Thanks Everybody!

Thanks for supporting me in this endeavor, even if nothing came of it. : )
I am thinking about trying something almost like this next year, just not during finals. It was just poor planning on my part. In the meantime, I will be over on my normal blog, NovelPretender.

~Jane~

Epic fail

Ok, I'm so sorry about this everyone, but I think Picture Book Month was a failure this time. It was just the wrong timing for me. When I planned it for May, I didn't think about the fact that I would have finals in the first half of the month. I am so far behind now, I'm not sure I can catch up.

Right now I have so much going on and I am so far behind that I don't see myself doing very much more, but if by some chance I get a lot of time and a burst of creativity, I will let you all know. If not, we will have to try it again next year in a different month.

The good thing about this experience is I got to see some of your work! I got a few people at least to write and draw pictures and be creative, and that was really the goal of the challenge, so maybe it wasn't an epic fail after all.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

~Jane~

Promised Thursday post

I can't find the camera anywhere, and I was going to show you more of the Library Snake book! I will keep looking and maybe post the pictures on Saturday evening.

Back on Thursday

Ok, my fellow picture book authors, I'm going to be completely honest with you... This is a lot harder than I thought. I have only two partially finished picture books. *Blush*
After all my confidence at the beginning of the month, to be this far behind is more than a little embarrassing. I haven't given up hope yet though. I think I can still make this work enough so that I won't be a complete failure.
My last final is on Wednesday. On Thursday I will be posting something. If nothing appears on Thursday, I beg of you to bombard me with reproachful comments so that I will be forced to get to work.

On another note, I am so proud of all of you who are participating! Grace, your picture books are lovely. I think you are great at this.  Faith, you are also very talented and your pictures are so adorable. I loved the little penguin. Darby, your pictures are so amazing and your stories are so clever. 
Am I missing anyone who has posted pictures of theirs? If so, I apologize. I haven't been on the blog much lately.

So, to review:
You are all awesome,
I am not so much,
If I don't post Thursday,
you can raise a fuss.

It doesn't exactly rhyme, but it's close. : )

~Jane~

Cynthia's Wish

The parts in brackets like [this] are what the pictures will show. This is how I plan out my picture books, I write them out like this in my notebook.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cynthia was catching fireflies by herself in the summer twilight when she spotted one light that was different than the rest. It was more twinkly and sparkly looking, and it glowed faintly pink.

[Catching fireflies, pink light in background]

She slowly crept up behind it on silent feet.

[Sneaking up to where it landed on a blade of grass]

[Catching it in her jar]

She peeked inside...

[Peeking]

It was a fairy!

[Closeup of fairy in jar... soft pink dress made from the petals of a peonie, translucent green wings that look like leaves, tiny feet]

"Please," said the fairy in a voice like tiny golden bells. "Let me go and I'll give you anything you want!"

"I want to be a fairy like you." Cynthia said.

The fairy looked doubtful. "I can make you my size, with wings..."

Cynthia nodded enthusiastically.

[Series of pictures showing her shrinking and growing wings]

[Fairy flies out of the jar and down to where she is in the grass, fairy is holding a tiny jug made out of a seed]

"When you want to go back to your full size, you just have to get this jar from me and drink the potion that's inside."
She put the jug in a loop on her belt.
"I'm going back to camp. We're over by the lilac bush if you want to come. Oh, and watch out for pixies."
And she flew away.

Cynthia was alone.
"Pixies?" She thought.

[Cynthia alone in the tall grass]

After a few failed attempts, Cynthia became used to her new wings.

[Cynthia crashing in different ways, finally staying up]

Suddenly something cold and wet was touching her.

[Dog's nose touching her from behind]

[Cynthia turned around, looking at dog who is growling]

"Spot," She cried. "Hey, it's me, Cynthia!"

Spot growled at her.
So she decided to leave.

"Bye, Spot!"

[Flying fast and wobbly, looking over shoulder at Spot]

Cynthia forgot to look where she was going.

[Closeup of Cynthia's shocked face as she turns around right before hitting something]

[Falling from hitting the tree]

[On the ground, starting to sit up, dazed]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be continued...

Day Five. Sigh.

I'm not a very good example, am I?
I said I would post yesterday and I never did. Sigh. I am falling behind on my own challenge! Even my ten year old sister has made more picture books than me. Well, I will say this, I can be very determined when I want to be! I have a feeling that I will fall so far behind this first week that I will think that I can't possibly finish, then at the last minute I will snap back and make three books in one day and finish barely before midnight on May 31st. That's what I always do during November for Nanowrimo. : )

Ok, later... or maybe in the morning... I will be posting a few pictures of The Library Snake Sneaks In and the text of my new picture book, which has no title yet.

Day three

Ok, a few more pictures done on The Library Snake Sneaks In. Tonight I will be writing the second one, and hopefully I will be able to catch up.
I had a feeling I would fall behind these first couple of weeks because I have my finals next week. I think I will do a picture here and there, but mostly focus on writing the books over the next week or so. When I am out of school I will have time to illustrate them. I know that the illustrations are more exciting to look at, but you will be able to read the stories at least, and later see what they look like.
Tomorrow I will post a few more pictures from my first book, and the text of my next one.
You are all doing a wonderful job, I'm so excited! If you have a post about your picture books I would love to see it, so please put it in the comments!
Keep up the good work,

~Jane~

Falling behind already?

Nothing new yet... I had a busy day today, but I got to see some good friends and hang out with my older sister for a few hours, so it was worth falling a bit behind.
Right now I am going to watch part of The Importance of Being Earnest and work on more picture book pages. Then I am going to go to bed, hopefully in time to get at least six hours of sleep before I get up for work.
Keep working on your stories! See you tomorrow,

~Jane~

The Library Snake Sneaks In

These are the first two pages of my first picture book! This is all I have done so far, but I have the whole thing planned out, so it shouldn't take me too long to make the pages. I think for the next one I will try using my sister's tablet computer thing to draw them.

Sammy the snake was having a bad day...

He was tired, he was bored, but mostly,

He was cold.

"I need to find somewhere warm to stay for the winter," Sammy thought.

Just then, he looked up and saw where he was.

Can you guess what is going to happen next? I will post more tomorrow, and I hope you will too! I want to see what you come up with.

~Jane~

Do you have to make fifteen books or can you make more or less? Or could you just have fifteen short stories?

You can absolutely set your own goal! 15 is the number I'm aiming for, but you may want to do a different amount, and that's totally fine.

If you are doing picture books for children, it really already is a short story. They can be any length you feel is the right length to tell the story. You could even do a series of short books to tell a longer story if you want to.

If you are referring to doing 15 short stories without pictures, that's fine too, it just won't be picture book month. I will still be happy that I've inspired someone to write, and I still want to hear about your progress through the month!

~Jane~

Day one

Picture Book Month has officially started! Have you started writing yet? I started last night, but I haven't gotten very far yet. I have maybe half of the first book planned out, but I haven't done the pictures yet. Tonight I will post my progress so far.

I can't get the link box to work, so just put links to your own "day one" posts in the comments please!

~Jane~