The manuscript has its final edit done and our publisher is ready to put together the mock book.
The next challenge is to see how we will place the text with the images and work out any kinks that might arise.
This is also when we finalize the illustration style.
Once that’s approved, we will move on to the final illustrations!
Whew, is it done yet? ;p
Video Chatting with our Shivering Snivels illustrator! Kara and I just hammered out the art for Shivering Snivels & His Shadow. The final mock book is on its way! Also, hooray for Skype otherwise these two shut-ins would NEVER meet ;p
to our #1 fan, and my friend, Weston Ryan Wilson!
He was also our very first supporter and backer! We wish you a spooktastic birthday, and a year filled adventures with your monster friends ♡
Been too long since I’ve posted a doodle, so trying to push myself to keep at it. Even if I don’t think they’re that great lol
I know, as a young author, I need to be blogging as much as possible. However, I struggle to know what’s worth blogging about in the first place. Perhaps it’s my visual arts background that makes me feel that if there’s nothing worth looking at, there’s nothing worth reading. The process of writing a children’s book, while challenging, is not very visually stimulating.
However, until we have new art, I thought I’d give you a peek at the writing process.
One thing I wish more authors did was show us there crumpled up piles of rewrites. It’s easy to assume that the amazing book you just read was written in just one sitting. As if god was speaking directly to the author who only had to transcribe each perfectly placed word.
In reality, for most of us at least, writing is a long and grueling process. Similar to chiseling away at a sculpture, and wondering if you’re even using the proper hammer.
The biggest challenge for any children’s book writer is deciding whether or not to rhyme.
Yes, if you can manage to craft the perfect meter and rhyme, your book will be beloved, at least by relieved parents. However, a clumsy attempt can ruin your otherwise delightful tale.
So for the last few weeks I tried my hand at a completely rhyming draft of Shivering Snivels & His Shadow. It was not far off in the first place, since I found many of my lines were already beginning to rhyme.
Since I majored in Filmmaking, not writing, my first step was to study rhyme and meter. Then I broke down my manuscript (as is) into all of its respective parts.
How many words are in each line? How many syllables? Is there a pattern?
(Because there should be)
Then came the crafting. Taking the lines that didn’t fit the pattern and rewriting them, over and over again, until they fit with the rest.
Now I have to ask myself, “Is it good enough?”
Is it close enough that a little editing will bring it home?
Or should I go back to an earlier draft?
Here’s your chance to take a closer look at the amazing trailer art. Kara Jaskolka, our amazing artist did the line work and I did the fill work. We managed to create a wonderful trailer in just 6 weeks!
Kara and I are still playing with the style, and excited to start working in color, but these will go down in history as the first official incarnation of our spooky tale!
Snivels Stormyweather may be a very miserable name, but he is a very miserable boy. At the beach or at school, Snivels always seems to find fearsome phantoms stalking him from every shadow. When Snivels own shadow comes after him — life certainly seems spoiled for this scaredy cat.
Special Thanks to
-LaluCoo aka Kara Jaskolka
Our extraordinarily talented Illustrators who developed the art in the film.
-Joshua Nicholson
-Lauren Clare
-Leara Morris-Clark
Snivels has been working hard to make an account of the monsters in the world.
Overtime, he will fill this book with every kind of spook and ghoul that a scaredy cat might run into.
All art by Jessamyn Prince
This is was not actually made by Netflix, but by an, as of yet unnamed, fan. Does that mean the whole thing is fake? No!
“The Netflix series will be produced in association with Paramount Television. Paramount Pictures distributed 2004 film “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” starring Jim Carrey, which grossed $118.6 million on an estimated production budget of $140 million, according to Box Office Mojo.” – variety.com
Note from Snivels: I guess we’ll have to stop using “unfortunate” when promoting the book…
