(Inside A Black Apple)

Things to Do Before Halloween is Over

 

My friend sent me this photo of the little girl & Beistle skeleton last week (image source here) and it made me happy because I took home the very same skeleton from the antique store the other day. He's hanging on the door & recently starred in some costumed snapshots (see below.)

 

Now, on to the list!

• Remind yourself that _the candy is for the children_. Repeat mantra as needed.
• Look! Heidi recently toured Beistle HQ (how amazing) and posted tons of photos here & here about her adventure. I don't know many people who love Halloween decorations as much as she does, so I can't think of a more perfect person for such an neat field trip!
• My Favorite Scary Movies - I've already sprung a screening of Spider Baby on some unsuspecting visitors this year.
• In theaters, both recent movies from the emerging genre: Little Boys & Restless Ghosts (Paranorman & Frankenweenie) are both so good in their own ways. If you haven't seen either, or both, no better time than the present.
• Watch the video of these two little guys doing Seinfeld's Halloween story
• Listen to this excellent mix of 30+ obscure, spooky songs from the 50's & 60's. I've made a good mix or two myself, but this puts me to shame.
• Make (more) pumpkin muffins (these look good) 'cause you already ate all the ones you made with the good old Trader Joe's mix. With peanut-butter. For breakfast. Ahem.
• Faint over these adorable bebes in costume (the tiny Scissorhands nearly broke me.)

On that note, I'm thinking about all the little boys & ghouls on the East Coast & hope that they (and their grown-up counterparts) are somewhere safe & warm & dry.

Happy Halloween!

Of, Pertaining to, or Inhabiting the Woods

Sylvan.
Just a few days ago, when my best golden-hair was here with me, we wandered in the woods all day.

I brought my toy camera (the instax 210) which remains maybe the best gift I've received as a grownup. I love using it outdoors for flowers and things, when there's enough light (though it's also a nice parlor trick to pull out indoors & delight people, blinding-flash style.)

Nothing like a little stack of pictures you can hold in the time of everything living in wires and up in clouds.

This Fall the Pacific Northwest has really outdone herself in the way of golden leaves and billowing gray skies. I was so happy to take a little break and get out and wander in it, especially with such lovely company.

New Picture Book Peeks

I'm a happy rabbit today. Why?

Because I just finished turning in all the art for my next children's book! And since I can't share the full drawings and paintings just yet, I thought a bunch of snippets would be fun to post in celebration.

These puzzle pieces are little bits of much larger scenes - I wonder what kind of story you might stitch together from only looking at these?

I can't wait to share more of this project! It's been with me for the better part of the past year, and I'm so excited about it. I wanted my first picture book to be a really special project, and I think (I hope!) this one is.

I'll share more as I can - it is slated for release in Fall '13.
So this time, next year, it'll be here. (Hooray!)

I hope you're having a lovely October!

Cecil the Pet Glacier

I'm always intending to post more often about the books I'm currently taken with. Then I forget...then I'm on to new books, and the cycle continues! But the title of this new picture book alone made sure it wouldn't have such a fate.

I think everyone appreciates evocative book titles - the kinds that paint pictures in your mind right away and start storytelling all on their own. That's just one reason to love a book named, fantastically, curiously, demurely: Cecil the Pet Glacier.

Another is that it is illustrated by Giselle Potter, who was one of the first contemporary picture book illustrators to reel me in (years ago, now) with her pseudo-primitive folk aesthetic's askew beauty.

Another is that it features a father who creates pictorial topiaries for a living. (Note: even if this isn't intriguing you, I'm selling myself on this funny little book all over again.)

Yet another is the idea of a little girl who wears a uniform of a brown pinafore and black shoes, who is constantly dismayed by the quirk and rather oppressive joie de vivre of her parents.

And the final reason - the most impressive one, is that the author, Matthea Harvey, has taken one of the old chestnuts of the picture book medium (the pet story) and turned it on its head and made it hers, and made it special.