Shennen Bersani's Weblog

Catching up, once again

Time flies and it feels like life's a whirlwind! 

I had the wonderful experience of presenting at March Into Reading again this year.  Three elementary schools in Portsmouth, RI, and a presentation at Salve Regina University in their auditorium.

During the spring I illustrated my third ACS book, The Long and the Short of It: A Tale About Hair.  This will be released in December and is already available on Amazon for pre-order.

Let My Colors Out won its fourth award, National Indie Excellence Awards Program, Finalist Children's Nonfiction 2010.

Astro The Steller Sea Lion was released.

And I'm finishing up the art for my second Sylvan Dell book, The Glaciers are Melting! (spring 2011)

 

Nana, What's Cancer? wins a GOLD Mom's Choice Award

Nana, What's Cancer? has won a GOLD award in the Children's Picture Books (Health & Safety) category of the Mom's Choice Awards.

 

One year anniversary!

Today marks the one year anniversary of my being cancer free!

Nana, What's Cancer? is shown on CNN.

Today Nana, What's Cancer? was shown on CNN.  Click here to watch the video.  This afternoon the book reached Number 1 on Amazon for cancer books.

Bronze

Let My Colors Out has earned its third award, this time BRONZE in the 2009 Association Trends All-Media Contest.  It was one of just three books honored in this program.

The TRENDS All-Media Contest is an annual competition held exclusively for associations, recognizing the most creative and effective communication vehicles developed in the industry over the prior year.  The 2009 competition included more than 425 entries in 26 categories of association communications.  

Mom's Choice Award - GOLD

I just learned Let My Colors Out is a Mom's Choice Award Gold Recipient.  I couldn't be more pleased.  :-)

 

 

Nana, What's Cancer? is shown on Good Morning America

Beverlye and Tessa discuss Nana, What's Cancer? on Good Morning America.  Click here for the link.  :-)

Nana, What's Cancer? is shown on the Today Show

Nana, What's Cancer? was recently shown on the Today Show.  Kathie Lee highly recommends Nana, What's Cancer? on Kathie Lee & Hoda With The Scoop.  Click here to watch. 

USA Book News "The National Best Books 2009 Awards"

Courtney passed this information onto me this morning regarding our book, Let My Colors Out.  When I checked the website I saw both of my ACS books were winners!

Released October 20, 2009: "Let My Colors Out" is named Award-Winning Finalist in the Children's Picture Book: Hardcover Non-Fiction category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

Written by Courtney Filigenzi, illustrated by Shennen Bersani. American Cancer Society, 2009.

"Nana, What's Cancer?" is named award-Winning Finalist in the Children's Non-Fiction category of the National Best Books 2009 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

Written by Beverlye Hyman Fead and Tessa Mae Hamermesh, illustrated by Shennen Bersani. American Cancer Society, 2009.

Click here for the USA Book News website.

Click here for the American Cancer Society bookstore.

A weekend in Honesdale :-)

I spent this past weekend in Honesdale, PA, at the annual Highlights Magazine Illustrator's Party!!

Art Director Cindy Smith had a fabulous costume.  

Kerrin and Lou joined me - this was my first time attending - and I didn't know exactly what to expect. We arrived to Boyds Mills late on Friday night, almost half past nine.  Cindy Smith greeted us under the tent (we were wet from rain, tired from the long trip - and hungry) and quickly found vegetarian food for all of us!  She was amazing!  Within minutes Kelley Cunningham and a group of fellow illustrators joined us, sharing stories and laughter.  The entire Highlights staff is just incredible; friendly, kind, caring, helpful.  We quickly felt like part of their family.

Saturday was a fabulous day, spent with fellow illustrators - old friends and new.  We started off with a wonderful presentation from Dilys Evans and ended the evening with square dancing!!  

 

Sunday, after a hay ride and a hearty brunch, we headed out.  But not until after we checked out some Golden Retriever puppies for sale along the road in Hawley.  We had a five hour drive home, so we skipped buying one.

We broke up our trip back by stopping in at Barbara Lanza's for dinner.  Barbara also had Rose Berlin and Terry Taylor over.  It was fabulous stopping in to see Barbara - a great way to end a terrific weekend!

PS.... a heartfelt thanks to Scott for all his directions in and out of Beach Lake.  :-)

Catching up

I've been a little busy......

In May my daughter Karlene graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northeastern University.  She immediately started working as a para legal in Boston.  

The next day I flew to LA to meet with cancer survivor and author Beverlye Hyman Fead and her co-author, granddaughter Tessa Mae Hamermesh.

July rolled on by and with it was the release of Let My Colors Out written by Courtney Filigenzi.

Click here for a fabulous review of the book.

In August I flew out to San Francisco to meet with Astro the Steller Sea Lion's care givers at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito and his trainers at the long Marine Lab in Santa Cruz.  Astro will be released in June 2010.

While I was in SF, Nancy Tupper Ling, Alicia May Crossley, her sister Rachel, and their mom, Cheri were featured on NECN talking about My Sister, Alicia May. Click here to watch the video clip.

With September came my daughter Bethany attending Northeastern University in their Doctor of Pharmacy program and a trip for me to Atlanta to meet with the publishing staff of the ACS, the authors of my next ACS book, The Long and Short of It (Barbara Meyers and Lydia Mays), and the book's designer (Jill Ronsley).  Though Jill had also designed My Sister, Alicia May, this was the first time I had met her.

Now I'm busy working and looking forward to the October release of Nana, What's Cancer? 

Emotions illustrated vividly in children's book

THE BEST NEWS CAME THREE DAYS AGO WHEN I LEARNED I'M NOW CANCER FREE!!  If that wasn't special enough, today brought this wonderful column by Bev Beckham:

From today's Boston Globe:

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BEVERLY BECKHAM

Emotions illustrated vividly in children's book

By Beverly Beckham

April 19, 2009

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Nancy Tupper Ling lives in Walpole. When her childhood friend gave birth to a daughter with Down syndrome, Ling wrote the baby a poem, "Our Fragile Emissary," a love song that has been e-mailed around the world.

Six year later, Ling wrote her first children's book about this child, "My Sister, Alicia May." She sent it to a Raynham publisher, Pleasant St. Press. Co-owner Jean Cochran, a children's book author herself, loved the manuscript, bought it, and then went looking for an illustrator.

What happened next is a tale of fate and serendipity and maybe something more.

"I first saw Shennen [Bersani]'s work on a British website for illustrators," Cochran said. She fell in love with her art, but assumed two things: that Bersani lived in Europe and that she would never be able to afford her.

She contacted her anyway and learned in a telephone conversation that Bersani lived just 10 miles away in Weymouth, and that "My Sister, Alicia May" could easily be Bersani's story.

"Shennen informed me that just as with the sisters in the book, she too had a sister, her only sibling, who has Down syndrome," said Cochran. "Of course, I had no way of knowing this. We were both in shock at the coincidence."

It took Bersani a month to decide whether to illustrate the book. "I thought if I take this on, it will bring up all the emotional stuff," Bersani said. But she chose to do it, she said, because she knew "no one will be able to do it the way I can."

When her sister, Holly, was born 40 years ago, there were few programs for kids with disabilities. So a lot of the day-to-day responsibility for caring for Holly fell on Bersani.

She didn't go away to college. She went to art school during the day and watched her sister on nights and weekends. And although Bersani is a successful artist, illustrating books for children and selling more than a million copies of her work worldwide, she had never used her work to explore her feelings about her sister.

"I can tell you honestly, I sobbed and wept over a few of the pages as I tried to work on them - I 'became' Rachel [Alicia May's older sister]. I felt every emotion vividly because they were my own."

The book is filled with these emotions, the drawings and text honest and real.

Cochran, whose publishing company is only three years old, said, "It is extremely important to us that our books are as good, if not better - in content, art, and production - as the larger, more established houses with whom we must compete."

My granddaughter Lucy has Down syndrome. I have spent the last five years in search of a book like this. Until "My Sister, Alicia May" I found nothing.

Cochran said there is a huge void in the market for children's books, especially picture books. "In publishing, there's a saying that everything under the sun has been done. This has not been done. Not like this."

"My Sister, Alicia May" which will be released May 1, is the story not just of two real girls, Alicia May and her sister Rachel, but of every child who has a sister or a brother or a friend. It is the story of what it's like to love someone. Sometimes the people you love irritate you the most. Sometimes you want to pretend you don't know them. Sometimes you don't want them tagging along. Sometimes you're so proud of them you want to tell the world.

"Classrooms, libraries, doctor's offices, and ordinary households need this book," Cochran said. "I feel that it's important as a person and as a publisher to bring awareness, to tell this story."

This is also the kind of tale that belongs on every child's bookshelf, too, because it is a story first, and only subtly, like all good stories, a lesson.

"She looks like me," an 8-year-old at the Canton Library said Monday afternoon after studying the book's cover. Alicia May has long, dark blond hair and bangs and pink cheeks and a beautiful smile. And what this 8-year-old saw was not a child with Down syndrome, but just another little girl with blond hair, like herself.

Canton resident Beverly Beckham can be reached at [email protected]. 

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

A Memorable Day

Every so often a life changing day occurs.  Yesterday was one of them.  

Yesterday my sister Holly met Alicia May.

The day started off early, with me picking up Holly at 7:30... We made it over to author Nancy Tupper Ling's home by 9.

The house quickly filled with people! Nancy, Alicia, her mom Cheri, her sisters Rachel and Taryn, their grandma Barb, Boston Globe columnist Bev Beckham, editor/ publisher Jean Cochran...  Lou Marcoccio arrived with his camera....

We all came together to meet, to discuss the book My Sister, Alicia May and to compare the experiences we've had with Down syndrome and children of disabilities.  

Jean brought with her copies of the book, fresh off the press, and they were quickly passed out and signed by Nancy and I.

Alicia read the book to her Grandma Barb.

By noon my day was only beginning.  I had gamma testing and blood work waiting for me at Rhode Island Hospital.  I got Holly back to her place by dinner.

.............

I can't express the love I feel in my heart for Alicia and her family!  I'm delightfully planning a couple trips down to see her, to visit her school, to watch her ride horseback. I'm pleased to say Nancy's working on a sequel. 

A visit to the Living Waters Christian Academy

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Living Waters Christian Academy in Foxboro, MA. There I was met by author Nancy Tupper Ling, author of My Sister, Alicia May. Nancy's children attend the school.

This was an absolutely fabulous school with very wonderful, bright children! I felt warmly welcomed from the moment I walked into the door. :-)

Thank you for inviting me - I had a delightful visit. 

Life imitates art

It's the evening of January 22nd. My daughter calls, in between what sounds like sniffling or muted sobs she says to me, "Well, have a safe trip - and - stay away from the Light."

She was referring to my impending visit to the Other World, otherwise known as cancer surgery. 

A full year ago I was contacted regarding illustrating children's books for the American Cancer Society. None of my immediate relatives have had the Big C, until then cancer hadn't touched my life. An amazing chain of events brought me face to face with it. 

On a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in April of '08 my daughter Kerrin and  I were stuck in traffic, a mile from our home. Out of the blue I felt the crash. Two trucks hit me from the rear, a florist delivery van and a Ford Ranger pick up. Kerrin was okay, both of my hands were damaged and I had internal bleeding. 

Disheartened, I felt my Guardian Angel had left me high and dry. 

Both of my hands were severely bruised - and useless. For months. I am ambidextrous, but without the use of my hands my career as an illustrator was put on hold. 

Where was that Guardian Angel? Sleeping at the wheel?

Then came the battery of tests; the awflest of the awful was the EMG (Electromyogram), and the MRI. The EMG consisted of having a needle probe stabbed repeatedly into both arms and hands - while it was electrically hooked up to a monitor to measure the electrical impulses of my muscles during rest and contraction. OUCH!!! Very painful, very shocking!

Hey, GA where are you?

The MRI was a piece of cake. Showed some disk damage --- and a nodule on my thyroid! 

.....

So the long and short of this saga is that nodule ended up malignant. Had I not had the unpleasant car accident, well, ummm, I never would have had a clue that cancer was growing inside of me. Until, well, let's not go there with those thoughts. 

Thank you Guardian Angel! You saved my life!

-----

While the cancer was growing, without me ever knowing of its presence, I was working on Let My Colors Out written by Courtney Filigenzi and published by the American Cancer Society. Being released in May the book can be pre-ordered here. 

As you can see from its description, the story is about a boy whose mom has cancer. How Ironic it was to find out, while I was illustrating this book, that I too was a mom who had cancer!

My four children experienced the exact same emotions as the protagonist. That made this book very special and dear to me. It is above and beyond one of my favorite books.

Each page is a different color and emotion; here are a couple of examples:

The book ends with a page of hope and a surprise pop up balloon. 

Hope for me came in the surgical hands of Jack Monchik down at Rhode Island Hospital. Dr. Monchik performed a complete thyroidectomy. I then became a cancer survivor. 

Funny about that, too, becoming a cancer survivor. Again, before my biopsy results had come in I was already contracted to illustrate a cancer survivor book, Nana, What's Cancer?, written by cancer survivor Beverlye Hyman Fead and her granddaughter Tessa Mae Hamermesh. 

Amazingly, a similar coincidence also had happened with My Sister, Alicia May when I was hired to illustrate a book about a girl whose younger sister has Down syndrome. Jean, my editor, had not known at the time of contacting me that I grew up with a younger sister with Down syndrome. 

My Sister, Alicia May will also be released in May.

Days before my surgery Alicia and her sisters, Rachel and Taryn, sent me a 'get well' email complete with photos of themselves. These filled my heart with love and made my hospital stay a lot brighter. 

As spring time approaches, my life is filled with hope and promise.

The April issue of Highlights High Five Magazine has these illustrations in it:

And spring is filled with new Beginnings also available May 1 and written by Lori Ann Watson.

Well, it is October 14th

The full Harvest Moon just happens to be today, on my birthday.

I must say it has been possibly the best birthday of my life! At the very least tied for best, certainly far better than average. :-)

Somewhere between warm greetings from family and friends and presents, falls this surprise from my son Ryan: he created a celebrity Facebook page for me and had all his sisters in on it!

Gosh, I love all you guys! Big hugs, kisses, and thank yous.

Touching lives

It has been raining hard for a few days, the water bringing down my maple leaves, littering my front yard. I'm trying to drag out the last remains of summer, my windows are wide open so I can smell the damp earth.

Last weekend was sunny and I spent it sailing in Newport :-) Today's weather is more conducive to working.

While I have contracts to illustrate three picture books, today I am working on a story for Highlights High Five Magazine.

...it's hard not to ponder the impact my art has on children.

The total sales of my first four books with Jerry Pallotta is well over one million. Sales of Snakes, Long, Longer, Longest is almost platinum. So even if I low ball it, one million people have copies of my books. Since I'll assume most are children, then I can assume at least one parent has also looked at the book - so my art has touched two million lives. But then, I'll assume most kids have two parents or at least one sibling - that makes three million readers. But some of these books are in schools and public libraries - would that then make four million people I've touched with my art? Possibly far more.

That's pretty powerful.

While my son Ryan traveled through Italy a few months back he saw stacks of Creature dell' oceano in bookstores from Milan to Rome. Since that book was published in numerous languages, I can assume it can be found throughout Europe.

All that is complimentary, but it took an email from a stranger a week ago to shake me to the core.

Since it won't be available for retail sale until May 1, 2009, Jean, my editor of My Sister, Alicia May has sent out the pdf version of the book to a handful of people. One night I received an email from Bev Beckham, a columnist at the Boston Globe. Her compliment gripped me like no other:

"i just saw your art work for alicia may. it is beautiful and perfect and the only depiction i have ever seen that is true and real. and i am blown away.

that's all. i just had to tell you."

I was blown away that Bev tracked me down and took the time to write. She is referring to the fact that Alicia has Down syndrome. Bev's granddaughter, Lucy, also has Down syndrome.

My younger sister, Holly, has Down syndrome - she was the inspiration for the emotions behind my art.

Some pages from Alicia May:

All artwork copyright of Shennen Bersani, text copyright of Nancy Tupper Ling, 2008. Illustrations created using colored pencils on Arches watercolor paper.

This next illustration is a personal joke, it is a self portrait - that's me portraying Mrs. Scotti.

I believe my dedication sums up my feelings best:

I grew up with one younger sister who has Down syndrome. Her name is Holly, and today, I am her legal guardian. When first asked to illustrate this book, my editor, Jean Cochran, had no idea of my background. In shock I listened as she described the book, and in disbelief she listened when I told her that my own personal story matched that of the book's protagonist, Rachel. I agreed to illustrate the book, but with one stipulation: I wanted to meet the actual sisters about whom the book was based. On a warm spring day, I met and fell in love with Alicia May. But it was in young Rachel, whose joys, frustrations and emotions were just like my own when I was her age, that I found a kindred spirit. It is with great love and admiration that I dedicate this book to Rachel Crossley.

My Sister, Alicia May is published by Pleasant St. Press. www.pleasantstpress.com

Catching up on summer

Where does time fly?

The past two months I have been doing a whole variety of things.

Professionally, I needed a new publicity photo - so I instinctively headed to the ocean. I prefer the top photo, but a few friends liked the second one better - so I sent both off to my editor.

Yesterday I visited the Ferryway School in Malden, MA. Last week I visited the Salemwood School also in Malden. Both schools have fabulous kids! I had a great time visiting them!

Somewhere along the line I spoke to the Abington, MA and Braintree, MA Art Associations. I had a very warm reception in Braintree, for a lifetime ago I taught colored pencil classes there. Some of my former students came back to greet me. :-)

Currently, I am illustrating a trade book for Pauline Books and Media called Beginnings.

Personally, I'm basking in the sunshine, enjoying life to the fullest with my family and friends.

A visit to the New Haven Elementary in New Haven, NY

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the New Haven Elementary School in New Haven, NY - on the border of Mexico. I started this journey on Monday, as I drove to Oswego, NY - which is on Lake Ontario.

My first view of Lake Ontario.

Oswego Lighthouse

fishing on Lake Ontario

sailing on Lake Ontario

Canada

I also took in some of the local color....

Yep, I stopped in and tanned, $5. for 20 minutes - seemed like a bargain to me.

...and did some sightseeing.

The best part of my trip was visiting the school! These kids win the award for the best students ever, K-4, these guys were fabulous! And I can't say enough about the staff at New Haven Elementary! My visit was organized by their wonderful art teacher, Debbie Tagliareni - who set up a luncheon in my honor - complete with freshly roasted turkey! Tables of food - it was amazing!

Thank you so much for having me!

The older students measure out the size of a whale shark, basking shark, and reticulated python.

The younger students draw eyeballs along with me.

Play Ball!

People know that I am a Red Sox fan.

To celebrate her 14th birthday, my son Ryan gave me a pair of tickets so I could bring his sister Kerrin to last night's game.

Ryan popped in about the forth inning just to say hi - he and Lauren are now flying off to Italy. The plan is for them to bring back extra copies of Creature dell' oceano. I wish them a wonderful time!

Before, during, and after the game - Kerrin's evening was filled with birthday surprises.

From afternoon shopping on Newbury Street to an after the game bike taxi ride to Copley Square, Kerrin's birthday celebrating is off to a great start. Her actual birthday is May 6th.

It is unimportant that we lost 3-0 to Toronto. The season's still young....

Before the game we both tried on the actual World Series ring, sized for David Ortiz.

Priceless memories. :-)

Spring time

I'm having a glitch with my html on here, mostly with getting the pop-up and Alicia covers listed under The Books I Have Illustrated column. It is not my biggest priority in life - actually, it falls at the bottom of my Spring time to-do list. LOL!

Popping Out!

It is with great pleasure that I present images from my pop-up book.

Currently available in Europe, written in Italian and Spanish, copies can be purchased through this link: www.ilcastelloeditore.it

A visit to the Balch Elementary School

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Balch Elementary School in Norwood, MA. There I met wonderfully bright and enthusiastic students! How fabulous! I did four presentations and the kids were great! The students learned first hand the actual size of a whale shark, a basking shark, and a reticulated python - and which one is the largest!

I will be returning next month for parent's night on March 13.

I want to give a big thanks to library teacher Lora Roberts for asking me to come. She is really terrific and she made me feel very welcome! I look forward to returning.

busy...

I've simply been busy, working, working, working.... Countless hours everyday illustrating. Sleepless nights, groggy mornings.

In January Karlene donated 16 inches of her hair to Locks of Love. Soon I'll be kitty-sitting her cat Scout for her and her roomies while they head South for Spring break.

...back to work!

Ringing in 2008

I've been thinking of posting my New Year's resolutions. You see, I not only met all of 2007s, I surpassed them. This leaves me thinking long and hard on what I would like for my life the next 366 days....

A recap of 2007 is first in order.

I wanted to do more school visits - to that end I was very fortunate to have traveled across the US and up into Vancouver, BC. Along the way I met MANY marvelous people! If I remember 2007 for only one thing it would be for all the new friendships that I made. I believe I named most of the people along the way here on my blog, if you wasn't mentioned you remain near and dear to my heart.

I received new book contracts. My illustration career had a banner year.

The cliché resolution - to lose weight - I'm wearing my daughter's American Eagle size 4 junior jeans right now, I succeeded at that one, too.

To make more money, I'm still hanging in here.

To have more adventures... one that quickly pops into my mind was mountain biking. I went off a granite boulder, jumped a log, and took out a chunk of my ankle - the scar that was left leaves me smiling, recalling the adrenaline rush of the moment.

.... so, for 2008...

More book contracts
More school visits
More traveling
More adventures
More cash flow

let's add:

winning awards, and of course the Caldecott
trying skiing
finally making it to Florida
another trip to Europe
finding my soul-mate
finally meeting June Goulding, Paula Pertile and Barbara Lanza in person and not just talking to them on the phone
playing the drums... how will I ever master my ratamacues when I still mess up on my paradiddles?

Loved ones

Merry Christmas!

My Christmas was perfect! I spent it with my loved ones!

Thank you Ryan and Lauren for having us over.

Karlene and Scout Christmas morning

Ryan

Lauren and Ryan

Ryan, Kerrin, Lauren, Shennen, Karlene

Bethany, Kerrin, Lauren, Shennen, Karlene

A visit to the Mason Road School in Dudley MA

Today I had the fabulous experience of visiting the wonderful Mason Road School in Dudley MA!

What terrific students attend Mason Road! The school has Pre-K - grade 1, I did four one hour presentations to the kindergarten and first graders. Part of my presentation was having the students draw an eyeball along with me! Here I am working on mine.

My daughter Kerrin came along as a special guest - her school in Brockton, The Gilmore Academy, was closed this week due to a structural failure in the roof. Kerrin helped by taking these photos! Thanks sweetie!

My heartfelt thanks goes out to the staff at the Mason Road School who made us feel very much at home during our visit. I also want to thank librarian Debra Simpson for inviting me and organizing the day's events.

World Series trophies

I've been busy, really busy with my work... but all the kids and I made it down to Ryan and Lauren's for dinner last week and Ryan told us about this photo. He, too, has been busy - we caught him writing this Boston Globe article when we arrived (click on the link to read his article on the MIAA Division 2 Girl's Soccer Championship).

So, my question to Ryan is, why didn't you send me this pic? I had to nab it off of Bethany who took it from your Facebook.....

How cool is this! About as cool as Ryan texting me that he was in The Parade on the Yellow Duck Boat....

a Special thanks!

Each day Kerrin and Bethany bring joy into my life by their shear presence. Often I am serenaded with their music - each being first chair in their bands. Kerrin's sarcastic wit brings a smile to my face, Bethany's artistic nature warms my soul.

But my heartfelt thanks is publicly going out to my son Ryan who gave me the chance of a lifetime to attend the World Series - and on the Green Monster! Forget the fact that the weather made me sick, and I fell behind in my work - hey, we're talking the WORLD SERIES here and if you are a Red Sox fan you know what I mean.

Hey Ryan, do you recall going to your first game? Scott at Ski Town got a dozen bleacher seats, a rowdy crowd of 20 something ski bums drinking beer and I bring you with us - you was 3 years old! How many times did we do that? I can't even remember. I just know the seed was planted, you was hooked. A new generation of Red Sox Nation fan was made... and today yourself 20 something you work at Fenway. Amazing.

I also want to publicly thank my darling Karlene for giving me once again a fabulous birthday present, my haircut at Blu Salon on Newbury St. Boston. With my hair running most of the way down my back I saw a delighted look on Leila's face when I told her she had card blanche, "Just make me look like a Red Sox player's wife..." I said with a laugh. Of course the photo of me above doesn't do her work justice, nature runs it's course and Boston's humidity waved my perfectly straightened hair within a half an hour of leaving the salon. By today it's bouncy and cute, I just love it! Thanks Leila, love you Karlene!

AUTHOR and Illustrator Shennen Bersani

I just received a copy of the fall 2007 issue of Vineyard Style Magazine; let's take a peek at page 78:

The story runs onto page 79, a little tongue in cheek since my youngest is 13 and well out of the sandbox stage... here's the entire article and larger illustrations.

Only A Box Of Sand
Story and illustrations by Shennen Bersani

When I first decided to build my kids a sandbox I did what any tech-savvy single mom would do. I Googled.
And then I got a headache.
What in the world were these “design this and build that” web pages thinking. All I wanted was a wooden box with some ordinary sand so my city-bound kids could at least pretend they had a day at the beach once in a while.
I instead found dozens of complicated plans that an MIT student might stutter with, all requiring fancy tools and names of fasteners I never heard of. The rusty toolbox left behind in the wake of disintegrated marriage contained a hammer, a bent screwdriver and a pair of pliers that once closed, needed a whacking with the hammer to open. I have no idea what a worm-drive power saw is and no intention of finding out.
So I tried to think cheap, easy-to-build, and cat-proof. Remember, this project was meant to simulate a day at the beach, not a night in the litter box.
The guys at the big box store were very helpful. They told me that regular framing white spruce stock was the cheapest and the softest wood. I liked that. I would be able to drill easily when I needed to, and sand any rough edges. It might only last five to seven years before rot set in on the bottom, but by then we will be in Palm Beach anyway. Or to be more realistic, in seven years the kids would be long beyond sand boxes as a place of a good time.
My first thought was to reverse-engineer the box in light of the prime directive: Keep Cats Out. The cheapest and easiest lid on the box I thought would be an ordinary tarp. They come in all sizes, so after I surveyed my backyard for a flat spot, 8 feet by 8 feet was the perfect one. This turned out to be a magic number, since 8 x 8 tarps were only a few dollars, and framing spruce in 8-foot lengths – and 8, 10 and 12-inch widths – were standard, pre-cut sizes. I have no desire to pick up a power saw. How hard could it be to secure the lengths to each other and make a square box? If everything were already cut? Not very, I found out. I chose the 12-inch wood so it could hold lots of sand.
I asked the big-box store lumberyard guy if I could drill some small holes at the ends of the stock (so it wouldn’t split) and hammer it home into the other one. He said “good idea,” and called them “pilot holes, and a butt-joint.” I was learning the secret language of the carpenters’ union.
I showed him my little pencil sketch, the one I did on the shut-off notice from the electric company. On the corners of the box, my idea was to place little seats, which would also serve as the place I could easily tie down the tarp. He said, “good idea, that will brace it and keep the joint tight and square.” More secret carpenters’ lingo. He suggested, too, that I build it on my deck where it’s nice and flat, and have someone help me move it to the yard. I said to him, “good idea.”
And so I did. And it was so simple. To assemble the box I only used 12 nails. Since the framing stock is 1.5 inches thick, I drilled (with a tool I borrowed) my three “pilot holes” ¾ of an inch from the ends, 1.5 inches from the top and the same from the bottom, and one right in the middle. Nails and drill bits come in all kinds of sizes. Don’t try to memorize the numbers. Just make sure that your nails are about six inches long (the spiral kinds hold the best) and galvanized so they won’t rust. That way about four inches will “bite” into the butt end. And make sure your drill bit is about half the diameter of the nails. That way the “bite” will be tight, and wood won’t split.
Next put on the seats. The seats don’t need to be the same thickness as the spruce framing stock – though they can. Any one-inch boards, which are only ¾ inch thick (more trade secrets) will be fine. Here’s a trick to make them fit perfectly:
Go to the very point of the box corner and measure out exactly the same distance in both directions. Mark the spot on the outside of the 2 x12. Now place the seat stock on the box so the near side touches both of the marks on the 2 x 12. Look down. Is there just enough room to maneuver your fingers to tie down the tarp? Good. Now, hold the seat stock down, and with a pencil, trace the underside where it meets the 2 x 12. You have now marked it perfectly to be cut at the correct angle. Use it as template for the other three. The guy at the box store or a neighbor will be happy to cut them for you. Or if you want to try a skill saw, give it a shot. Attach the seats using 2-inch nails. You don’t need to bother with “pilot holes.” You will need to drill a hole in each seat in order to tie down the tarp.
Make sure you then sand the whole thing with some rough sandpaper so you have no splinters or sharp ends, especially at the corners.
As for sand, well, I got mine by calling a brick mason who for $50 filled the box with some lovely white stuff that looked as if it came from the Bahamas. But any ordinary sand will do, even from foundation holes. And if you have one of those plastic, five-gallon buckets, it’s easy to scrounge at the beach or some construction site – though you’ll need about 25 buckets.
And then, get set to watch the wonders of the world build the wonders of the world.
Just don’t forget to keep the cats out.

A little artistic license goes a long way...
The kids and surrounding sand were created with colored pencils, I then made a digital box and lawn and plopped them into it. Ryan is here with his youngest sister Kerrin, nine years his junior.

WaterFire - Breathtaking in its beauty

Last night Ryan and Lauren invited me and the girls down to spend the night and attend Providence's WaterFire.

I can only describe WaterFire with one word. Breathtaking.

The rain had stopped by noon and the weather couldn't have been better. We parked off of Hope St. and walked to downtown. Just outside of Brown are these fabulous streets and shops - totally reminiscent of Oak Bluffs, Marthas Vineyard on a warm summer night, hundreds of students from Brown and RISD lined the streets, smoking weed, drinking, just generally partying. We continued down College Hill to where thousands of adults were crowded about, music playing everywhere, venders selling food of all descriptions. Then there was the river and the fires. At every other turn there were street artists of all stripes, dancing, playing music, strutting their stuff. The sights, the sounds, the smells; WaterFire is an incredible feast for the senses! This is a Must See experience.

None of these photos have been retouched, their elegance and color comes raw from my camera. Click on the pics to enlarge them.

New 'do

The girls went back to school today, last night Kerrin donated her hair to Locks of Love. Her second donation in two years, she once again had a wonderful experience at the La Novita Salon in Randolph MA.

The last of the moves

The past few weeks I helped Ryan move, helped Karlene move into a temporary sublet of a sublet, and finally, yesterday I helped Karlene relocate to her new residence.

The last of the moves, it proved to be the most challenging in terms of parking and physical labor.

This street clearly was built during Paul Revere's lifetime, or earlier, when roads only had to be wide enough for horse passage. The alleys are still original cobblestone. The entire day was a backup of congestion and traffic jams. The locals sat outside on lawn chairs, drinking beers, watching the entertainment.

Karlene's room doesn't have a closet, so she found this Ikea wardrobe for sale on craig's list.

A delightful gal living in the South End was herself moving this weekend and the wardrobe wouldn't fit into her new place. She lived in the attic of this brownstone, four severe flights up.....

Karlene, my Mountaineer, and I went to pick it up - disassembled in two boxes, it was the worst, most heaviest thing I have ever moved! Pat, Karlene's boyfriend, had gone off to return the U Haul van - thank goodness he was back at the house when we returned! Surprisingly, Karlene still had strength to go on...

almost done...

done!

...as all four of my children get back into the groove of fall - it is time for me to meet my deadlines on a couple trade books and numerous educational illustrations.

I have three new books being released in 2008 -

Ocean Odyssey, A Zig Zag pop-up book
The Feeding Tree
My Sister, Alicia May

I'll update on these as the time draws near.

Summer endings

Yesterday was spent in the sunshine, as Bethany and her teammate Morgan honed their beach volleyball skills at the Newport Volleyball Club's end of the summer tournament.

My Ball!

Morgan is 6' 1" tall!

Kerrin and Ryan check out the surf.

sunburnt

Moving Day

I helped my son Ryan and his girlfriend Lauren move today from their fourth floor East Boston (aka Logan Airport runway) apartment to a third floor flat around the corner from Brown and RISD.

Lots of stairs!

So, what do you do with the big stuff? Break our necks like in Boston? Naw, go through the window~! Click on the photos to enlarge them.

housepainters were working outside today

let's start with the boxspring

Lauren has a twin sister Heather

ok, so let's try the sofa - the painter's ladder should come in handy

love seat? Piece of cake!

Thanks everyone!

...Tuesday, I help Karlene move

Dog Days of Summer

Kerrin is first flute in her middle school band. She practices everyday, often here in my room as I work.

It's magical listening to her.

She's been away at summer camp for two weeks; she has another ten days to go....

..days before she left we hung out at the Apple Store

She hasn't been away before, I miss having her about. I miss hearing her practice her flute.

The youngest of four, she has a lot to look up to. Her brother is a mathematical and linguistic genius. By her age, 13, he was already acing college Calculus. He took to Latin and Ancient Greek like child's play. When he tired of math, he worked at the Boston Globe - wrote numerous articles for their Sports Dept.; he's interned for the Boston Bruins, now works for the Red Sox.... How do you beat that?

Karlene found her own niche. She was in a national TV commercial, she's danced professionally with Boston Ballet... Gorgeous, tall, slender, brainy, she's working at a large Boston law firm - working her way to becoming a true Ally McBeal.

Bethany's strong willed, has a mind of her own. She is talent personified. With an IQ that rivals Ryan's, she has other interests than being academic Top Dog. She is a kick-ass volleyball player, a first-place long jumper, she is a gifted visual artist - winning a Silver Key in this past year's Boston Globe Scholastic Awards, she is first oboe in her high school band and Wind Ensemble. She masters everything she attempts - then, bored, usually walks away from it. This is my favorite link to her chess. After two years of slaughtering all the boys at her school, the day she beat Ryan she quit playing.

She and Kerrin play poker, loser washes the dishes.

So then there is Kerrin. She has brains, beauty, and talent to look up to. Does she falter under sibling rivalries? Nope, not one bit.

She earned her straight As in the same gifted and talented program from the same teachers that her older siblings had. Unlike all of them, she studies Chinese. She is the only person I know of who can beat Ryan at the game of Set. Instead of dancing, she is a blur of motion as a competitive majorette. Following her two older sisters' footsteps, she earned her spot as a starter on her school's volleyball team. And, as mentioned, she is a talented musician.

Kerrin's hair has grown considerably longer since this picture was taken. With the heart of an angel, when she returns from camp Kerrin will for the second time donate her hair to Locks of Love so a cancer patient may have a wig.

Back in January, after a classmate sent Kerrin the Meet your Meat web site, she became a staunch vegetarian. Articulate and intelligent, she will hold her own on any animal rights debate. After a few months of listening to her strong-willed opinions I myself went to the site. I decided to stand in solidarity with her - not so much for the animals' rights, but for health issues. Why eat arsenic-laced chicken breasts? What is healthy about that? You don't have to believe there is arsenic in your chicken, but it is rather logical if you realize that it takes enormous amounts of feed to 'feed' the chickens - those grains have rat poison on them to control the rodents it attracts - the chickens eat the rat poison, you ultimately eat the arsenic. Chicken just tasted rubbery and unpleasant after I learned all that.

I will admit that as soon as I dropped Kerrin off at camp, while I drove down the mountainside, I turned to Bethany and told her that I desired a cheeseburger. My friends listened to this hunger pain for a couple of days, too. So Bethany goes to Unos, has one, and comes home looking ill - "It didn't taste good Mom, honest, it just wasn't worth it."

I haven't indulged.

So, what is Kerrin eating? She wrote me a letter; she is eating donuts for breakfast, yogurt for lunch, and mashed potato sandwiches and cooked carrots for dinner. I can just hear her informing campers what disgusting ingredients are in those roasted wieners they are consuming! She is an ace.

We miss you Pumpkin. I'm getting dish-pan hands! LOL!

Reflections

So my Mountaineer's engine is dead, which didn't get me down until yesterday when the rear tire came off my bike a mile from home and the lawn mower choked and coughed it's last breath...

Fortunately I have photos of Italy on my wall - they can brighten the darkest day.

Bethany, Kerrin, and I went to Italy in April 2004. We traveled south to north. Karlene also went, she traveled north to south. At one point we left a hotel in Florence before lunch and Karlene checked in after lunch. She and I called each other, exchanged journey stories, and racked up a fabulous phone bill. Worth every penny.

We left poor Ryan back at BU, he was in class minoring in Italian!

I took over 1,000 digital photos. Here's just a couple. First off, what the heck is with this hair? Kerrin laughed herself silly when I told her that I was going to post this - why not laugh at myself??

Me, in the subway in Rome - notice my reflection behind me.

What's not to love about the Ponte Vecchio? I got hypoglycemic after crossing it and required some gelato. Tough, I know.

Now this one is a personal favorite. Here is Bethany with her younger sister Kerrin. Guess what? Kerrin is taller than Bethany now!!

You never can go wrong with a couple of gondolas. When I was a child we always ate at a local Italian restaurant - I can still see the red gondola printed on the take-out pizza box lid. I dreamed of traveling down the Grand Canal. ...it was better than I dreamt.

We were told that this was one of the holding cells for Christians - umm, waiting to meet the lions - in the Colosseum.

Oh No! Androcles, watch out!!

phew!! Androcles gets freed!!

illustrations by Shennen Bersani © McGraw-Hill 2002

Okay, so I got a little silly there - those were from Androcles and the Lion; a flash from my illustrating past. Here's what the interior of the Colosseum really looks like:

Let's leave Italy on a cheerful note!

flowers in Milan

Inside and Outside

Barbara has been urging me to take fresh photos of my studio space, I made it as far as taking a pic of my latest addition - an orchid.

I took the butterfly photo last year and the skate eggs on the wall are from Ocean Counting Odd Numbers.

As my work continues on The Feeding Tree I felt a compulsion to put up a couple of bird feeders in my front yard. Here is a baby robin who visited my fence.

In the book the family makes homemade feeders, here is my first study of one for the book - this illustration got published in the current issue of Vineyard Style Magazine. My illustration of the feeder for the book will be in technicolor! LOL!!

Over the years the great thing about Vineyard Style Magazine is that John and Charlie have given me leeway to be experimental with my illustrations. The next issue will show a different side of me.

The Journey Home - The Beginning

I grew up in Weymouth, MA with one kid sister, Holly McNeil. I spent my childhood looking out for her, loving her, forever frustrated that I couldn't communicate with her as a peer. She has Down syndrome. Today, very healthy and active, she is 40 years old and I am her legal guardian.

Holly age 7, Christmas, 1973

Holly age 40, myself 45, Christmas, 2006

My daughter Karlene, 20, took this photo of me and Holly last Christmas. Holly, just shy of 4'11", told her niece Karlene, 5'9", "When I grow up I'm gonna be tall like you Karlene!"

Just recalling the conversation still makes me weepy.

On our mother's deathbed so many, many years ago, I promised my mother that I would look after Holly. As I have found, some promises are hard to keep - and some ghosts never lie down.

With four children in a five room house there hasn't been any room for Holly to stay with me, other than an occasional slumber on my couch. She lives with a wonderful caregiver, Phyllis. She attends an adult day program. She has her own friends, she has a warm, caring disposition. She likes to write long letters and sends them in the mail. She loves music, she loves to sing and dance.

Living in the present.

A couple of months ago I found myself working on two British mass market book projects and a trade book for Mitten Press, The Feeding Tree. I received an email from publisher X asking to see my portfolio. I assembled it and drove off to the post office. While I was in the parking lot I received a phone call from editor Jean Cochran at Pleasant Street Press. She had found me on childrensillustrators.com and was very impressed with my work. She told me about her press, was surprised at the coincidence that she was in Raynham, MA and I was only a stone's throw away in Brockton - but she had found me on a British website. We found it more coincidental that we both had graduated from Weymouth North High - a school that no longer exists. I graduated a few years before she attended, I eventually got married and moved here to Brockton.

We were having a nice conversation until she said, "Let me tell you about the book! It's the story of two sisters told from the older one's perspective, the younger one has Down syndrome...."

I went completely silent, barely speaking, "You couldn't have known... you couldn't have known this about me..."

Mother's Day

On Mother's Day my son Ryan came home to help me clean the yard and mow my lawn. I told him about the book. He pointed out the dates, Jean and Holly had attended Weymouth North High School together. He said this book was written for me to illustrate.

My conversations with Barbara went along the same lines, that I was meant to illustrate this book.

A couple weeks went by, reliving my childhood. I knew an emotional journey for me was just beginning. Reading the manuscript choked me up. The floodgates of emotions and memories overwhelmed me.

I knew I had to illustrate the book; I was certain that I could bring to it the sparkle of my own shared experiences. My heart was filled with love for the two girls. I knew I had to meet with them. This past Wednesday I did. Jean and I met at author Nancy Tupper Ling's house and Jean drove us to Southern Connecticut. There we met with the girls, their younger sister, and their mom Cheri.

Alicia and Rachel

Donna highly recommended that I write a journal, capturing the details and progress I make as I take on this assignment.

To that end, I want to thank Michael Palmer for suggesting the wonderful book Born Early and his editor, Jennifer Enderlin, for describing in detail for me the heart surgery her son underwent. One scene in the book has Rachel holding Alicia after her heart surgery - but their mom Cheri didn't take a photo of this as it was too painful. With the generous help from others, I hope to lovingly illustrate this moment in Alicia's young life.

The Journey Begins

Beautifully written by Writer's Digest Grand Prize award winning author Nancy Tupper Ling.

MY SISTER, ALICIA MAY
8 x 10, 32 pgs - hard cover
Nancy Tupper Ling
Illustrated by Shennen Bersani

Summary
Based on the lives of two real sisters, My Sister, Alicia May touches on the joys and challenges of growing up with a sibling who has Down syndrome. Exquisitely written with humor and compassion by Nancy Tupper Ling, this book expresses beautifully that both sisters are, indeed, very special girls. Ages 5 & up.

Available Fall 2008.

My personal thanks already (and will often) go out to Jean, Nancy, and Cheri.

Going International

The translation rights to Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers was sold to Korea Hemingway, a Korean publisher.

bers

scenes from Ocean Counting: Odd Numbers

My double page spread Monarch on the Move first published in chickaDEE Magazine, June 2006 was translated as Monarque en migration and republished in Les eXplorateurs, Mai 2007.

two of the six illustrations from Monarque en migration

A visit to Erie PA

The past two days I have been in Erie, PA. I have been to PA countless times in my life visiting my mother's large Pennsylvania Dutch family, but I had never gone as west as Erie. The city surpassed all of my preconceived expectations! Not only are the people wonderful (a fabulous basket full of Erie souvenirs and homemade banana-nut bread was waiting in my hotel room for me - thanks to the thoughtful women from OLCS), but the Lake is simply gorgeous in this location!

I thought that I was on Cape Cod!

I was greeted at the airport by Our Lady's Christian School's librarian Nancy Andersen. After a quick stop to one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at, the Bel-Aire Clarion, Nancy brought me out to dinner. Here we met up with a number of other OLCS teachers:

Yesterday I gave presentations to all the students, K-8. It was heartwarming to me to have the kindergarten children wholeheartedly applaud every time one of my illustrations came up on the screen! And it was equally rewarding to have the junior high students engrossed in my presentation, asking me well thought out, purposeful questions.

These kids are top notch. One of their fellow classmates, a fifth grader named Brittany, is in Children's Hospital awaiting a heart transplant. In one day's time, these kids raised over $5,000. to help her family!

Another impressive thing the OLCS students are doing is in the Erie community. They have been working with an artist-in-residence to create glass birds which will be displayed for one year in the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle.

The birds will be hung in the tower, flying free beyond the glass windows.

The students have already been preparing the inside walls of the tower. Nancy Andersen brought me to visit the TREC to show me poetry the kids have already written on the walls in chalk.

In addition to our visit to the TREC, Nancy gave me a tour of the Peninsula. I was captivated by the sight of little houses anchored on the lake.

My many thanks go out to Nancy, Jeanne, and the rest of the Author Day Committee for making my visit so memorable!

Playing in Boston's Symphony Hall

Today my daughter Bethany played her oboe in Boston's Symphony Hall.

She is part of Brockton High's Wind Ensemble. They recently competed in the MICCA Festival. MICCA stands for the Massachusetts Instrumental & Choral Conductors Association. Under the direction of conductor Vincent Macrina, the Wind Ensemble earned Gold in the recent competition.

Stars at Symphony was a presentation of all the Gold winners.

Brockton High's Wind Ensemble enters Symphony Hall.

Congratulations!!

A visit to the Liverpool Elementary School, Liverpool, NY

A visit to the Liverpool Elementary School - otherwise known as; What DOES Mom do when she is away??

I just returned hours ago from a three day trip to Liverpool NY. Since this is April Vacation Week in Massachusetts I took along my daughters Bethany and Kerrin.

When I travel, the girls are always curious as to just what I do... now they know:
I give presentations, I give workshops on how to make books, I sign my own books....

I spent two mornings giving presentations to K-6th grade, and two afternoons giving book making workshops to the third graders.

The entire staff at LE were phenomenal! Many thanks for the breakfast and lunch they provided us Thursday and Friday; and a special thanks go to art teacher Debbie Walsh and librarian Doreen Bergman for coordinating my visit. I won't soon forget you gals... extra thanks for the LE Gaters tee shirts!

In the book making workshops the third graders wrote their own alphabet books and illustrated pages from the book. I scanned in each page while I was at the school and I will print and bind them together for the kids over this weekend.

Windows make terrific lightboxes for tracing!

I thought this photo was funny - from this angle, it looks like the young girl is picking my nose...

LE is in the Village of Liverpool, just outside of Syracuse, NY and on the shore of lovely Onondaga Lake.

A visit to the Lincoln Elementary School, Grand Island, Nebraska

I returned home today after spending Monday and Tuesday at the Lincoln Elementary School in Grand Island Nebraska. Monday I gave five presentations and Tuesday I did one presentation and ran two workshops to future authors and illustrators.

Photo credit, Lane Hickenbottom, The Grand Island Indepentent full story: http://www.theindependent.com/stories/040307/new_illustrator03.shtml

During my workshops I gave the students one of my own assignments - an ocean pop-up book - to work on. Here we try to unravel the engineering of the folds.

...and here students work independently

I am interviewed for a school project.

My thanks to Maura Hendrickson for taking these photos.

This was my first time visiting Nebraska - and I LOVED it! I flew in from Denver on a small 20 seat plane to the sight of migrating flocks of sandhill cranes and was greeted by my host, Lincoln Elementary Integration Specialist, Maura Hendrickson. Maura showed me the sights of Nebraska - acres of cornfields, a one-room school house, small towns. I had a terrific time, making new friends, seeing new sights, visiting a wonderful school with bright, enthusiastic children!

A special thanks to Maura for all her help. She is a fabulous asset to her school!

I hope that my travels bring me back to Nebraska soon!

This stagecoach's last stop.

A one room schoolhouse.

A small town.

farm roads through the cornfields

from the airplane, cornfields as far as the eye can see...

A visit to the John Marshall School in East Hampton, NY

Oh the places you will go when you read (illustrate) a book......

Yesterday I visited the John Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton, NY. Wow, what a lovely location, I had never been to the Hamptons before and I was delighted by the ocean views and quaint seaside towns.

These kids were tremendous! I thank librarian Danielle Schuster for her wonderful hospitality.

Monday night I had a chance to do some site seeing. I stayed at the East Hampton House Resort and the hotel's staff was very helpful in directing me to the best eateries and 'sites'. I took a ride down to the historic Montauk Point Lighthouse.

Deer were grazing on the front lawn. Simply breathtaking.

Caught in the act in NY

Sweet Ruth McNally Barshaw captured me, again this year, in her SCBWI Midyear sketchbook.

Ruth keeps a record of the conference's events in sketchbook format, please check it out - SCBWI NY 2007 - her sketches are fabulous! And they helped land her her own book, ELLIE MCDOODLE: HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL which will debut on May 1st!!!

I wish you a world of success Ruth! I have seen the advance copy - it is great! Everybody, go out and buy it.

A Visit to the LCHS, Rogersville, Alabama

Each school that I visit touches my heart in a special way, yesterday I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting LCHS (Lauderdale County High School) in Rogersville, AL.

But, let me start from the beginning of my trip....

Thursday I head off out of Providence RI... I have a layover in Washington DC. I have previously skirted the city, but I haven't actually 'been to DC', so, while I had another week of US Air delays (giving me ample time to read The Fifth Vial), I also had a chance to sight see from the airport window:

...and later from the plane:

I flew into Huntsville, then drove 50 miles west to the Joe Wheeler State Park Resort. Thursday night's accommodations were at a lodge, miles into a state park. I drove in the dark, my headlights the only glow in the sooty darkness - occasionally spooking an opossum or raccoon family out of hiding. I was leery that I was traveling in the right direction - until I eventually came across the lodge....

It was a spectacular wood and stone building - the inviting smell of warmth wafting from the fireplace... the scent of Southern Hospitality in the air. But the best was yet to come, I awoke to this view of the marina from my balcony yesterday morning:

paradise

I soon headed off to the LCHS and was greeted outside by their wonderful librarian, Vicky Nelson. Gosh, is she a wonderful woman! She had baked me a cake and also had fresh breakfast crescents, water, and orange juice waiting for me in the library.

For me to say that the students of LCHS were fabulous children would be an understatement! They were some of the best kids I have met - filled with warmth and hugs for me, personal stories, and inquisitive questions!

I left them an apple to remember me by:

The Fifth Vial

I'm going to put a plug in here for my friend Michael Palmer's newest book, The Fifth Vial. The book is currently #18 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction list.

I picked up my copy last month at Michael's book launch party - a very nice time where Michael read out loud to us in attendance. (I always love it when authors read their own words... there always is so much emotion in their voices.)

I have been reading The Fifth Vial while I have been traveling, in airports, on planes, biting my fingernails as I look over my shoulder... this is a suspenseful medical thriller. Basically it 'feels' all too real. What if a sample of your blood is tissue typed and put into a massive database without your knowing it? What if you are the perfect match for a person of wealth or power and they need your organ? Who has the right to play God? Who is to say whose life is more important - say, a poor farm worker or a teenage virtuoso? And then the plot thickens...

Palmer fans will find all their favorites, locales of Boston, pet cats, hints at the supernatural, and a plot that makes you think.

Of course what I find the most fascinating is catching all the inserts from Michael's personal life tossed in. For instance, Ben the detective mentions that his zodiac sign is Libra. Wouldn't you know that Michael's birthday is October 9th.... also note that Michael's grandson's name is Ben, but I'm not sure if he's also a Libra - I'll have to remember to ask.

So I am about half way through the book, I am looking forward to tomorrow's trip to Alabama (again), I have a date with a killer.....

Young Authors Conference in Shelby County Alabama

Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting to the third graders at the Young Authors Conference in Shelby County Alabama.

Third graders from Shelby County find out just HOW big a whale shark is.

I flew into Birmingham on Friday, leaving terrible weather behind in Boston, losing my luggage along the way.... Upon arrival I went to dinner at Fox Valley Restaurant in Helena with program director Heather Mays, her husband, and authors Marsha Diane Arnold, Patricia Hermes, and Laurence Pringle. It was a nice treat to dine with such wonderful company!

Mrs. Mays coordinated some very impressive speakers for this year's conference.

Saturday we arrived early to the Thompson High School in Alabaster - there I also had the pleasure of meeting author Charles Ghigna and story teller (Times magazine writer) Verna Gates (Verna spent the next day in Selma with the Clintons and wrote about it for Time.com).

I was greeted by University students and a delightful third grade mother named Robin. I can't speak enough of the wonderful Southern hospitality that I received.

I gave three presentations to third graders, students who were chosen to attend this year's conference after writing and illustrating their own books in their classrooms. Students from 19 schools were bussed in for the day's activities - which also included story telling and face painting. It was a remarkable experience for me to see such enthusiastic kids! At book signing time, I looked through countless books written by the children, I saw some absolutely gorgeous illustrations and read some delightful stories!

Then, flying home Saturday night, I saw the lunar eclipse from the plane window - what an amazing ending to such a delightful weekend!

Boston Globe Scholastic Awards

Bethany photographing her print, Sink or Swim.

Bethany informs me that her piece was hung upside down - this is how she created it.

On Sunday, while I was in NYC, the Boston Globe had the ceremony for the Massachusetts Scholastic Art Awards.

My daughter, Bethany, won a Silver Key this year for one of her prints.

Today we went to see the winners on display.

Winning is becoming a family tradition. In 2004, Karlene, my eldest daughter's photography portfolio won a Gold Key and was sent to NYC.

Which brings me to me. I credit where I am today because of my own winning roots. It wasn't enough to be a straight A student in art all through high school, I wanted to attend art school and my mother disagreed. She sternly stated her opinion; she said that I didn't have the talent, that I wasn't any good. Somewhere, deep inside of me, I disagreed with her. Getting chosen by Scholastic solidified my resolve, commitment, and determination. I felt that if they thought that I was talented, then my mother was wrong. As a high school student, seeing my pen and ink drawing on display in Boston was a life changing experience for me.

I took out school loans and put myself through the Art Institute of Boston. I believed in myself. I chose to follow my heart and my dreams.

I don't regret my decision for a moment. My mother passed away shortly after I finished up at AIB, before my career began....

Today, years later, I have a successful career as an illustrator. And I have been hired numerous times by both the Boston Globe and Scholastic. So, Miss Bethany, I could not be more proud of you! Follow your dreams, my angel, and allow them to take you to new heights. I'll always be there to support you.