What are you doing down there?

Third in a series of unknown numbers!

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How Martha Signs book in Portland!

I will be reading and signing copies of my newest picture book, How Martha Saved Her Family from Green Beans at the entirely appropriately named, Green Bean books in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, May 4th. Stop by around 2 to join in the fun. Drop in about 1:45 to see me sweating and worrying that I forgot what I was going to say.

Green beans are welcome as long as they behave. I’ll read, draw some beans and answer questions about green beans. But I won’t pick any green beans up. They bite.

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What are you doing up there?!

Second in a series…

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West Linn Library invaded by bad beans!

If you’re in the area stop by the West Linn Public Library on Tuesday around 4:30 (that link is to more info on the event from the local paper) and you’ll get a book reading, I’ll attempt a few drawings, the kids will get to do some drawing activities and there’s a raffle for two of my books!

This is part of the continuing celebration of the publishing of How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans, the best picture book of 2013, written by David LaRochelle. OK…So maybe it’s not THE BEST picture book of 2013. I’m just saying it’s a good book…and I’m sure kids of all ages will love the book and the event at the library.

See you there.

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What are you doing in there?

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Red Balloons and Green Beans

Some nice pics from a wonderful event at Red Balloon Bookshop in Minnesota on Sunday the 21st to celebrate the release of How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans. My thanks to author David LaRochelle and many thanks to the marvelous Red Balloon Bookshop for being a gracious host!

And it was wonderful meeting so many friends and book fans whether they eat green beans or not!

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It’s the Martha book trailer.

Book trailers. They don’t give out an Academy Award for them – yet.

Here’s a trailer for How Martha Saved her Parents from Green Beans. If you haven’t picked up your three copies of the book yet, order soon. Remember, when ordering new books it’s alwasy best to have several extra to lend out or give as gifts. How many times have you been excited to get that new book and BAM! There’s a flash flood and that book is just so much moist tissue paper. Too bad you didn’t have an extra copy of that book, carefully wrapped in protective plastic.

A few notes about this book trailer. It cost about 19 million to make and took almost a year of post production. We lost a great deal of the live action footage when several external hard drives failed after being used as cutting boards. The actors had already moved to their next films and there was no way to get Ben Affleck and Meryl Streep back to the set. So this 35 seconds is all we got…

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Pogle…

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If it feels like work…

When I am not walking the dogs, trying to avoid cooking or getting speeding tickets in West Linn I sit at my desk and try and write books.

This should be the great pleasure in my life, no? I have strived and worked towards having this opportunity for many years. I feel increadibly fortunate to be doing it. I continue to do other types of work as well:  design, sculpture, animation and illustration, but having had  two picture books acquired as well as writing and drawing a graphic novel for Chronicle Books, I was thrilled to actually get results from all the hundreds, if not thousands, of stories that I have written that never made it off my monitor. In fact, many never even got an ending. At least a good one.

But sitting here writing ‘books’ it feels pretty much like work. It IS work. I’m reminded every time I feel like walking away from what I am writing. What I am TRYING to write. It’s challenging and can be creative, and fun and I feel amazingly lucky to be getting the time to pursue this. But it’s also good-old-fashioned, irritating, stress inducing work.

Now, back to work.

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This is no ordinary stuffed bean…

I was trying to get laundry in the dryer when I heard a knock at the door. By the time I opened it all I saw was a box sitting on the welcome matt. A box that seemed to be moving slightly. I picked it up and heard muffled exclamations coming from inside. Before I had gotten back to the kitchen the box was opening on its own and out popped one ornery bean!

Obviously he jumped off the pages of How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans, a new picture book written by David LaRochelle and illustrated by some guy from Oregon by way of Minnesota and Wisconsin and California. And now this bean is here to stay.

This totally too-cool Bean was made by the super talented Jody Rice. You can check out some of the cool beans stuff she sells at her Etsy store. As they say, ‘You’ll never be disappointed in a Satsuma Street Design!’ (And a Lannister always pays their debts.) But sorry, this bean is not for sale. He’s the rarest of green beans. A one of a kind.

But check out her Etsy store for all your cross stitching desires.

This bean enjoys yelling things at the neighbors from my dining room windows.

You will notice that this stuffed bean is a perfect replica of the baddest bean in the book. You can see him and his bean minions below. As grandpa used to say, “Never trust a green bean with a hat.” Of course grandpa also warned me to make sure I kept the monkeys out of the cheese.

Order your copy of How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans before it’s too late. And remember, always order three copies of new books. What if one gets water spilled on it from the night table? Or perhaps it is left alone with an excitable 3 year old and RIP! Keep an extra on hand so at least one book stays in mint condition.

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