Agent Announcement

After a comprehensive search, I am pleased to announce that I have accepted an offer of representation from Jennifer De Chiara of the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. Jennifer will represent my self authored picture book projects to publishers. Since this is a niche I have not yet been able to exploit (having my own picture books published) I am very excited to venture in this direction. Over that last few years as publishing houses consolidated and the imprints became less open to unsolicited manuscripts, it became apparent to me that I needed a literary agent if I was ever to have a hope of getting into the big publishing houses. This opens new doors for me as far as children's books go, but I will continue to represent myself in all other illustration markets outside of picture books as well as in the gallery and fine art markets. The first book that Jennifer will be sending out to publishers will be Scuffy- A Scarecrow's Tale. Long time readers will recall previous posts about this project since I have been working on it on and off for several years. I am excited to finally be getting it in front of publishers and look forward to finding a home for Scuffy. I will keep you updated on any exciting developments as they come along. Hopefully the book will sell quickly an I will be finishing up the paintings for this book in the near future.

Swamp Sunset

Swamp Sunset by Greg Newbold- 8" x 16" acrylic

I just got an email today from a mother telling me how much her children loved Spring Song, the book that includes this image. It's really nice to hear from readers and parents of readers since, for me at least, I don't often get that kind of feedback. In part it read:

My children and I enjoyed Spring Song today and I wanted you to know how much we enjoyed your illustrations.  I've seen your work before and should have recognized it...Thank you for sharing such lovely work.

This reaction is one of the main reasons why I enjoy making a book so much. In recent weeks, I have pulled out and revised some manuscripts that I have written and am gearing up to get another book in the pipeline. Finding a publisher is the hard part, so wish me luck.

Moonlight Serenade- 8" x 16" , acrylic

Here's the companion piece to this one. I think I may have posted it before, but couldn't find the link.

First Line Contest

It was a dark and stormy night...

The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference is sponsoring a First Line Contest. If you are a writer, aspiring writer, or illustrator who wants to start writing their own books, you may want to enter this contest. The competition is open to all genres in the Young Adult market and there will be prizes.  Entrance rules and requirements are posted here. I attended the writing  for picture books workshop a couple of years ago and it was a very valuable experience. This year's picture book writing workshop will be taught by Kristyn Crow- author of Cool Daddy Rat, Skeleton Cat and Bedtime at the Swamp.There is also a week long workshop for picture book illustrators. This year's guest artist is Kevin Hawkes  illustrator of Library Lion and many others.