Poor Beepers. This morning Aaron took a polaroid of him in his favorite lounging position. On Beepie's last dog free day. He IS the most dog like cat I've ever owned. But unlike dogs Bebop's life revolves around Bebop and a big wet nose is about to snot that all up.

Logan, our future hopeful new puppy pants is due to arrive with his friend, Tina, at 5pm tonight. They'll see if they like us and we'll see if we like Logan (pretty sure we do!) We found Tina a bottle of wine with some dogs on it, a lovely gerber daisy plant and a chocolate torte. Logan's foster mom will be receiving a big basket soon, too.

Bought Logan's favorite food last night, a new leash, some toys and treats...Aaron picked out the treats. He was hungry and somehow managed to find bacon flavored bones and bbq pig's ears. I didn't know about the pigs ears until just now--and since I'm writing/illustrating a series ABOUT pigs I apologize to them profusely for Aaron's lack of taste.

Please send Bebop your some of your inner strength as he prepares to have his life turned upside down.

jaime temairik

Lunchtime--I just got egg salad all over my desk at work. But lucky for everyone this invite is virtual.

George Shannon is a Seattle treasure and what Kirby Larson would call a "caution." George will charm the pants off of you. His book party is open to the public, he informs me, so EVERYBODY should come!

jaime temairik

There's a possible new family member coming to meet us on Friday all the way from Yakima! A sweet sweet shelter dog looking for a home. We found him online and thought he was in Bothell at the Lil' Waif Puppy Rescue but he's actually waaaaay out East. Some wonderful people are bringing him to Seattle to meet us and see our house and determine whether we are a good match.

The application process was very very thorough--this dog knows more about me than my family or the government! But Aaron and I are very serious dog people so we'd expect nothing less. Hope Bebop doesn't have a heart attack when he meets his new baby brother.

The pup's name is Logan and he is almost two. Someday I hope he will want to be a part of this.

Illustration-wise I've been banging my head over a project that is now overdue. It will be a mini-site with art and animation for my new favorite fantasy book. Most things--the animation and the illuminated letter art--are going quite well or are done. But I've been trying to make a map of the setting and maps are HARD.

I painted it last night and this morning and now it looks 8,000 times worse: the illustration board buckled; I can't draw mountains; and my color theory and painting skills are in the toilet.

It would be great to follow the Danny Gregory model of sketching in black and white for a year to get really comfortable with drawing. Meanwhile he took some color/paint classes and slowly brought those elements into his sketchbooks and now he’s a tiptop color theorist and painter to boot.

I keep hoping to read that my favorite illustrators had enormous self doubt and felt like they'd never make it. Or if, like me, when they do get a job, are they ever afraid they won't be able to fulfill the project to its potential? Ludwig Bemelmans was really hard on himself but I'm no Bemelmans. Tomie DePaola and Maurice Sendak have pretty healthy art egos so I'm still looking.

Maybe I SHOULD lock myself in the basement for a year while I sketch only in black and white and my only friends are mice and anthropomorphic brooms.

Walking is going well, though. Last night I listened to Al Franken's Lying Liars book while doing my 3 miles.

jaime temairik late for work

Blogwide disclaimer: I am NOT a qualified reviewer of books or anything else reviewed in this blog except for cupcakes. But children’s books and YA novels are my passion and I’m writing about them because I want some feedback and/or I want to share with you great books or things that should be a part of your life, too.

Having just finished Paula Danziger's The Cat Ate My Gymsuit I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t read this when I was going through my own Marcy Lewis (the main character) phase—an overweight, quiet girl in junior high with a domineering father. Originally written in 1974, this book has hardly aged—or so I suspect.

So much of CAMG reminded me of my everyday battles at that age—but Marcy (her voice is fantastically authentic) was finding an inner strength and taking part in an outer rage that I didn’t know I had the right to have. I felt so uncommon and alone then. No books ‘fit’ what was going on with me and my family. It would have been great to read something empowering that didn’t involve escaping into fantasy books—if only I’d had Paula and Marcy in 1989!

A reviewer on Amazon wrote “In 2006, this book would be counterproductive for young and older women.” I agree Marcy’s mom seems especially weak, but it only helps to underline the outrage girls today should feel for themselves and their mothers in such relationships. If they are baffled by such dynamics today I hope that means they’ll nip in the bud any similarly skewed relationships they find themselves a part of.

How is this book received today? We are back to the same political battle of having our government involved in a war the public has mixed feelings about. How are kids treating the idea of patriotic dissent in CAMG and do they see the book’s relevance in America today?

Are the “mes” of today finding any solace in Marcy’s transformation? Are domineering fathers and cowtowing mothers a thing of the past? Where are overweight girls finding support? If it is usually a symptom of a bigger issue are they getting more help these days?

No! I haven’t read any Amber Brown yet. I will. I’ll get through all of Paula’s books.

Paula passed away in 2004 and there is still an outpouring of remembrance in the children’s book community. I’m sorry I never got to meet her, she sure seems like a firecracker.

jaime temairik

Ugh and a half. I am making myself late for work like always. Mornings are my favorite time to work on my children's book related things and Monday mornings are full of woeful glances to my boyfriend and the microwave clock. It is especially painful this morning because I caught a glimpse of chompo blog's future design and it looks as scrumptious as any Cadbury product.

To those of you who have a backbone and have gotten rid of a day job that makes you cringe I salute you!

But if you are like me and you dream of a career involved with children's books AND you live in the Pacific Northwest I urge you to consider attending the 15th Annual SCBWI WWA Writing and Illustrating for Children Conference and/or the 3rd Annual Professional Illustrators Retreat.

I am helping with both events and it is a great year for nonpublished or lightly published illustrators to attend. We have G Brian Karas as our headlining illustrator. Ellice Lee, a great designer at Hyperion, will be reviewing portfolios and dummies at the retreat. Hyperion is normally a closed house but attendees of the conference or retreat will be allowed to send her their samples for a limited time. This could be the launching point for an illustrator's career! Lots of other hot names, too, so please do check out the link!

The conference and retreat are at the end of April. Conference registration is still open. AND we recently extended the illustrator's retreat deadline to April 7th so there is still time. All you need to apply for the retreat are five samples or a picture book dummy (no original artwork) to mail in --nearly painless!

No matter where you are I hope you'll consider joining your local SCBWI chapter. International is awesome and my local group is amazing. Our next monthly meeting is April 5th and one of my top five favorite new authors will be speaking. Kirby Larson's Hattie Big Sky should be in the hands of every young adult.

Okay! I'm officially late for work!

illustration courtesy of g brian karas, poster design by aaron hedquist

jaime temairik

My first illustration friday entry.

I am trying to lose some weight...so my biggest fear right now is the cupcake monster:

Followed closely by my second biggest fear of meeting a hungry, pissy giant squid.

I'm trying to keep a sketch journal so these are a part of that! A Moleskine sketchbook except I find it isn't taking water very well or even my ink pen all that well. Perhaps my sketching in this darn thing should be confined to pencil or crayon only? Am I in the wrong Moleskine?

jaime temairik

Chompo bars are the delicious candy of choice in the badgery world of Frances, her sister Gloria and--I assume--the entire children's book world.

For those of you who DIDN'T grow up with Russell Hoban's Frances books I urge you to run out and get them in both book and audio tape/CD form.

My favorite bedtime story was a recording of Glynis Johns (the mother in Mary Poppins and the female lead in The Court Jester) reading the Frances stories. It lulled me to sleep almost every night and I have a terrible feeling if I had a younger sister all that Frances behavior pumping subliminally into my ears (read the stories!) would have had me eating my sweet baby sister's birthday presents and kicking her under the table.

Those recordings also saturated my young brain with silly singsong ditties... My adult ditties are no more sensical and surely haunt my poor boyfriend and neighbors. If you, too, would like to make up tunes for your everyday activities please learn from the master: you can't beat Glynis as Frances and her rendition of the jam songs.

Below is a semi-panorama of chompo headquarters minus chompo mascot Bebop, who must be sleeping on a heater somewhere.

To a new blog. I am celebrating being home from work today by inaugurating chompo blog.

In this blog I would like to:

promote bad puns,
good children’s books,
cool YA novels and
post sketches I’m working on.

Yes, I’m nearly 30 and yes! Most of my enjoyment comes from books of 32 pages and 500 words or less. And cupcakes. And frollicking baby donkeys. And ABC’s Lost.

I enjoy alot of things. If that bothers you please click off. Click is a nice swear word for the web world.

Some things I hope to avoid:
complaining too much about my day job,
having too many pictures of food and
not waxing too poetic about my goofy cat.

While I love blogs with photos I'm afraid the worst photographer I’ve ever met is me. So. Unless I take a class, or my boyfriend (the excellent photographer) steps up OR fate vomits some photo talent on my head the majority of pictures I post will actually be drawings.

That is the blog as I see it in a nutshell. For now.

One more thing. This year I’m participating in the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk. Training has already started! As incentive to myself I’ll be tracking my walking miles in this blog with pictures of my tennie runners. Today was 3.07 miles.

Thanks for stopping by!

jaime temairik