Ever have one of those Mondays where you can’t remember what you did over the weekend but you know there was a lot of stuff going on?

Another goat.

I am muzzy-headed today. Not sure why. I went to bed at a reasonable hour. On days like this, I wish I was a coffee drinker. Something to shake the cob webs loose would be nice.

Back to sketches for the postcard. Haven’t hit on the “wow” image yet.

Illustration Friday prompt for this week is ‘double.’ In keeping with the goat theme of the last few sketches, I offer up two goats. Because double the goat is double the fun.

Remember the rule for the daily doodle challenge is each day’s doodle must be done in ink, no erasing and be complete in 30 minutes or less.

I am more pleased with my goats then previously. I think it’s time to pick up the pencil and start scribbling pirate ideas down.

Later on today I will have to buckle down and write my article on graphic novels in the classroom which will be my first post (Aug 4) on the middle-grade group blog I belong to. From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors launched about a month ago and almost immediately made news in the kid lit industry. The latest news to report is the blog being picked up as a feature link on Scholastic Book Club‘s Facebook fan page. With all this scrutiny from Big Name people in the industry, the pressure is on me to come up with a stellar entry for my debut post. Talk about stress!

I am still working on goats. I think this fellow is much goatier than the last few. I will continue to goatify my brain with more sketching and research.

In other news, the non-fiction book with The Agent (TA) has been through several rounds of revisions and Agent felt it was ready to submit to publishers. I received an email list of the publishers TA has selected for the first round on Tuesday morning.

I realize it will be a while before we hear anything, but the thumb nibbling and wanting to check email every half hour has started to eat in the back of my brain. I haven’t succumbed yet. Give me a couple of weeks, maybe a month.

I have other fish to fry at the moment. My newest picture book, Smoky and the Feast of Mabon, is due for release on August 21. That is less than a month away and I have no book launch plans. Summer is always such a weird time to have a book launch since school is out and most families are in the midst of their annual vacations or hiding out in the AC away from the heat. Maybe a party in September on the Mabon holiday would be better. Anyone want to host a book launch party?

I am also preparing a new picture book for an agent search. This one will need to be made into dummy format before submitting because the main character is an inanimate object and the illustrations tell more than half the story. I really believe the whole picture (pun intended) will be better understood with both text and illustrations.

My other work in progress is an upper middle-grade novel. This one is still in the birthing process, but the characters are looking over my shoulder while I work on other, more pressing things, and demanding to know when their turn will be. They are almost as annoying as the cat asking me why it’s way past dinner time and why is there no food in his bowl?

The studio purge and organize is going well. There are actually long expanses of uncluttered horizontal spaces. It looks surprisingly spacious in here now. I still need to tackle the file drawers and get rid of things that are no longer relevant. (Like first drafts of books already published.) I am putting off this task because it will be a bear. I file things haphazardly, in no particular order. I will need to organize as I purge, something I really am not looking forward to doing. Must be my artsy side rebelling against structure and order. But if I am going to have any hope of keeping track of submissions and licensees, I am going to need to be ORGANIZED. I will need to be able to open a file drawer and find the item I am looking for without:

• Getting distracted by something shiny
• Giving up in frustration because I can’t find what I am looking for
• Putting off a project because I have no earthly idea where my research is.

Time to draw more goats…till next time!

As you can see, I am sketching goats. I find I am not quite sure what a goat looks like in terms of getting the brain, hand, eye coordination going. More goats tomorrow.

Since I plan on using a goat as a main character in a series of illustrations, there will be sketches of goat until I am happy with what I am doing consistently. Kind of like what I do with the characters when preparing for a picture book.