not for nothing…
So I didn’t sign or sell a single book at today’s Kids Heart Authors event, but I *did* get to meet a wonderful artist, Eric Velasquez. I bought a copy of his book, The Rain
Stomper, and had him sign it for my (pretend) nieces in Nova Scotia. The exuberance and determination of this little girl is captured perfectly by the illustrations and the playful, scat-like text. Check it out!
One father in the small crowd asked if it was hard to get published…I told him that I wrote Bird in 2002, and it was published in 2008, and I don’t have any other projects lined up despite winning honors and awards for Bird and having 20 other stories on my hard drive…another author disagreed, and urged any aspiring author to buy the Children’s Author’s & Illustrator’s guide. I used to buy it every year, but it didn’t do anything for me other than teach me the rules I had to be willing to break in order to get my work noticed…before I left the bookstore, Eric’s lovely wife encouraged me to keep hope alive. I’ve started making a list of all the illustrators I’d like to work with–Eric’s now on it!–so I haven’t given up yet…but it may take another 6 years before I can offer kids another book to read. This Thursday I go to Rutgers to give a guest lecture about my play, Mother Load. The students in this course on Women, Culture, and Society have read the play (self-published in a lulu book) and one of the essays in my memoir, Stranger in the Family. It’ll be interesting to hear what they think…Monday night I moderate a panel after screening the film The Souls of Black Girls. And so it goes…did I mention Faith Ringgold‘s coming to Mt. Holyoke next month? Of course, her talk is on a day when I don’t teach, but I think I’m going to have to shlep up there anyway…I’d love to hear HER success story, since I believe she had a hard time breaking into the industry, too…I guess the key is to PERSIST! My friend Olympia told me a story about an obnoxious author who tried to diminish her genius just because he felt threatened. She put him in his place and explained that she didn’t feel intimidated because, “He can be reduced.” We don’t have magic wands, but we still have to believe in our own power. Don’t allow yourself to be reduced, don’t allow the system (or anyone in it) to defeat you…
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