Hoo Boy! I’m excited!
I know it’s super early to be talking about Halloween and some of you will be annoyed with me that I must rush into the Holidays when you’re hanging onto the last days of summer by a thread. For that I am sorry. But I am sooooooo soooo soooooooo very excited about this little Halloween book that I’ve been working on. It’s not done yet. It’s still in production but my part is done. It’s not available for sale but I thought I’d just give it a little buzz—because honestly? it’s what I’m buzzing about.
I worked really hard on this book and I like my illustrations so much better than what I’ve done in the past. These illos are darker and I played around with shading a lot more than I usually do. I have a long way to go but I’m so much better than I used to be. It’s funny how being an illustrator has really taken over my career path. I love it. I love doing it all day long.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking up some things that I can do to promote this book when it comes out and here is where I could use your help.
First a little back story: The book is about a little owl who is afraid of Halloween. I wrote it because of that stupid commercial/preview about some little girl being demon possessed that kept showing on television. No matter how hard I tried to flip channels quickly it seemed like it was always there scaring the crap out of me. Of course Bug was not afraid at all but I really really tried hard to protect her from it. Little kids don’t need to see images of moths flying out of girls mouthes and innocent children turning into psycho zombie monsters. It gives me nightmares.
I personally hate Halloween because they always play commercials about scary movies on the radio and everywhere you go you are haunted by creepy witches that cackle at you at the store and things that jump out and say stupid stuff. I know it’s fun to be scared and I don’t want to knock that but I just don’t like it, personally. I never have. I’m a wus. Go ahead and make fun of me.
With all that in mind, I actually love celebrating Halloween because it’s that time of year when summer is FINALLY over and fall is beginning. I love the idea of hosting a party for friends, apple dunking, dressing up and getting candy. It’s just magical. I wasn’t allowed to celebrate Halloween for much of my childhood so now it’s a really fun time for me. I just wish they didn’t play horror movie previews on the radio and the sidebars of some websites I read regularly.
Enter Little Hoo. He’s a little owly kid. His mom is having a Halloween party and he’s scared to answer the door. He’s scared of monsters, he’s scared of witches, he’s scared of the dark. He just doesn’t like Halloween very much. Every time he answers the door he thinks it’s going to be something really terrible but then it turns out to be a friend until his whole hollow tree house is full of friends and it’s time to have a party.
So I was thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to make pdfs that you guys can print off and play along at home? I’m sure there are other mothers out there who want to celebrate Halloween with their littles and not have it be an all out creep-fest. I could make cupcake toppers with all the characters from the Little Hoo book. There is a mask in the back of the book but I might offer it here too. Maybe I’ll make some easy printable invitations. Pin the feather on the owl? I don’t know…do you guys have printers that can print files that big? What would you like if you could have anything you wanted for a party illustrated for you?
What do you think? Want to play along? I need all the hype I can get for this book. Maybe we should have virtual parties on people’s blogs to promote the book.. Any special requests?
14 Comments
Sally Hackney
Please offer the mask here too! Will there be a kindle version? Little goodie-bag name tags would be neat. Or a party set like invitations with some cupcake picks. I’m excited to get another book by you. Congrats!
Susan:)
That looks like a really cute book. I know exactly how you feel about Halloween. I hate all the creepy stuff, but I love Fall and all the pumpkins and harvest and fun stuff! When will the book be available?
Rae
:D
SQUEEEEE!!!!
Gayle
Congratulations on the book! It looks so adorable. I wish I could wish my boys into being smaller again so we could enjoy these books together. Job well done.
SAJ
It’s due out October 1st. :)
Anne
Oh my good gosh that looks adorable and you are amazing.
Lauren
OK That book looks ADORABLE! I would also agree on wanting to make halloween something fun and not scary for my kiddos, at least until they are of an appropriate age! I might just have to get your book ;-)
Heather K
Looks adorable! congratulations on both the book and the continued growth as an illustrator. I’m not sure what would help contribute buzz for the book, so all the ideas you proposed sounded great to me!
Amy
Oh, I LOVE this. My daughter will be 2 on October 6th and I would love to add this to her Owl themed party!! She is currently obsessed with owl’s and there are not many age appropriate owl books out there. I am a nanny and former pre-school teacher and I will share this sweet book with all of my friends!
Emily
I would donate money to the Disneyland Trip!
Heather in WA State
What a beautiful book! As for printing pdfs at home, remember that dark backgrounds drain ink cartridges super fast. For home printing, you might want to have white backgrounds to save ink (and the environment!).
Excellent job on the shading in your illustrations in the book. It’s fun to see your progression as a professional artist. I still think you should do a parental humor book, using your existing journal sketches. You capture the everyday joys and challenges and hysterical moments of parenthood so well!
Donna
My cousin collects owls and has five grand kids that I bet she would love to read this book to. Keep us posted on availability!!
Kuky
Hmmmm…I’m going to have to think. I’m a little slow this morning. Isabelle knocked something over at 6:30 and I couldn’t fall back asleep. I tried and tried. Finally gave up and I thought I’d take advantage of the quiet and catch up on my reading.
Masks would be cool. And my brain is like sludge right now. I can’t think of anything except blank fill in what kind of food this is at party label thingies I am not making any sense do you know what I mean? Ha ha crazy sentence!
Stacy
Cupcake toppers would be really cute, as would tags for school friend treats or goodie bag toppers. Maybe you could create stand-up table decorations and a banner? Pretty much anything that you do would with the characters from this book would be great because they’re all so adorable and well illustrated!