March Hedge-a-gram

It's March, this year's book, The Night Before Christmas, is at the printers, and I'm starting work on my '99 book, The Gingerbread Baby. This is a story told in many different ways, but the main idea is that a cookie, a cake or most often a gingerbread man, jumps out of the stove, where it's been cooking and runs away. I've chosen to set my version of the book in Switzerland, and in a few weeks I'm going to be there to get ideas for the architecture of the houses I will draw, and the clothes the characters will wear. I've done a first draft of the story, and will spend the next few weeks doing sketches. This will help me to know what to look for when I'm in Switzerland.

When I work on my book dummy, which is the cartoon or sketch version of the book, I'm very informal. I cut out form one page, paste into another, enlarge one element, or shrink a scene, or cut it out entirely.

Perhaps, you'd like to follow along with me, and work on a "dummy" or simple version of your own book. Let me know how you're doing!

Very best regards,

Jan Brett

PS. I mustn't forget to put a hedgehog in my new book.