from the BRG archives: QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused ?

Our question of the week is:What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused?

ALVINA:
What outside influences do you use to keep yourselves focused?

This is a somewhat ambiguous question--so many ways to answer it! When it comes to my job, it's all about people. I'm influenced by my coworkers and wanting to be good to work with and do a good job; by the authors and illustrators I work with, not wanting to let them down; I'm influenced by the librarians, teachers, parents, booksellers, and others who will read the books I work on; I'm influenced by the knowledge of the reader I am and the memory of the reader I once was as I child; and lastly I'm especially influenced by the child reader that I'm trying to reach, what I think they will love.

I also do have some inspirational quotations up in my office to help me keep things in perspective. One is "Follow your compass, not your clock" which is something I heard at a talk given by Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon. Someone had said this to her when she was trying to make a big career decision amd was conflicted, and I love to think about it when I get frustrated with work, or start thinking that I should be at a higher level, etc. I think, my clock might be saying I'm ready for something else, but my compass is telling me what is most important.

Another quotations is one I commented on in Grace's "Hope and Beauty" post above. "It is Simple. We are where we should be, doing what we should be doing, otherwise we would be somewhere else, doing something else."

And one last quote is from college. I think my roommate Grace (a different Grace!) penned it when we were stressing about midterms or finals. "Feel a sense of inner peace. Do your best. It's never too late!"



ANNA:
One thing that always brings me back to focusing is looking at work that inspires me, and reminds me why I wanted to make books in the first place. This is one of my all time favorite books. It awes me on so many levels. The quiet, perfect pacing, the understated storytelling, the somewhat unresolved, haunting ending.

This book brings me back to my desk for other reasons as well- my older sister gave it to me as a birthday present when I was applying to college. Chris Van Allsburg taught at RISD, and this was one of the deciding factors in my decision to go there to study illustration. So I guess this book also reminds me of all the hope and excitement I felt taking my first real step towards being an illustrator.

GRACE:
Well, I like to write when things are completely quiet with no distractions; I do have a music mix on my ipod I listen to when I paint.

But the one thing I’ve always done is make a folder for my work (I posted a photo of a couple of them to the left). I have a penchant for beautiful paper, making folder portfolios gives me an excuse to buy and use it (though I have a lot more paper than my folders need!). Usually I make the folder at the start of a project—as an incentive to fill it! The folder is a visual reminder for me to keep focused.

Here is my most recent folder made for the art of Lissy's Friends! I just had to post it because I love that bunny paper.



LINDA:
Definitely other people's art. I can get really inspired by a landscape, most especially skies and clouds, but often I end up feeling overwhelmed with the idea of trying to capture glorious reality. Seeing what choices other artists have made to come to their own conclusions of beauty is what gets me motivated to try my own version. I've been most certainly overwhelmed with the prospect of painting the landscapes of northern Tibet for my next book, until I found Nicholas Roerich's paintings of the same thing. His simplified paintings burst with colour, vastness, and desolation. Now I'm itching to get painting again.

Also, music. I could not work without music. Before I paint, I turn it up, I dance like crazy, I spin a baton, I get energy moving in my studio and my body, and then I sit down, and funnel it into my hands. (Did I just admit that in public?)

First published August 27th, 2006

Question of the week: How are you procrastinating?

Grace: I keep going to secondhand stores and looking for old dry good containers to enlarge my homonym garden. These are my most recent finds:

Anna: Searching for the perfect present for my Uncle's 70th birthday tomorrow. So far I have The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a trashy mystery novel, and some Deadwood DVDs... just need one more thing to top it off...

Alvina: Watching the Olympics, of course! I wrote a little more about my obsession on my personal blog here.

Libby: Setting up a bowl for REAL goldfish, who I got thanks to______ 's comment on this blog. Goldfish are more interesting than I would have thought -- did you know that their color comes from exposure to the sun? At the pet store they had some black ones and some white ones, too.

I chose one small one (Swift) and one larger one (Sure) -- the names come from a ship, The Swiftsure, commanded by my heroine's father.

Here they are on their way home from the pet store, looking kind of freaked out:

And here they are at home:

Anya upstairs (a graduate student who specializes in fish) told me that goldfish can only remember things for 3 seconds, but I don't think this can be right, because at first they were fascinated by the fake fish at the bottom of the tank (not the little red ones, the big orange one with a tail). Now they ignore it. They liked the starfish, too, but now they ignore that. I will move the tank around and add new shells often so they don't get bored; and if they seem bored, or start getting whiter, I'll bring them back to the big tank at the pet store.

PS Everyone will, I hope, notice an improvement in my photography soon when I start taking pictures with my new camera instead of my cell phone. But I know from experience that setting up any new device takes more time than I want to put into that right now. The fish were enough procrastination for today!

Question of the week: HOW ARE YOU PROCRASTINATING?

Grace: I keep thinking about making curtains, even though I don't have the time and am a poor sewer. But the fabric at Ikea keeps calling to me...which one do you like better?

Libby: Doing things in here that SEEM LIKE work but are actually not necessary -- or at least, not necessary right at that moment.

I admit that I am really proud of this garden -- as our loyal readers may remember, I started it last summer, with the help of the landlord's kids. It's the first garden I've ever had and I grew all the flowers from seed.

Anna: Playing with the wild stray kittens we have locked in our bathroom! How could I resist? They are the cutest kitties in the whole wide world, sigh.

Elaine: Playing with Jack, the new yellow lab that my daughter's boyfriend got recently. Look at Jack. Can you blame me?

Alvina: I haven't been procrastinating too badly this week, because I've been on vacation until Wednesday, and then had to dive right back into work. But I guess the two things that have been distracting me lately are:

1) watching the second season of America's Best Dance Crew. Those of you who read my personal blog know that I was a big Jabbawokeez fan last season. This season I love Super Cr3w. But Fanny Pak had the standout routine this week:

• MTV



• Music Videos



• MTV Shows



• Entertainment News

2) Making preparations for various birthday celebrations--it's my 34th on Wednesday the 16th. And that means a whole birthday week is in store!

Question of the week: What's on your mind?

We're keeping this one as open-ended as possible. So--what's been on your mind this week?

MEGHAN: 

I finally finished this painting. Now it can move out of my mind. 

Also, boxes... they're on my mind. This one is almost finished, called Box #1: Hot Title

Alvina: I've been saving for a new computer for almost a year, and had decided on a laptop. But then, PC or Mac? I almost bought a MacBook yesterday, and then had to decide--black or white? But I got cold feet. Anyone have an opinion?

Grace: Did I choose the right color for the tiles?Anna: Just found a fab new handmade jewelry shop on Etsy, love the earrings... internet shopping is the only distraction I am allowed until my book is done next week...

Elaine: Shopping and packing for my trip to New Mexico on Tuesday...and a poetry collection that I've been working on diligently and hope to finish in the next few weeks. (Alvina, my husband just got a MacBook Pro and loves it! His computer is white.)

Libby: My friend Adam (7) is very interested in money, so it was natural to explain royalties to him and that most writers don't make much.He nodded as though that made TOTAL sense, and said with feeling,

"A lot of books are really boring."

I've been unable to get this comment out of my mind.

What's been on your minds?

Question of the week: HOW ARE YOU PROCRASTINATING?

This week's Question of the Week is "How are you procrastinating?"

We all do it, come on, fess up! How are you procrastinating this week? Add your answer to the comments...

Anna: By watching episodes of Clean House. Sometimes I need a little Niecy Nash.

Grace: I keep going to Craigslist and looking at vespas for sale. And I don't even have the motorcycle license one needs to ride or own one!

Elaine: I’m only dabbling in major cleaning projects and gardening around my house at the moment--telling myself that “I can work on that tomorrow.” Instead, I’ve been relaxing in the sun in hopes of getting a little color before we head for New Mexico on June 24th. I’ve also wasted time when the weather was beastly playing solitaire on my computer in my air-conditioned office.

Meghan: stabbing paint tubes, painting Elvis, eating cheese doodles, taking pictures of my bruises, watching Style Wars, taking photographs of graffiti, going to work.

Alvina: By shopping on etsy.com, and watching reality television, especially Top Chef and Jon & Kate Plus Eight.

Question of the week: picture book manuscripts

It's been quite a while since we've answered a question of the week (this was our last one), and we're ashamed to say that this question was asked a long long time ago. But better late than never!

If you'd like to send us a question of the week to answer, feel free to put it in the comments section below, or email us at bluerosegirls at gmail dot com.

How do you read, evaluate, and think about picture book manuscripts?

This question may be answered by all of us throughout the week, so keep checking back!


ALVINA:
When I review manuscript submissions, I look for beauty in the writing, whether it makes me laugh, moves me, if the characters come alive, and most of all, if it surprises me--if the concept is original. I also consider whether I can envision what the illustrations would look like, if I can see the finished product in my head, if there are good illustrative possibilities. But as our company has cut back a bit on the picture books we publish, originality really is a key. Will this book stand out in the market? Would I pick it up as I scanned the shelves in the bookstore? I also look to see if there's a "hook" in the text--can it be promoted with a holiday or event, such as back to school or Valentine's Day? That's always a plus. It's also partly a gut reaction (a "blink" if you will).

In addition, I do have many illustrators that I work with or would love to work with, and I'm always keeping an eye out for a text that would match their style, so that comes into play, too.

ANNA:
When I am sent a manuscript to consider illustrating, I look for a tone that is similar to some aspect of my illustration approach and style. Something that I think will merge well with my work, a quality that inspires me, makes me itchy to draw. Usually I can tell right away if its something I want to work on. There has to be some aspect of the storytelling (subject, description, style) that relates to my vision as a visual storyteller.

GRACE:
These days I don't do too much illustrating for other authors; I've found writing and illustrating my own work incredibly rewarding and hard to let go of. Usually I only consider illustrating someone else's story if 1)it's a person whom I know is sensitive to my style and is used to my visual voice 2)the story is great something I wish I had written myself 3)it's a story that lends itself well to my particular style 4) I feel a real connection to the words and subject matter. The last is probably the most important.

MEGHAN
I look for text that flows well from one page to another…text that maintains my interest…and text that has a good arch. An author/illustrator's MS will look different because an illustrator can (and should) put part of the story in the art. It's hard to come up with something truly original--most stories are bits and pieces from others--but I also want to see originality. For me, doing nonfiction gives me that opportunity. I'm writing about something that really happened! I like to pick out quirky stories that people wouldn't normally think would make for a good kids' story. I am always on the hunt for original, funny, and different ideas. That's what it's all about! When I buy a book I know I love it. I can usually tell after the first quick read. You should know whether you like something instinctually--don't over think it!