Getting the Ball Rolling Again...

John is on the job, and editing has been in my possession for months now. No, for over a year! My publisher is calling again and it's time to get this book done! I am seriously shocked with myself that I have sat on this for an entire year.  O_o

Well, I had lost my way and needed to find a way to get the book illustrated.  I debated, had people suggest new artists, student artists, etc. But to me,  it didn't feel right. Destiny brought me to John and I decided to give him a chance. He has been in touch and has started on the sketches and I hope to see him soon. We set up a contract and I paid a portion to get started, I will pay a portion upon delivery of the sketches, and I will pay the final portion upon completion. He seems dedicated in everything he does, so I am hopeful it will work out.

As far as editing I have been dragging my feet. I did edit and address the editors comments months ago, but waited to send it back. I still find it is good to let things sit awhile with writing. I did get back to it today after getting yet one more message from my publisher. So, I re-reviewed and sent it in! It has one more editing cycle and then they shift me to the people who assist with the layout.

The marketing department called me last week from the publisher too which I think was quite nice. When I get closer to release they will coach me and assist in doing some things I am not, so as not to duplicate but to assist. They have big marketing packages, but since this is all out of my pocket anyway, I am going to take the best advice and leave it to faith, my friends, and any followers I may develop along the way.

I spoke with a CPA too about how to be able to take a loss before I make a profit. Again. I want the profit to go to charity and hope I can at least make back what I have put into it.

I also used a local company to help me design a logo for the book series/company.  I have sat on their suggestions lately too. So I plan to get back to that and will share that with you all once I decide on the best design. Deciding is the hardest part. For now though, I have set things back in motion with the universe. 

Introducing John!

John Garancheski III is my new partner on this book project and will be providing the illustrations for it! 

As I wrote previously, John got my attention when he produced a flier for a benefit I am assisting next weekend. After checking out his website, I was drawn to his passion for artistic creation and drive for living in every moment. His site stated, "86,400 Seconds in a day. What are you creating?" 

I perused his art and fell in love with the style of some of his sketchbook images, specifically ones with animals and flowers. (You can view here) http://www.johngarancheski.com/?page_id=2140

John owns and operates his own tattoo studio, Tattooed Heart Studios, in Glen Burnie, Maryland. He designs tattoos for each client individually, based on the client's own specific ideas and dreams. He has his own blog over at www.JohnGarancheski.com that you can check out, but he will be contributing here from time to time as well.

We just signed a contract together today and I get to meet him in person next weekend at the benefit in Maryland. I am super excited to have new energy brought to this project and cannot wait to meet John in person and see what he produces! 

Welcome aboard this journey John! 

New Year, New Approach!

With the New Year almost upon us I want to take a moment to wish you all health, happiness and great success in 2012! My wish is to get this book completed in 2012. 2012 will also be the year of the dragon and is said to be dramatic fortunes and dramatic losses. Everything will be grand. Here's hoping we get more of the fortunes and success coming our way.

I have been contemplating a pen name since my real name is quite a challenge and quite long. Looking for something shorter. Kim for sure but was considering Grace as a last name and well, that brings up some images unfit to be associated with a children's book. But I really love the name. Should I go with it or go with Kim Hart? Or maybe even just change the spelling of Kim? to Kimm? (this is what my mother made me do in elementary school because I complained that Kimberlee was too long) or Kym? Again - going for simplicity so I am not sure and need to settle this pretty soon.

Give me your thoughts! and Happy New Year! 

New developments!

Helena and I finally were able to tag up and unfortunately her life has changed ironically putting her into a position where she can no longer help with the project. I do hope to work with her one day, but it will not be in the very near future. She is putting her energy into her jewelry line, which is also fabulous. You can check out her work at the following link:
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/MorningDove

So I have had to refocus and search for alternatives to illustrate this book. I currently have found 2 different artists willing to take on the book. I am asking for a concept from each with prices per image, since my "free" deal didn't work out with Helena.  I am very grateful that she was willing to go down the path with me and donate art until we picked up a firm publishing deal. Given that the 2 artists I am considering are also full time artists it is only fair that they are compensated for the work upfront. I think that is the best way to proceed. (and only)  One artist does more simple cartoonist art and 3-D animation and the other one (John Garancheski)  is a tattoo artist with what appears to be great graphics skills which align closer to my original vision for the book. http://www.johngarancheski.com/

I found John because he designed a logo for an upcoming charity event  I am assisting with for Make-A-Wish foundation in the Baltimore Area January 14th. If you are in the Baltimore Area come out on Jan. 14th for a great cause!
https://www.facebook.com/events/146343178805634/

I will be sending in the script for final editing soon - over the holidays. And I called the company from which I received a free logo design and business cards credit. Graphics By Kandi: http://graphicsbykandi.com/
I have an appointment to meet with them on Monday Jan. 2! I will be taking my logo I designed to see what they think and maybe what else they come up with for the series which may be more reproducible. So I will be starting off the New Year pressing ahead with completing this project!

Minor Delays...

Wow, well, we have really let things age. Just looking and the last post was in May. I am at the point of dusting things off and sending in the manuscript for the final editing stage. Months ago Helena also had to put the illustrations aside for other higher priority work. I am hoping that we can get back to it. We waited for the summer light for her painting,  it breaks my heart for her not to be able to use the lighting. She also had wiated to get a new studio. Once she got a new studio set up, and just when we were making some headway, the universe sidetracked us. Summer is ending, Vacations are over. School is starting. A new phase of life is ramping up. So I am going to go back at it. I am going to go forth with the editing of the script, with the trademarking of the series, and logo generation.  Time to get back on the band wagon.

For me working with NASA too, the Shuttle is done. It is an end of an era. Many people are transitioning from one job to another or are leaving on a search for something new. I wish I had this book completed as it is a perfect time for it. And yet, it is never to late for these messages.

I called Helena today, but didn't reach her. Hopefully we can get this book back on track soon. Thanks again for following our journey. 

Letting Things Age

So being as such my father is hitting a milestone today and Helena's mother,  I thought this title was fitting. Sometimes it is good to let something age, sit, fester, settle, or sink in. The rough edges become smoother. The fruit ripens. I edited about a month ago and have just been waiting a bit (mostly because I couldn't find the time) before responding to my publisher. Now my publisher has been calling, Helena and I need to tag up on the illustrations, and I owe her the revised editing version and any other thoughts.

Tonight I got the kids in bed and got to work. The timing was just right. The editing had risen sufficiently like a nice Russian kulich. :) I drafted the storyboard to the side of the stances with more certainty of the flow and what should accompany the final wording.  I've counted a total of 16 illustrations. Ten large two-page spanning illustrations and 6 small spot illustrations.  Some would be slight changes from one to the other....and I am hoping that we can still get this released this year. But time goes so so fast.

 I also recently won a free logo design. I am debating whether to use it for my series or to give/donate it to someone that could maybe use it more. I really like my logo, but maybe it could be tweaked/simplified in some magical way..... I may just use it. It came to me for a reason, right?

For me June will go really fast. I have a training class and travel to attend to for work. I am hoping that Helena with the longer daylight hours can make good progress now with my final draft and the updated story board in hand. Next for me is re-submitting and it going through the grammar and punctuation editing, or what they call the heavy lifting editing.

I just know this is going to be magnificent. I can't wait to see it all coming together and be working with the layout team. It's just a matter of time. 

Editing, editing, editing

So, I have not had much time to sit and contemplate the suggested edits lately. Spring break came up and I spent a lot of time with my kids and work has been so busy that I have preferred to read a book or enjoy some other relaxation time without being in the creative mode. Oddly enough my sinuses are killing me and I have had a very rough weekend with them, but tonight after taking a 24 hour Sudafed and my 4th or 5th neti pot intervention, my head is feeling much clearer and I spent the last hour pouring into re-writes. It is really not many lines re-written but takes a lot of thought to keep the same general intent and flow of the story. I am quite pleased with my edits but would like some others to look at them before I re-submit.  So I may call upon some friends to take a look-see. :)

The other day too when I was home with my sick daughter and trying to work from home while she got into everything in the house it seemed I received a call from my editing consultant. Of course they are going to try to sell me more editing packages than the consultant package that came with my publishing package. And maybe I will consider it, but we are a little too far off. I would love to be farther along in the game, and yet early promotion is not such a bad thing. I just have no idea how to project timing of completion at this point. I want to do this right, not spend a lot of money, and to be successful. And I would like to complete it this year. Hopefully with spring coming Helena will have many more daylight hours to create and with my editing complete we will have a final storyboard from which she can create!  The other thing I did today was to watch the launch of the next International Space Station (ISS) crew from Kazakhstan. And so if you have never seen such a thing, please do take a gander.

On interesting thing for me is the little stuffed animal toy that they always hang from a string. It is fun and tells them - if they can't feel it already - they do - that they have reached micro-gravity when it starts to float. About 9 min and 23 seconds in when they come back from a drop out in communication the little dog is floating.  I think there is another reason for it and I would have to wake up my husband for that info. So we'll just leave it at that tonight. May you dream of your new horizons!