed to be holding these kinds of events, but I think having the toy store was a perfect location.  We even had a backdrop of fairies, knights and dragons!

A trip down memory lane

It seems that The Littlest Knight is not my very first 32-page illustrated children's book.  At the bottom of my nightstand drawer, I've been holding onto a book that I made in 1980.  I was either in grade 4 or 5 at Barrhaven Public School.  We wrote haiku poems in French, illustrated each haiku and then bound our books in a cardboard cover with fabric on top for a nice look.  I remember using an iron to somehow adhere the book pages to the cover, and we actually hand stitched the binding with the help of our teacher.

Here is one of the 2-page spreads from that book:

I think I still draw almost exactly as I did when I was 11 years old.

I know I have another book of illustrated sentences from grade one somewhere, but I'll have to dig that up for another blog post.

Jack of all trades!

I've come to discover that self-published authors need to quickly become "Jacks of all trades", and the writing itself is just the tip of the multi-tasking iceberg.

When I first wrote the story of The Littlest Knight, I never thought much about what lay ahead as far as responsibilities went.  But the work already began as I had to consider my own requirements: Did I want to self-publish? Would I attempt to illustrate the book myself, hire a friend or look for an independent artist?  Would I go with a self-publishing company or do the printing myself?  What did I want the final product to look like?  How many copies should I print?

Once some of those questions were answered, I researched contracts between authors and illustrators to ensure both my illustrator and I were protected and fairly compensated (in case we should eventually see any profit).  Fortunately for everyone, I did engage an illustrator - and an awesome one at that - but it was a cooperative effort to settle on the layout and design so we were both happy with the final product.  The fine-tuning and editing are skills all on their own.

Now, I'm also the accountant for my self-publishing company, although any true accountant would probably cringe at the way I'm keeping track of things.  (It works for me, and everything is accounted for, but all those accounting classes from university have been long forgotten.)  And, just today, I wrote my first press release and sent it out to the media to announce the launch of The Littlest Knight which means I'm also the publicist for the company. :)

So, writer, business analyst, contract negotiator, layout designer, accountant and publicist.  Who would have dreamed I would have to develop all of these skills just for one book?  I'm really enjoying the challenge, though, because for each step I take, I feel more confident that I could do this all again.

By the way, our first signing and the official launch of The Littlest Knight will be held on Saturday, June 1st from 11am to 2pm at Tag Along Toys in Kanata (499 Terry Fox Drive).  Both Darren and I will be there to sign books, and we'll have stickers and colouring pages for the kids. We're so grateful for the support this local business has given us.

Reaching out

This past week has been a whirlwind of excitement.  It's hard to believe that the shipment of books only arrived on Monday.  On Tuesday, Darren and I got together to autograph dozens of copies.  Even though I've had some experience signing autographs (on rare occasions after some of the musial I've appeared in), it will probably always feel a bit strange to me.  My handwriting is, most often, tidy and very straight, and, for some reason, I keep thinking that my signature should be more "artsy".  Certainly, the way I sign cheques shows a certain flare after years of practise, but I decided my autograph had to be different.  Anyway, I digress.

On Wednesday, I headed out to an independent bookstore in the downtown area (near my workplace) and asked the owner if he'd consider carrying the book.  He was very enthusiastic, and asked me to bring a few copies to the store when I was able.  So, Perfect Books became the first bookstore to agree to sell The Littlest Knight and they now have copies in their children's book section.  The next day, I took a small order of books to Tag Along Toys where the owner was more than happy to support another local area mom, and she even took a copy home to read to her own child.

Sales have been going well so far, and there will be at least two book signing opportunities.  I'm really looking forward to these because I want to reach a broader audience than just friends and family.  But they are the ones who have boosted my confidence, and I'm so grateful for their support.

I'm now considering next steps in my writing "career".  I've got a few story ideas up my sleeves, and I'm thinking of translating The Littlest Knight in French.  I can't imagine we'd sell as many copies in French, but I would love to be able to donate a copy of the book to my son's school.  If that requires buckling down and working on my French, then I'll definitely give it a shot.