Happy February!
Every month I stop what I'm doing to give an update about my progress with
my latest children's picture book. But this month, I was so overwhelmed with
getting the artwork finished, I couldn't stop. I finally finished and THE
MERMAID is at the printers. Before that final step is taken though, Marikka, the
art designer at Penguin, puts all of the type in place. As I do the pages, I
send very accurate scans of the artwork, but I always have changes in the
wording. With so few words in a picture book every word is carefully chosen. The
general rule for an author- illustrator like me is that if I can show it in the
illustrations, I don't elaborate as much with words. Marikka is very thoughtful
about how she breaks the lines of type. It's an art in itself. She also chooses
the display type, the often ornamental letters of the title and of my name that
appear on the book's jacket, and on the title page. I was excited to see she
also used an ornamental capital to begin the first sentence, something that was
done extensively in olden times and that captivated me as a child. I can
remember being carried away by a picture book about the Arabian Nights' stories
set in the Middle East. The display type was beautifully rendered in gold
letters, fitted with jewels. I have never forgotten the pull those letters had
on me. I just had to open that book and see inside. Now that I have the
Internet, maybe I could find a copy of that book. My dearest hope is that a
child will see the seaweed like curl of the letters spelling THE MERMAID and
they will be drawn to my book in the same way. It is always a very unique part
of the creative process to do the final bits. In my mermaid story, once I looked
at it finished, I felt the octopuses looked too menacing. They do truly turn red
when charged up, but I wanted to walk a fine line between the octopuses being
protective and of them being menacing. I got to admire this unusual and
intelligent creature when I had a hands on encounter with Sy the octopus at the
New England aquarium, and I didn't want children to get the impression that they
were scary. When I do the front material, which includes the title page I have a
chance to set the spirit of the book. I painted the mermaid's beautiful tiara,
which she later gives as a gift to the baby octopus. By illustrating it on the
title page I can present it in a way that hints to the reader that it is an
important part of the story.
My next project is to work on the text of next year's book which doesn't
have a title yet. It is a sequel to THE HAT, set in Denmark. Hedgie, who usually
misses winter because he is hibernating tries to stay awake in order to see the
wonders of snow, with the help of Lisa. I may even do a simple book dummy in
order to present it properly to my editor. I really love doing a book dummy. I
take typing paper, fold it into signatures (groups of four pages) and sew them
to make thirty two pages, the length of most picture books. I usually put in the
border idea that doesn't have words. When I am going back and forth with my
editor, Susan, I will start on another project that I love doing, my newsnotes.
This is a four page booklet that is an illustrated letter to children about my
book. This one will be about THE MERMAID, and will go into depth about how I got
the idea for the book, about the setting, Okinawa island, my encounter with a
wild octopus and a lot about meeting Sy the octopus at the New England Aquarium.
I can't wait to illustrate the beautiful Nudibrach. They are brightly colored
sea creatures that live in my imagined octopus house. This book involved a lot
of fun research, and I hope my newsnotes will inspire others to explore special
places and learn about unique characters to put in their stories.
In the meantime, I am getting lots of ideas on my training runs. I have a
big long distance race in April. I have also put eggs in the incubator and I am
hoping for baby chicks in 21 days. I also have 6 precious eggs growing under
Rounder my Silky hen.
Happy creating, your friend,
Jan Brett