After a scheduling snafu on Friday, Betsy graciously entertained my wildest dreams of conducting a video interview solely with sock puppets after the Kidlitosphere '08 dinner buffet.

Big thanks go to fellow video stars and camera crew:
Dana Arnim
Kim Baker
Kirby Larson
Jolie Stekly
Laurie Thompson

Enjoy?

The fashion book/activity kit Sara and I did was on QVC! Here's a link to the video (if you click the Video tab). The book/activity kit comes on right after the clay animals. QVC! How fun. I wonder if Paula Abdul or Joan Rivers was around somewhere? It was cool to see the book being flipped through and the acetates I made. Do you think Jim and that guy drew all those sample drawings?

Rotund animals have been hanging around my studio. I've been working out how all this cat girth would be distributed in other positions. Or if other positions are even possible -- sleeping - yes, walking - maybe, but leaping?

I enjoyed reading Lisa Graff's interview at Cynsations and look forward to incorporating her waffle eating tradition into my near future. But she probably eats Wafels & Dinges, though, and we don't have anything that cool. Maybe a Molly Moon waffle cone is equivalent?

My goodness. It has been a year and a half since my last interview. That is downright shameful, but I'm going to make up for it in a big way, promise.

A loooong time ago, Betsy Bird, NY children's librarian extraordinaire and the awesome power behind the A Fuse #8 Production blog answered my ten Sweet Interview questions. Below are her answers from...2007! Lord. If all goes well at Kidlitosphere this weekend I'll have a few updated answers from Betsy for Part Two.

Here are some Betsy images pilfered from our Seattle '08 Conference. Above is half a Jim, a whole Jim, Laini, Betsy, me, and Kim. And below, Betsy moderating our Newbery Dream Team panel: Susan Patron, Cynthia Lord, Kirby Larson and Madame Bird. Awesome!

Chompo Blog Questions in Bold (links added by me.)

1) How long have you been at your library/in this field?

Not long at all. I got my MLIS (Master's in Library and Information Science) in May of 2004. In October of that year I started my very first children's librarian job at the Jefferson Market Branch in Greenwich Village. Pretty sweet. I moved to the Donnell Central Children's Room in January of 2006, because I'm uppity and wanted to be in the best branch possible.

2) In the past year what books have you been excited to share with little kids, middle graders, and teens?

For 2006 my favorite middle grade titles were as follows:
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge
A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy
Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Isaac Newton by Kathleen Krull
Team Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

My 2006 favorite picture book titles were:
When You Were Small by Sara O'Leary
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
Adele and Simon by Barbara McClintock
Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman
For You Are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane
I'm Not Cute by Jonathan Allen

3) In the coming year what books are you looking forward to for little kids, middle graders, and teens?

Well, I'm just loving a couple titles I've already read. "The Fairies of Dreamdark: Blackbringer" by Laini Taylor is just a fabulous hot fantasy title. It's high-spirited, incredibly well-written, and a heckuva lot of fun. It's fairies like you've never seen them before. I'm also very excited by Shaun Tan's, "The Arrival", which Arthur A. Levine is putting out this October. Best book of the year, bar none. A silent pseudo-graphic novel about immigration with more creativity and sheer emotional impact than half the books I read all year. Picture book-wise, I love "Fred Stays With Me" by Nancy Coffelt and "Alligator Boy" by Cynthia Rylant.

4) What is your all time favorite picture book and novel?

Uh. Ever?
Oh man.
Well, let's see. I'm gonna have draw on nostalgia here. Let's go with my favorite picture book and novel from when I was a kid. I adored, for reasons that remain entirely unclear to me to this day, "A Time To Keep" by Tasha Tudor. Haven't a clue why, to be honest with you. But I loved the feeling it gave me. I can only describe it as nostalgia for a time I never knew. Any book that can elicit nostalgia in a 5-year-old must be doing something right. I really did love it truly. One of my favorite novels was "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I consider it almost a perfect children's book. That's a title that remain near and dear to my heart.

5) What events are coming up at your library that you are thrilled to tell us about? (Chompoblog apologizes for these being in the past...All my fault)

We've a Spring Lecture series that we do at the Donnell Central Children's Room every year where we invite two or three author/illustrators to talk about "the process". This year we have Mo Willems, Meghan McCarthy, and Emily Jenkins. If you know anyone in New York PLEASE encourage them to attend this. These lectures are free and no one ever attends them.

6) In your opinion what makes a GREAT book event? (start 3 months in advance? must invite a celebrity like the local weatherman? must have cupcakes? must bring extra books? better if there is more than one author or illustrator for an event?)

A great speaker and audience is all you need. Small potatoes? Hardly. Even if the speaker is brilliant, a crummy audience can curdle their otherwise witty speech. If the speaker doesn't know how to deliver a monologue, however, no amount of cupcakes will ever make up for the fact.

7) What is your favorite animal?

I'm rather partial to the toucan. Ever seen one up close? They don't look real. Like someone carved a big yellow beak out of wood and slapped it on the too small head of another bird. Toucans fascinate me.

8) What is your favorite color?

A glance at my home would say green. A glance at my liver would say puce.

9) Anything you'd like to tell children's book authors and illustrators like me? (stop using sepia toned covers? call before coming to the library? write more books about cupcakes?)

Oo! Good call with the sepia. Yes, and stop cutting of young girls' body parts. More covers feature the "disembodied female" than ever. It simply must stop. I'm thinking of creating a committee.

10) If you could make your *dream* Chompo Bar what would be in it?

Caramel, for certain. Plus Toblerones (whole, and of the mild chocolate variety). Maybe you could mix in a Twix cookie as well.

Thanks Betsy! Betsy will be receiving her dream candy and custom candy wrapper of the newest Chompo Bar Flavor -- The Betsy's Bird Brain Bar -- one bite and you, too, can be a smarty!

This is an extra self-indulgent post and nothing new, but I bet others go through the same thing and will celebrate or commiserate:

I've been wide awake every night around 2am the past few days. Usually a giant orange poof is trying to smother me or claw my eye out and that is what wakes me up. And waking up then makes me antsy and impatient to get some real solid sleep or else I'll be a zombie all day and get nothing worthwhile done. Which makes me even antsier. And there you have a vicious circle thought process that lasts for 3 hours!

But the other night I woke up and tried to just relax and think about nothing. But I can't think about nothing so I decided to tell myself a story to put myself to sleep and I had an idea for a picture book.

Being so focused on the bunny book, graphic novels, grammar, a few other story ideas, First Edition, SCBWI, exercise, family, wedding preparations, money worries, and Etsy shop hopes I didn't think I'd ever have brain space to think of something new for another year or two. But I did. Not saying it is the best story ever, but it felt so nice to be surprised, to have one more thing to look forward to after getting through that list above.

Because I must stick with what I'm already working on now and see it through. I've dropped or shelved every story I've worked on for the past three years because they just didn't feel good enough or were at a point where I wasn't able to fix them properly. Now it feels strange to be so gung ho about a project, to be sticking with a project and to be building a creeping confidence in my work. Strange but good!

And for all the times I feel like I'm on the right track I still have twice as many moments when I feel like I should burn all my sketches and become a bus driver. But even that ratio of 33/66 is a big improvement from just a few months ago. Maybe it is all the exercise endorphins I've been enjoying lately? Or am I finally older and wiser???

CuppaJolie felt refreshed and snick-y after not thinking about her novel for three days. But I can't stop thinking about everything all at the same time. And rather than be overwhelmed by it I should be very thankful that I have ideas and hopes at all. After my grandfather passed away six years ago I didn't have any ideas for almost two years. Grieving and feeling creatively kaput is a real one-two punch. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Everybody has illustrator's or writer's block at some point. Or can drink the wine, but I hope you all commemorate the times you DO have ideas and/or feel confident in your work. Take a picture of yourself, stick a gold star on your calendar, bake a cake. Celebrate it.

It's my mom's birthday today. I thought I would share some of her lovely art:

These are just some of my favorites. Especially the couch scene. My grandparents sat like this every evening that I can remember. That would be my grandfather eating Cheez-its. I hope there are Cheez-its in heaven. Or he'll be complaining. If I was spending the night I would get to lay in the big empty center of the couch and read or just snuggle. And eat Cheez-its. I am too big for my Nana's couch now -- I think it has shrunk to a love seat size actually. My mom wrote a hilarious chapter book that I would love to illustrate. And I'm not saying that because the main character happens to be based on me...I hope you get to read it someday. I think 2009 will be her year for new dreams and exciting successes.

For my mom's birthday I would love to get her health and dental insurance. Do you think Sarah Palin will help? Or will I have to change my name to Tape Boise Palin to get her to notice us? My money's on this guy. Thanks to Martha for the baby name generator link!

I can't believe it has been a whole, flushbunkingly gloryumptious year since we ran off to England and France for a month. This time last year we spent Roald Dahl Day in Great Missenden, Roald's town, and you can read all about the amazing good fun we had with our friends visiting Gipsy House, eating snozzcumber sandwiches, seeing the BFG, and holding an owl here.

Today you must read Boy or Going Solo, but better still you should get the old audio version read by Manuel from Fawlty Towers to listen to while you make some Dahl inspired food like Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake from Matilda.

(I guess there is a new Boy book out, but I don't think we can get it in the US yet.)We got this at the Roald Dahl store and it has stories read by people like Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry!

I think I'll listen to some of the stories on CD while I work later, but right now I'm in the middle of The Cabinet of Wonders by Maria Rutkoski and can't put it down. It is a wonderful main GIRL character full of sass and smarts. The setting is gorgeous, the dialogue is true, the side characters are fascinating, and it is getting better with each page. I think Dahl would have liked it. The only thing to improve on would be to have chapter illustrations. The cover is lovely, but belies the book's darker nature--I think this sort of a cover would be truer to the book's sometimes gruesome (but delicious) bits.

Mark your calendars:

The Fall 2008 Inside Story is fast approaching. This is a wonderful, free event put on by SCBWI WWA and a rotating list of independent booksellers. As Inside Story Co-Chair (along with Meg Lippert) I'm thrilled with our line up and with our host -- University Book Store, Bellevue, and dynamo bookseller Tonyia Vining.

Besides an e-vite that goes out to teachers, librarians, media and booksellers. We are getting all Emeril on our indie stores by kicking things up a notch. I got some fabulously cheerful envelopes and made print versions of the e-vite below to send to our local independent bookstores. I think e-mail invites are hard for them to share or find, so I hope this will get the word out to them in a better fashion.

Suzanne at Secret Garden better come! She gave us an AWESOME list of new books to check out at our meeting on Wednesday. In particular, I'm very excited for the new Oliver Jeffers book. Brenda Guiberson introduced me to the book eating boy and I LOVED it. Speaking of Brenda Z. Guiberson, why, she'll be presenting Ice Bears at the Fall Inside Story! Which reminds me -- I just made some bookmarks for Kirby Larson (who'll be presenting The Two Bobbies at Fall Inside Story) to celebrate HATTIE BIG SKY being Montana's pick for for their state book at the National Book Festival! Look at all those awards, nominations and the big, shiny medal!!!

Who needs the Oscars when you have Inside Story??? More celebrities than you can shake a board book at!

I hope my last post didn't make anyone seasick from the constant revolving.

Saturday I bullied Aaron into going to the Harvest Festival in Wallingford. Based on its ads it sounded like the new wave of country fairs. It had a lovely poster and promised city chickens and miniature milking goats and local produce and food booths! But upon arriving and hanging out for a while...Aaron thought he was at a bizarre Fertility Festival and might have grown a womb just from attending. There was more of Woodstock than Stockers.

Most disappointing was the one and a half goats and chickens present. I thought I'd be in my own Enchanted style musical number surrounded by baby chickies and tiny goaties. But the few animals there were clearly middle aged, bored out of their gourds AND not interested in me singing at them.

We did walk through the Good Shepherd Center/Seattle Tilth Demonstration Garden and saw some espaliered apple trees. I have visions of taking over my front yard with a mash up of French Kitchen garden charm, Victory Garden self-sufficiency and some punkier Edible Estateness. I was hoping our front yard fence could be espaliered fruit trees, but, wow, they are more massive than I thought. No garden pictures -- there was lots of patchoulied PDAs happening in the garden and we didn't want any reminders.

SO, to make up for those disappointing city chickens we walked to the main drag in Wallingford to wait in line for ALMOST AN HOUR for some super delicious ice cream. It was totally worth the wait! We shared the caramel mocha sundae made with Vivace coffee ice cream. I know that last sentence just made these people cry a little...I promise we'll take you to Molly Moon's!

Molly Moon's is lovely inside. Industrial in a good way and it smells of waffles constantly. We were in line for so long I read every newspaper article/review of the place on their bulletin board. Molly sounds like a wonderful, thoughtful person interested in making people of all ages happy, bringing communities together and all while providing really good health care coverage to her employees, which FINALLY brings me to my title: Shame on the Republicans for all of their snake-y, misguiding ways.

To have them in power any longer is only going to continue to tear apart our communities, our health and well being, and leave our kids a crap hole. The Sunday NYT had some great articles about Sarah Palin's lackluster yet contemptible political history and her new interest in children with special needs that may be no deeper than a rotten ploy to segue back to pro-life issues. And all of this is taking focus off of John McCain where some focus should remain because he is a real stinker, too.

Another great story from the paper about Geoffrey Canada and Susan Neuman, individuals working wonders in schools and neighborhoods across the country, was all about the need for a great shake up in how all Americans think about education and a child's well-being outside of the classroom.

Better, smarter people are writing elsewhere, but I've been peeved all week: We need more Moons and less McCains in our future.

I hope this doesn't kill my computer or anybody else's. It is a loop of some character design stuff. More than helpful, it is a way for me to put off painting. If something isn't animating, try refreshing the browser window. Or you might need the latest flash player.

Plain happy Bun face:

Talking happy Bun face:

I haven't used Flash in such a long time. We made 360º rotating head animations in cartoon school, but these would get an F for messiness and missing frames. Oh, how I've degenerated.

Bun getting sad very fast:

One of the Buns isn't cute enough yet. Blame it on the Olympics Opening Ceremony Child Singer. So yesterday I sketched almost a whole hallway to work out one good face. I will probably do two hallways more today and hope by this evening to have a better mug nailed down.

There is Logan's squeeky toy/Bebop's paramour at the end of the sketches, Mr. Hedgehog.

My Nana was an apple pie judge at the Evergreen State Fair last week. She is the cutest one in the picture above. It's a small picture -- she's at the table in the middle in a red sweater looking chic.

The women in front of her are doing a routine ala Abbott & Costello, but using Microsoft jokes. The judges are laughing at the confusion over Windows(TM) and Word(TM) instead of "Who's on first." But, secretly, I'm thinking they are just being good sports and are equally confused over Windows and Word. I didn't know comedy routines were a part of a fair's apple pie judgement, but what could be better than a little shtick with your slice? Now I know what to do when I retire.

Even the official signs have a nice sense of humor:

After she was done judging -- 36 pies total (her favorite was a single crust apple pie with chevre baked on top, just so you know) we went off to look at the fair.

My favorite sign:

Just Say It!

We slurped Purple Cows: blackberry ice cream floats served to you by the Dairy Women of Snohomish INCLUDING the tiara-ed Dairy Queen. Every 13th Purple Cow ordered, they ring a bell and that one is free. I think I got a free one 5 years ago. The thrill of possibly winning (and taste!) brings me back every fair.

Finally we got down to business. I spent a nice time in the petting zoo with some piggies, mini-donkeys, pygmy goaties, chickens. My dream baby cow. And then we got to visit the barn with all the show rabbits in it. I am doing loads of research on my Bun Brothers and this guy below fairly hollered to be put in a book. There are even cuter ones... how many animals can you have in Seattle city limits? A mini-donkey could help me carry all my overdue books back to the library!

And THEN we visited the dog barn and it made us want to go home and cuddle our favorite animal in the whole universe. Here is a sweet 4H kid trying to take a nap with her puppy. They both used her coat as pillow/eye cover. So adorable. I love the fair.