My son is off to camp this Sunday, and though I’ve gotten him all packed, there are details to finish. So what am I doing? Registering at the local college for a fall class in Flash. Duh!

I’ve made an animated storyboard in imovie for my book trailer for The Curse of Addy McMahon, my first novel (Greenwillow ’08) and I reeeeeally want it to be a Flash movie. I am hoping that my fab-u publisher will pay for a Real Flash Person to make it, but just in case, I figure I should learn Flash by now anyway. There are so many things I can do with it.

But I digress. And that is the point, isn’t it? So, stalling technique #1: register for a Flash class. Technique #2: Write a new blog entry. Never mind. I have to get back to work on the art for ADDY. “Hmmm, art in a novel,” you may wonder. Addy keeps a journal, but unlike so many other girl characters in middle grade novels, hers is in graphic novel format, and it’s integrated within the story. So, say you’re reading a part where she’s talking about a gift her dad gave her. You turn the page, and there is her journal, but you get to SEE her dad teasing her, with the package behind his back, etc. This idea developed after I got a bunch of rejections for this mss because people were discombobulated (a word I’ve never in my life typed – is it spelled correctly?) over the intertwined drama/comedy in the book. I thought it was close to what life is like, but I decided to extract all the emotionally difficult stuff and insert those parts into her graphic journal. It’s kind of like when Babar’s mom gets killed by the hunter – not as hard to take when it’s in a foreign land, if you know what I mean.

Now I’m going to go pack for Benny. No. I’m going to do art. Waaaay more fun.

See you soon,
Katie