Petition for Ben Watson to blog again soon and movies to watch while we wait and do our work

It has been almost a MONTH since Ben or Amy blogged at I, uh, think I killed my muse. And all the fun and sparkle has gone out of the blogosphere for me. Like going to Disney's Country Bear Jamboree without the country bears:



So I say go leave him a comment. And while we wait for him to blog again (maybe because he is WRITING?!?! In which case we can wait another month) I hope YOU are all working like I have been working.

And when I think I'll never draw a cityscape in proper perspective and am ready to stick a fork in my eye or drawing hand, here are some movies I suggest for building up your pluck:

The Julia portion of Julie/Julia made me cry and is perfect for authors/illustrators questing for their first book.

Invincible with Mark Wahlberg. Although I am not a football fan, I am an Eagles fan. Even without the Eagles I think I would have LOVED this movie. If only we had a session on tackling at SCBWI conferences.

I love Halloweenie!

We realllly need a new shower curtain. While at Target I found myself being magnetically drawn to their Halloween section.

You guys! So much cool stuff to get your creep on with:

For my favorite tubers (maybe he can be your Spudward Cullen?)

For the lady who wouldn't stop talking about feet last night

For my favorite bartender

For one of the three people I know that actually loves candy corn

For Laurie who is into eyeballs and possibly bats

I am knuckling? ankling? sitting? down for the next few weeks and probably won't be posting much. Maybe elsewhere... but I will clue you in on that later!

Marla and Liz are Dear Geniuses

Today is a good day to read a truly beautiful book and do some reflecting about our amazing world and all the peace and love we hope it contains.

Marla Frazee and Liz Garton Scanlon have an interview up at the impossibly incredible 7-Imps blog.

Here is a quote from Marla's 7-Imp interview that should be tattooed on the backside of anyone who wants to be a children's book illustrator (I don't even have my ears pierced yet, so getting a tattoo is going to take a lot of gin or a hit upside the head with a shovel, but if ever I get a tattoo it will be of this):

I assume that the child reading a picture book is not yet a reader of words, and so they still have the remarkable gift of being an expert picture-reader. This seems to me to be one of the few skills we possess as children and then lose as we age. It makes the picture book audience the most discerning, observant, critical, and appreciative group that we illustrators will ever have the privilege of serving. Imagine playing a violin in front of world-class violinists. When we illustrate a picture book, we are drawing pictures for an audience of picture-reading virtuosos. If it doesn’t scare and humble us as illustrators, then we aren’t paying enough attention to what these pre-readers are able to see.

I haven't seen Liz's blog before and am so excited. This is almost as good as Christmas. And here is a place I would love to visit everyday:



Marla always knocks my socks off and then she goes and knocks my socks' socks off.

Before I saw this interview I was just going to ask if any of you love this book:



Because I'm thinking of reading a little bit of it every night kind of like the Bible (sorry to be such a heathen.)
Happy Weekend!

Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi are coming to town!

Yes! To sign and show off THE WYRM KING, Book 3 in the BEYOND THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES tour.



Lake Forest Park is the first stop on Monday, the 14th:

September 14th, at 7:00 pm

Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Seattle, WA 98155

And rocking in Redmond on Tuesday, the 15th:

September 15th, at 7:00 pm

BORDERS (Redmond Town Center)
16549 NE 74th St.
Redmond, WA 98052

How cool to have BOTH the author and illustrator on tour together!

Remember, Holly was just at the SCBWI LA Conference, see all the Holly related posts here. Tony's website has lots of wonderful hidden bits and bobs if you haven't checked it out recently.

Grab all you Spiderwick Chronicles, the new GEEKTASTIC, THE SPIDER AND THE FLY...

Competition for my dream job from another BLOODY SPECIES

Click on it to see the perfectly adorable nostrils

Bugs.

Bugs, apparently, are getting into the illustration game. Look at this well-crafted illustration of a face on a hollyhock leaf. And apparently, PLANTS, are helping out the bugs by choosing to highlight their artwork with jaunty branching. Look at this product placement:



Excuse me, NATURE, but when have you ever shown off one of my acrylic paintings?

these guys are blowing my mind and a hummus question

I kind of forgot to eat lunch today and just ransacked the kitchen for a semi-healthy snack -- hummus shouldn't taste CARBONATED -- should it? You know what to tell the ER if you don't see me tomorrow, or maybe it is because I asked an author this question:

THE DREADED QUESTION

Oh man, I saw this duo at lines and colors and I'm absolutely smitten. Plus this is a completely fabulous comic for authors:



Read it all HERE now.

Another image from their blog, teetering bulb: