My first picture book, The Elephants’ Guide To Hide-And-Seek is two years old this month! To celebrate here’s a pic of me when I was 8 years old with another bright yellow book that I made then for my school’s young author contest. I won an award for my grade and decided someday I wanted to be a published author. Yay for dreams that come true!
I can sign a book for you too!
I’ve had a few happy firsts this past week or so. Here are a few of them
The Elephants’ Guide To Hide-And-Seek at a bookstore!
Look what I finally got to see for the first time in person at an OPEN bookstore! Two months after it came out, THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, my first picture book, on an actual shelf, at my favorite local bookstore, Village Books—which is now open because YAY Whatcom County, WA, we made it to phase 2!
I signed and personalized a big stack—so it kind of was my first bookstore book-signing too. Any copies of my picture book THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK purchased now and through the month of June at my local bookstore Village Books can be signed and personalized by the author—me! Village Books offers all sorts of shipping options including media rate (99¢!) or curbside pickup.
A huge thanks to anyone who had planned on coming to my local book celebration that would have been at Village Books—it means the world to me. While it was a bummer to postpone in May and now cancel in June (while VB is open, it’s uncertain when events will happen again), I’m happy that Village Books and I can collaborate in this way for now. And anyone who was holding out for a signed copy—here’s your chance!
Here’s the link to order. During checkout, there should be a comment box where you can make a note that you’d like me to sign your book and who you’d like it signed to. Please know that I’ll be going in and signing them all at once, so any books ordered will arrive in early July.
Another happy first from the past few weeks—I finally got to read my book to a classroom (via zoom)! It was especially sweet for me after having my first in-person visits with classrooms all cancelled this year. The 2nd graders I chatted with all asked great questions and it was a pleasure to spend time with them.
My first author visit—on zoom!
My main goal for this year was to enjoy the moment as I became an author and got to share my first book with kids. While I haven’t been able to do that the same way I’d planned, I’m enormously grateful to anyone and everyone who has helped me make lemonade out of lemons the last few months. Enjoying the moment seems more important now than ever—so cheers, health, and happy reading! For all who have celebrated with me—thanks!
Me with my elephant pals. I like to bring them to zoom events.
My nephew sent me a pic of himself tuning in!
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!
A Virtual Launch Party!
A party now? YES! A virtual party! All are welcome to come to a virtual book launch party on Monday April 13 at 11:00 am pacific time via zoom to celebrate THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, a picture book written by me and illustrated by Gladys Jose. BOTH Gladys and I will be there! Hooray! We’ll share a bit about how our book came to be, answer questions about writing and illustrating, and hopefully have lots of fun. Register here! KIDS ARE WELCOME! So are grown-ups. 🙂
There will be elephants but you have to bring your own cake!
*And—yes, I hope I’ll still get to have my local book launch party during Children’s Book Week at Village Books here in Bellingham (May 9 at 10:30—but if not then, hopefully at some point). But we need happy things in life RIGHT NOW and here’s a great excuse to have a party where friends from all over the country who wouldn’t be able to make it locally can join too! Hope to see you there!
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!
Look what Kirkus said about THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK!
Advanced Reader's Copies!
Eeeak! Look what I found in a package on my porch! Advanced reader’s copies! Happy surprise and happy me!
Also, I might have cried when I showed them to my family. 💛🐘💛😭😍
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!
Happy New Year!
Squeezing in a quick New Year's collage in the midst of family visits, kid chaos, and all the fun this time of year can bring. My past year brimmed with adventures, delights, and people for whom I am grateful. Most notably after many years of working at it, this year I can finally say I'M GOING TO BE AN AUTHOR! How awesome is that? VERY! It's a dream come true. So grateful for all who helped me along the way.
As for the coming year I know this for sure: in addition to more adventures, delights, and good times with good people, my new year will be full of ART. How do I know this? Because it's what's calling my name and because it's what I choose. To make more art, share more art, and carve more time for creative play. MORE ART! More collage!
For 2019, may your compass also point you in the way your heart calls. May your year be full of people and projects that make you come alive. May the wind fill your sails. Happy New Year!
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!
Drawn To Books Art Show at Seattle City Hall
If you are in Seattle in the next couple months I invite you to stop by the DRAWN TO BOOKS exhibit at Seattle City Hall! It's an exhibit of 45 illustrators' works from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, including a piece I made called CATCHING A LEAF. The show runs between Oct 31, 2017 and January 3, 2018, and there is an opening on Nov. 2 from 4-6 pm. Enjoy!
I'll update this picture with the finish badge when it's posted because pat-on-the-back for me, I finished!
StoryStorm 2017: This is fine
Today I finished up my 31 picturebook ideas for Storystorm 2017 (formerly known as PiBoIdMo). Hooray! I love Storystorm. I get many (most?) of my good ideas through the practice of brainstorming so this exercise is always a natural fit for me.
This year I notice a theme through many of my ideas: anxiety. Probably not a surprising theme for January 2017.
But especially not a surprising theme from someone who had severe issues with anxiety as a kid but whose severe issues were completely without name or notice at the time. How many times did I hear the dismissive, "Stop being such a worrywart!" Too many. Maybe the reason BEDTIME FOR FRANCES by Russell Hoban was one of my favorite books as a kid was because of how dismissive all the adults were of Frances's fears in that book. I related to that problem as a kid (my grown ups loved me just like Frances's do—love you mom!—it's just that grown-ups don't always get it).
My dad died when I was three and in my small town, as well-meaning as everybody was, everyone avoided talking about the bad stuff. With hindsight I see that I was like a deer caught in headlights for years and no one really acknowledged that it was scary as hell to lose my dad. And no one acknowledging it made it scarier.
I've been having a bit of déjà vu in the last week with the new president and the whirlwind of chaos that has followed. There still are so many strange silences from people I know. And I view those silences with curiosity and sadness.
And also as inspiration. Maybe I can take my childhood fears and make something of them now. Maybe I can even make them funny?
Or maybe I'll just make a book about a duck.
Anyway, go check out the famous This is Fine comic if you haven't seen it. It's been used already for lots of memes on the internet. But with regards to all of the above thoughts on anxiety, it's horribly perfect for this week.
And if you want to see the artist's update (because hope is nice) here's a link to that too.
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.
My art at the convention center
On Saturday I finally got a chance to see Western Washington SCBWI's illustrator show at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Here are a few pictures for show and tell.
I loved seeing my Alligator Brothers piece there.
Saturday was the day we gathered for the family Draw-Along, inviting the community to bring their kids and come make art with the illustrators.
I brought a cut-paper exercise that I've with my art students at the Montessori school where I've been teaching art.
Here's a picture of the mess we made at my table. Fun day!
My art on the cover of Brain Teen Magazine
It's nice to see my art in print, but especially in a thoughtful place. Yay! This is my labyrinth piece on the cover of Brain Child's new issue of
Brain Teen, The Magazine for Thinking Parents
. The articles I've read from Brain Child all have left me thinking. This magazine looks good too. Check it out!
Pictures from The Last Bookstore in LA
I had a FABULOUS time at the recent SCBWI conference in L.A. I loved the new location, I took away great thoughts for my work, I got to see muppets in action (!) and I was nominated for the Sue Alexander award.
I've been busy busy busy fixing some work. Sometimes I need a break from the Internet when I'm hard at work/play (am I the only one that feels like the Internet can be an echo chamber?). But I felt like it was long past time I at least posted these pics
Isn't this bookstore amazing? Their art section was my favorite. Although they had a stellar comics section too.
Cheers to a playful and promising summer's last few weeks.
Back on the bike!
I posted this on facebook but thought I'd post here too.
Starry Starry Ride...
This week I'm celebrating the magic of getting back in the saddle after a setback. I cut this collage out before
last summer. Needless to say, I had no desire to finish it after my crash.
But this past week I decided to follow through. I glued it to mark the week I finally got the courage to get back on my bike (a little over a week ago now).
Cheers to getting up and trying again after a crash.
New Website
Hooray! I finally have gone live with my new website. I'm still tweaking things, adding to my portfolio, and trying to figure out if I want to move this blog over there but meanwhile I'd be honored if you checked out my new site!
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| A screen shot from my new website! |
Starry Night
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| New Piece (after revision) |
I've been trying out my new technique with some old pieces I liked in the past as an exercise in revision. Here's an example. Above is the new piece. Below is the old version (a poster I agreed to make for a Christmas event quite a few years ago). When I get to compare two pieces like this, it makes me want to pat myself on the back and believe in progress. This is probably a sign that I need a humbling critique to put me back in my place. (Only kidding. Sometimes it's nice to check one's critic at the door and just appreciate progress even if there's always more progress to be had.) Onward!
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| Old piece (before revision) |