May you always choose to get in the game

Those are the words I used in the dedication for my first picture book, THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK. I’ve been thinking of those words because sometimes I write things I really need to hear myself. How about I even say it now…may I “always choose to get in the game.”

A photo of the dedication I wrote to my sons for my first picture book, THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK

A few weeks ago a hummingbird visited me in the forest on my walk. That’s also the day I got up the gumption to finally prep and send queries again after a bit of a hiatus from sharing my writing with anyone outside of my critique partners. Why wasn’t I sharing my work? Well, for one, my previous agent left the business last year. But I wish I understood better why I wasn’t just jumping back in. I guess, to put it plainly, sharing my work is something I struggle with. It’s something I’m working at! And it’s one of the reasons I wrote the dedication in my first book the way I did. Writers all have their own hang-ups and this is one I’m working to let go of.

But anyway, back to the hummingbird. I’m not sure how to describe how that hummingbird helped me—I mean, why is it that nature sometimes just nudges people to be their best?

But that’s what felt like happened. That little bird nudged me to a spot of calm where I could share my work kinda like I was doing nothing more than giving away dahlias from my garden in the summer. So I sent it off. And soon after, I found myself having a great conversation with my now agent, Mary Cummings of Great River Literary.

So This week I made this hummingbird collage (with cake!) to celebrate! I’m thrilled to now be collaborating with Mary. And also to have gotten over some of my own blocks so that I can be back in the game of sharing my children’s book work.

Cheers! To getting over blocks. And to exciting new creative chapters of all kinds.

Spine Poems

A few poems I posted on Twitter lately that I made using the spines of picture books. Enjoy!

Dear diary,

I want to be the night gardener,

outside,

finding wild sidewalk flowers

stuck over and under the snow,

just because.

Wherever you go

Please bring balloons

Just in case you want to fly

Up, down, and around—In the sky

At nighttime

Like a dandelion Under the lemon moon

Imagine if you had a jetpack—

Whoosh!

Higher! Higher!

Faster! Faster!

Yes, let’s run wild reaching for the

moon,

stars,

life on mars—

The most magnificent thing.

Yay for a successful virtual launch party!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who attended our virtual launch party for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK! So wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces there. If you missed out, I’ve posted the video below for your viewing pleasure.

The highlight for me was being inspired by all Gladys Jose had to say—I’m thrilled to have had the chance to make this happen with you Gladys! And we even had elephants attending!

My son Lars dressed up!

If you attended (or watched the video later) and would like a bookplate signed by both Gladys and me, send me a message by April 24, 2020 to let us know (US residents only). We’d be happy to send you one! (note they may take a while but we will send if you ask). Books can be ordered anywhere books are sold but here’s a link to my local indie, Village Books—they can ship at media rates (in some cases only 99 cents!).

Download our activity kit—Gladys says the Elephant game was an instant hit with her daughter!

The activities for kids we mentioned during the launch are all posted here on my website, including:

• A fun activity kit made by our publisher

• Our virtual hide-and-seek game, where you can share silly creative hide-and-seek pics

• A link to a Pinterest page with elephant crafts of all kinds

• A link to a curated playlist of silly and wonderful elephant videos

Follow us on social media:

• Check out Gladys’s webpage to learn more about her other books

• Kjersten Instagram: @kjerstenhayes Twitter: @kjerstenhayes

• Gladys Instagram: @gladysjoseillustrates Twitter: @gladysjosedraws

A huge shout out to Joni Sensel for reaching out and offering to help us with tech support. Joni is an incredible writer for all ages. I’m especially a fan of her work related to creativity and grief. Check out her website here.

This image only captures one screen’s worth of attendees—loved seeing how many showed up!

If you want a signed bookplate, let me know by April 24. Happy to send one!

Thanks again to everyone for helping us celebrate our joyful book during a difficult time. Especially because the world is unsure and hard right now, I hope you find some time to play in the middle of it all.

Wishing you enormous fun!⠀

Happy Book Birthday to THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK!

Today is the book birthday for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, written by me, art by Gladys Jose, and published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Hooray! It’s a funny tongue-incheek book about getting in the game despite feeling awkward or unsure.

I learned to write funny books in part because humor has always calmed my own nerves. Laughter helps. So especially during these times, I hope this happy funny book finds some kids and brightens their day.

Cheers!

Also check out my book birthday twitter thread about the making of The Elephant guide.

And maybe I’ll see you at my virtual launch party!

Ten years of StoryStorm!

Here I am wearing my Bureau Of Fearless Ideas shirt, with more picture book ideas than I’d ever know what to do with, having just completed another year of Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm challenge (back in 2010—the first year I partook, it was called PiBoIdMo). StoryStorm is a challenge where you agree to come up for a picture book idea every day of an entire month. But beyond ideas, StoryStorm has helped me cultivate larger work habits of play and flexibility in my work—I brainstorm for everything and it nearly always pays off. So grateful for this challenge every year and thought I’d celebrate here!

Cover Reveal of my first book! Pre-orders too! Happy day!

LOOK! It’s going to be a real book!

Happy happy day! Excited to share the cover of my first picture book, THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK! Isn't it gorgeous?! And yellow just happens to be my favorite color. Yay for Gladys's beautiful art—thank you Gladys and thank you Sourcebooks Kids, I LOVE IT!

And look at this! Even though it comes out April 1, 2020, you can already pre-order it!

Thanks to everyone who already has ordered a copy! Hope you enjoy it!

Ride On

Four years ago from last Saturday I made a stupid mistake riding my bike, went over the handlebars going fast downhill, and crashed face-first into the gritty pavement. Over the following months I struggled with the after effects: a concussion, a mangled chin, a mangled hand, severe flashbacks, and severe headaches, to name a few. It’s not easy to get up after a crash. But people do.
🚲

Fast forward to last Saturday and most of last week, where I spent the four-year anniversary of my crash at one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to, teaching my son how to ride his own bike, surrounded by joyful families soaking up the view, writing a piece I’ve been scared to write (but need to write) about riding bikes, and mostly, celebrating being alive by living life to its fullest, taking in all the beautiful things.

If you’ve ever had a crash, small or large, I hope you can get back up and ride again too. And if you are in the middle of doing just that, I send you all the encouragement and love I can send.

🚲
Ride on.
❤️

Mischief Managed

Long time no blog! Realized I’ve been posting bloggish things lately on Instagram while forgetting that I could add similar things on my happy little blog here. I’d like to be better about giving both attention so I thought I’d add some highlights from my last few months to catch up a bit. That and I have about a million works-in-progress I’m excited about. I can’t keep up with my own ideas which is a good problem I guess. Here are some sneak peeks from one of my favorite pieces I’ve been working on.

What I said about this project on Instagram is still true: sometimes overly well-behaved little kids grow up to write books full of all the mischief they never allowed themselves to partake in when they were busy being young painful perfectionists.

Hope you’ve been up to happy mischief too!

STORYSTORM 2019! Brainstorm, Play, and Ideas

Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm! Play, play, play! Ideas, ideas, ideas!

These three core creative values pretty much sum up the heart of my creative process. They also sum up Picture Book Author Tara Lazar’s annual Storystorm Challenge, which I’ve participated in for many years.

The Storystorm challenge (used to be called PIBOIDMO—picture book idea month) is a challenge on Tara’s blog where participants agree to come up with a new picture book idea every day for 30 days in a month. 30 ideas! In a month! Seems crazy at first. But no. It’s great. 

Because where do I get my best ideas? Out of a pile of terrible ideas. It’s true. Basically I get my best ideas by coming up with lots and lots of ideas, putting every idea into the pile, and then later worrying about whether they are any good or not. And that same basic concept has now extended into so many aspects of my creative process that I feel it somehow captures the entire spirit of writing and art for me.

My Bureau of Fearless Ideas shirt and my Field Guide To Fearless Ideas poster, both purchased at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company in Seattle, a storefront for the Bureau of Fearless Ideas, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for kids.

So in the spirit of fearless ideas, here I am this past week wearing my Bureau Of Fearless Ideas shirt next to my Field Guide To Fearless Ideas poster, (purchased here, more info in the caption). And why am I wearing my BFI* shirt? Because STORYSTORM = FEARLESS IDEAS! And it’s that time of year. I’ve just finished up 2019’s challenge and I’m celebrating all the ways ideas, brainstorming, and play make my art better.

This past year I signed a contract for my first PB after working at it a looooong time. And THE ELEPHANT HIDE-AND-SEEK HANDBOOK (scheduled for release from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky in 2020) was definitely born from this process.

So cheers to fearless ideas and fearless brainstorming! And a big shout-out and thank you to Tara for all she’s done for the writing and illustrating community over many years!

THANK YOU TARA!

The bumper sticker on my car. Bought it at Wild Play zipline course on Vancouver Island, BC. Pertains to art and writing too.

*BFI = Bureau of Fearless Ideas, a real place. It’s a tutoring center for kids. But they also have cool shirts and posters. And in Seattle they have a Space Travel Supply Company. So that’s awesome.

BIG NEWS! I'M GOING TO BE AN AUTHOR!

At long last I can announce it. I’m going to be a children’s book author! My silly picture book manuscript THE ELEPHANTS’ HIDE-AND-SEEK HANDBOOK—a guidebook for elephants who want to overcome their size disadvantage in the game of hide-and-seek—is going to be a real, actual, buy-it-at-the-bookstore picture book for kids! Published by the proudly independent Sourcebooks through their imprint Jabberwocky. HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY! I hope you will celebrate with me!

Anyone reading the whole Publisher’s Weekly release (screen-grab pictured above) might see that I won’t be illustrating this one. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that was hard for me at first (I’m still an artist after all) but I’ve had time since signing the contract to come to peace with it. AND it’s also happily true that I LOVE the work of the illustrator who was chosen, Gladys Jose-Fabii, and I think you will too. I especially love the hilarious expressions of her characters and I can completely see how the humor in her work matches the humor in my writing. I can’t wait to see how she adds to the book and I’ll be proud to have her name next to mine on the cover. So, many thanks to my editor Annie Berger for not only believing in my book—thank you Annie—but also for choosing Gladys as an illustrator. For my own part, I’m also psyched to embrace my voice as a writer more, even while reclaiming my voice as an illustrator with other works-in-progress. It’s a fantastic feeling to be able to have my writing stand on its own.

Since I already started thanking people, thanks also to Laura McGee Kvasnosky for mentoring me with this book when I first wrote it and to my critique group/partners for all the support over so many years’ worth of effort to become better at my craft. And many additional thanks to my wonderful agent Clelia Gore of Martin Literary Management, for believing in me, for helping me land my first book deal, and for helping me to bring out the best in my work and in myself. (And thanks also to Clelia for doing much of this work while technically being on maternity leave with a newborn at home. Seriously, Clelia you are a superhero.) Thank you all!

CHEERS PEOPLE! TO DREAMS COMING TRUE!

Storystorm!

Sometimes I go to the bookstore having already spent my book budget for the month. I do this because I cannot resist bookstores. Whenever this happens I find myself wondering, why oh why am I doing this to myself? I know I'm going to buy a book—probably more than one. And perhaps even one of those books will NOT even be a picture book. And then not only am I being bad with my budget I'm also going to want to read that long non-picture-book book RIGHT NOW! Only inevitably I will already have a stack as big as my leg (or possibly larger) of non-picture-book books I want to read RIGHT NOW. Also, didn't I just do this, like last week? Yes, I have a problem. I can't help it. I LOVE BOOKS!

So what, you may be asking, does this have to do with the title of this post—Storystorm? Storystorm is this thing in picture book land where picture book writers gather (virtually) over on Tara Lazar's blog and support one another as we each come up with a picture book idea for every day during an entire month. I have no idea how many years I've participated in Storystorm (used to be called PIBOIDMO). I will not go back and look because that will make me feel like I am getting old too fast. Let's just say it's many. And the practice has not only helped me come up with many fun ideas during the month it takes place, it also has taught me to cultivate ideas all year long. And it has to do with my enormously large pile of to-read books because just like books, I have WAY TOO MANY IDEAS!

But joking aside, I actually like having too many books and too many ideas. The abundance of these things matters. I've heard it said that you only need one good idea. Sure. And I suppose I'm supposed to feel satisfied with one book too?

I make my best work when I throw my perfectionism out the window and aim for quantity over quality. Yes, I want quality—but I find that it comes only from vigorous practice. And that vigorous practice only comes from a spirit of quantity. Quantity helps me achieve quality.

This is true especially with ideas. The more ideas I come up with, the more I find the ideas to be interesting. It never fails.

So here's my annual cheers to another month of brainstorming ideas with Storystorm! And while I'm at it I'll raise my glass to brainstorming of all kinds—where quantity cultivates quality. And also I'll raise my glass to the giant mountains of books that are waiting to be read, in my house, in my library, and in my local bookstore. Is there anything better?

Cheers to abundant possibility!

2016 SCBWI MOST PROMISING PICTURE BOOK AWARD!

It's an all caps kind of day here in Kjersten's studio —HIP HIP HOORAY!

Why?

Because my manuscript HOW TO BUILD A ROCKETSHIP IN 10 EASY STEPS is the official winner of the 2016 Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Most Promising Picture Book Award! HAPPY DANCE! HAPPY DANCE! Maybe just this once I can even get away with TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!

Attending SCBWI events over the many years I've been a member has been like unofficial graduate-level training, only with friends and sometimes cookies.

Thank you to the editor who nominated me and to all who were involved in choosing this piece for recognition. I'm honored and excited to receive this award and I can't wait to get going on the dummy for this piece. This boost means the world to me. Thank you for everything SCBWI!

Here's a screen shot from SCBWI's announcement:

Saving the screen shot for posterity.  Also so whenever I feel discouraged I can look back and take this as a nudge to keep going.