Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...

in a sparkly green pond

there lived a small frog

who dreamed of becoming a children's author

and...

being magically transported to the CYA Conference

where many children's authors and illustrators

gathered together each year.

One day the frog ventured forth,

hopping from one lily pad to another

until she met a kind Queen.

The Queen of children's literature,

 called Sheryl Gwyther,

spoke about the frog's endeavours to be published

and her first book

'Pond Magic'.

and about the frog's abilities to wave placards

 and speak out for the rights of all frogs

 to write Australian children's books.

The frog smiled and held up her book for all to see.

She was speechless.

But then she remembered her notes...

and thanked Sheryl, her editors at Penguin Australia, her husband, children and parents, her friends and all the writers and illustrators present, especially those from the KWD Secret Society (who know who they are).

Overcome with wonder

the crowd listened

 as the frog read from her book.

And then she told the magical story

of the vineyard called 'The Arrogant Frog'

and the French 'Sparkling' Lily Pad Pink

from the Languedoc region of France.

Not only was the sparkling French (Ooh, la la!)

explained the frog, drawing the raffle,

but the main character of her book Pond Magic

 is called Lily Padd

AND

the French exchange student who comes to stay with Lily

is from the Languedoc region of France.

Co-inky-dink!

The frog presented the winner of the French 'Sparkling'.

Merci beaucoup!

and the winner of the

mini manicure

at the Pampered Princess

salon for little girls (Pond Magic's sponsor).

and then the Queen and the frog celebrated together

the frog's transformation

from aspiring tadpole writer

to the Princess Children's Author.

And the frog lived happily ever after.

(The photos above with white borders are courtesy of Lynn Priestley)

POND MAGIC IS HERE!!

OK...POND MAGIC IS HERE, in my hot hand - looking adorable in pink. I have been waiting anxiously for this book baby - the cradle has been ready for ages and tomorrow I get to take her to Brisbane to the CYA Conference AND show her to all her writing Aunts and Uncles. There will be a lot of oohing and aahing... and possibly some champagne. CYA there at the launch!!!!!!

Don't you love all the stars my editors at Penguin put in the envelope as a surprise!!!

It's amazing seeing my name on the spine.

See the little frog?

Ooh, la la!

Please indulge me...It's my first book.

A Month of Firsts!

What a month of firsts August is proving to be!

My first published article, 'Pursue your Goal', appeared in WQ, the Queensland Writers Centre magazine, August issue - the Children's Issue. So many lovely people have been congratulating me and I appreciate QWC giving me this opportunity to write about my journey to publication.

My debut children's book, Pond Magic, an Aussie Chomp, Penguin Australia, will be released on the 30th August to much fanfare on this blog and the Pond Magic facebook page. If you are on facebook please pop over to Pond Magic and 'like' the page. We now have 242 fans and my main character, Lily, answers all posts left on the page. Why don't you leave a comment and get to know her better? And don't forget to suggest the page to your friends! Lily needs 1,000 fans before I let her off the page... Mean, I know.

AND... Today's news is that my first website has gone 'live'. http://www.angelasunde.com/

Below is the illustration I completed for my website. Two little kids in an apple tree. You know my aunt's nickname for me when I was small was 'Blossom'...

I would love it if you would visit the site, test it out, let me know of any problems or hiccups and even send me a message on the 'contact' link. I can't wait to hear from you all!

See you there....

Pointing the IP

Do you get frustrated with IT language? I never learnt it at school. We grew excited if we were shown slides with the black curtains closed.

Today I am trying to publish my website and my domain server has told me something entirely different to my website host builder. It's a good thing I'm a natural at foreign languages, because the German subjunctive mood is nothing compared to this. And just what is an A record anyway? The Monkees?


"The host name the A record links to. You can enter @ to map the record directly to your domain.
Points to IP Address
The IP address from which you want to link your domain.
TTL
The time increment for which the server should cache the information."

Does this time increment mean how long the server will take to point the IP? And I think  I know what IP stands for... It's the Idiot Person who decided to design and publish her own website without any help from others.

So I chose one hour for the TLL to point the A record to the IP. (Oh, listen to me. I'm talking IT.) I'm thinking if it works I should go live in about 45 minutes time. Fingers crossed...

Step by Step Illustration

Following on from the Process of Illustrating I thought I might share with you an illustration I've been working on for my website. Ah, yes... I've been designing a website for my transition from writer to author. I thought it would be a nice gift to myself and a whole lot of fun doing. First up, thank you so much to my darling daughter who discovered the host website builder wix and who started me off on this adventure. She's not afraid to have a go and press as many buttons, change options and generally fiddle around with things. When I was little my mum always told me off for fiddling with things and Dad often thought I might break something, so understandably I am somewhat reticent to do so. But, no more! I am very proud of my new creation. It's almost as much fun as writing and illustrating.

If you're looking for a free website builder, check out http://www.wix.com/

Back to the illustration. I did some sketches for it quite a while ago and I'm too embarrassed to show them, but here is the last pencil sketch which I scanned onto the computer and then copied onto watercolour paper just to play around with the colour scheme.

As you know, I've got a thing for apple trees and here two little children are sitting in an apple tree (this one isn't high off the ground) reading a picture book. The girl is munching on an apple and looking over her brother's shoulder. I always love the crunch of a fresh apple when reading. Don't you?

Once I was happy with the colours I traced the sketch onto A3 size Archers 300gm watercolour paper using the lightbox my husband made for me. (He is such an angel). Then, undecided whether to actually do a wash for the background, I started with the tree and the children. Here is the first wash on the good copy.

I then did a blue wash for the sky and another in green for the leaves, darkened certain areas and dulled some of the tones. The finishing touches were done with colour pencil - Derwent Artists and Prismacolor. My set of Prismacolor was a Christmas present last year and I find them so different - creamier, richer. It will take me a while to get used to them. I mainly used them for the apples in the foreground and the boy's shirt.
Now, you're probably waiting to see the finished result. Sorry, but it will only be revealed with the launch of my website, which is in the next few days.

The website doesn't have a name, but I guess you could call it 'In the Apple Tree'.

The Process of Illustrating

The wonderful Sarah Davis is an Australian children's book illustrator I greatly admire. In 2009 Sarah won the Children's Book Council of Australia Crichton Award for her illustrations in 'Mending Lucille', written by Jennifer Poulter. Mending Lucille tells the story of a little girl whose mother has passed away.

On her website Sarah has very generously shared her illustration process from initial idea for first rough to final artwork. To visit Sarah's website and her explanation of the step by step process for Mending Lucille click here: Mending Lucille

Illustration Workshop Review and Feedback

With two small suitcases loaded with picture books and reference books, notes and handouts, hand drawn posters and blue tack I arrived at the Gold Coast Art School fully prepared to indulge in the passion that is children's picture books and their illustration. When I looked at the amount I had prepared, I wondered whether we would get through half of it. But with two decades of teaching experience I know how to pace a lesson and not allow myself to be side-tracked.

Luckily for me I had a group of intelligent and passionate artists and writers. Together we looked at the genre and its mediums, themes, qualities and messages. The day was broken into topics like: Narrative and Visual Structure, Visual Narrative, Page Layouts, Characterisation, Storyboarding, Dummy books and Submission to a publisher.

We studied carefully the elements above in relation to the following books: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham, The Important Things by Peter Carnavas, Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson, illustrated by Freya Blackwood, and Mutt Dog by Stephen Michael King.

The participants were given an exercise in analysis of one of the books where they looked at colour, space, movement, composition, perspective and pacing. Later in the day they storyboarded the text to one of my picture book manuscripts. Interestingly their page breaks were almost identical to mine.

I forgot my camera. I can't believe it. I had so wanted to post some photos of my workshop at the Gold Coast Art School. Instead I thought I'd include some of the feedback I received at the end of a very busy day.

"I have attended many workshops and classes on creative writing, but yours was 'spot on' in addressing children's picture books. Your storyboard workshop was particularly helpful."

"The workshop was informative and professional. Angela was happy to share her personal journey in illustrating so we could avoid the pitfalls. Having self-published, I would have loved to have this info prior to my experiences."

"What an amazing amount of info, but easily understood. Well presented and explained to a complete novice - maybe this is a new direction for me!"

It was such a fun day for me also and I would happily re-pack those suitcases and present this workshop again tomorrow. Any takers?