Donna Love

Dear Readers,

I mentioned in my blog a while back that I’d discuss how to find an illustrator for your book idea. Well, this is what I tell folks that have a book idea – write the book first. Then go to a bookstore (you could go to a library, but many of the publishers are already merged or no longer exist, so a bookstore with new books is better) and then find books that are similar to yours. Look up those publishers on-line and look for “For Authors” or “Submissions” on their web site, and follow their guidelines for submitting a manuscript. If they say “not taking any at this time” don’t send it to them. They mean it. If they like your idea, you may get a book deal. They will find the illustrator for you, or you can look at other books and have an idea who you would like to use, but the publisher has the final say since they are the ones putting all that money into the book. (One of my publishers doesn’t even allow me talk with the illustrator until the book is in print as they want and need to have full control.  Afterall, like I said, its their money.) However, another way to get your foot in the door is to go to small local publishers that publish books like yours (it has to be like yours – don’t expect a publisher that publishes western books to publish your book on the middle ages.) and let them meet you. To them, you are an advertisement for their books. You have to be able to promote the book and meet the public well, so if you have an expertise in a subject and you present yourself well, they will help you write the book even if you’ve never done it before. So, happy publisher hunting! Next time we could talk about agents.

In addition, I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about my upcoming books. I’ve had the opportunity to once again work with some great publishers and some great illustrators. Here’s the run-down on my up coming titles: The Totally Out There Guide to Glacier National Park, which is a book about (duh!) Glacier National Park. We only live 90 miles south of the park and we’ve visited there on many occasions each time learning a little bit more about it. I especially loved going there when our three children (boy, girl, boy) were young. The mountains are so huge and the wildlife so abundant. In fact, for six years we lived on the east side of the park on the Rocky Mountain Front in Choteau where the Great Plains meet the Great Mountains!, and for the past 14 we’ve lived on the west side of the park. So, it was great fun to research and write about. My illustrator for the book was once again the delightful, Joyce Turley, and the publisher is Mountain Press Publishing in Missoula, MT who also published my first books Loons, Diving Birds of the North, and Awesome Ospreys, Fishing Birds of the World.  Look for this book in the fall of 2010.

Another of my new books resulted from my first Glacier book. It’s called The Glaciers Are Melting!, a Henny Penny story penned when I was researching the Glacier book. Every time I heard “The glaciers are melting,” I thought of “The sky is falling,” except I changed it up. For my book, I used critters that live high in the mountains and rely on glaciers – critters like Tammy Ptarmigan and Peter Pika. There’s a surprise ending, but, well, the glaciers really are melting. In Glacier National Park they are expected to be gone or return to ice fields that don’t move by the year 2030 or sooner. Some scientists think the glaciers melting is human caused, others think it is nature and still others, both. Whichever it is, our nation and future generations need to be prepared for the changes warmer temperatures will mean (just like if we were getting colder they would have to prepare for it). For one thing, water is so important, and food production in the North American Continent relies heavily on snow that falls in winter and melts in summer that it can’t be stated strongly enough that we need to understand the changes a warmer climate will bring. The Glaciers Are Melting is being illustrated by Shennen Bersani a fabulous illustrator from Massachusetts, and is being published by the incredibly progressive Sylvan Dell Publishing in North Carolina ( a teacher’s publishing company!) who published my Henry the Impatient Heron. Look for The Glaciers Are Melting! in February of 2011.

Finally, I’m also pleased to announce Wild Wapiti , An Elk’s Life (working title – it may change to Walk With Wapiti) a children’s book about elk being published by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Oh what a fun book to write! We’ve had elk right in our backyard and we live just 15 minutes from an elk  range that supports 1000 head of elk each winter. What fun to dive into the world of elk and learn more about them. This book is scheduled to be out in November or December of this year. It’s a new thing for me – a contract book where I wrote the book for them and they print and sell it. For this book I’m pairing up with illustrator, Christina Wald, again because RMEF loved her deer in Henry the Impatient Heron, which she also illustrated.

Well, that enough for this time. Hope everyone is surviving the recession – remember, kids need to be read to even if you go to second hand stores to buy the books. (Which brings up the point – how do I feel about books on-line? Hey, it’s the way of the future and someone still has to write the books!) So, keep reading, and remember to read to a child today. Happy Reading, 
Donna

     WOW! Summer is almost over and a great summer it was. Boating, beaching, hiking, learning – lots of new exciting things to do, see and learn. In the writing realm, I’m delving into Glacier National Park for Kids (2010- did you know that Glacier National Park turns 100 years old in 2010) – and Yellowstone National Park for Kids 2011 (both working titles) published by Mountain Pressin Missoula, Montana (mountain-press.com) and a couple new nature books that have received a “yes” from publishers, but no signed contracts yet, so I’d better not say what they are, but I’m really excited about them.
     For the fall, I also have two great opportunities coming up where I get to share my newly acquired joy of Great Blue Herons with folks. On Saturday, Sept. 26 from 10:00 to noon I get to give a Heron Talk/Book Reading/Signing for children ages 2-7 in Seattle, Washington at Seward Park and Audubon Environmental Center(sewardpark.audubon.org). I can’t wait to see their wonderful park and facility on the banks of Lake Washington, just minutes from the Space Needle! Then on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9 and 10, I get to share Henry the Impatient Heron (I love that little guy!) with the Washington Library Media Association (wlma.org) in Yakima, Washington, in the heart of Washington’s orchard district. (My sister, Diana, who lives near Seattle makes trips there to buy some of the best fruit in the world.) Anyway, at WLMA, I’ll be a part of the Sylvan Dell(SylvanDellPublishing.com) presentation on Friday from 9:30-10:30. On Saturday I get to present my own heron presentation at 8:30 in the morning for early risers on the last day of the three day convention. (I wonder if anyone will get up on a Saturday morning to learn about herons?!? I might not if it was the last day of a three day convention, but you never know!) Oh, but you should see the high power authors that are attending WLMA. I’ll be honored to just be in their presence and I hope I get to hear a couple of them speak. Can’t wait! 

     I’m also really curious about how Animals Count in Grand Canyon National Park, (Grand Canyon Association at grandcanyon.org) is doing.  I wonder too if anyone from President Obama’s visit to the Grand Canyon this summer purchased our book? I like to think so.

     Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely and restful autumn. Keep Reading! Donna

Dear Readers,

Sorry it’s been so long since my first (and only) blog! Since my new book, Henry the Impatient Heron, launched in early March, I’ve been super busy with book signings and school visits. But I love it and I’ve enjoyed meeting so many of the reading public. I particularly love giving children’s programs. So much to learn and do! And, I am especially grateful to my illustrators, Joyce Turley for  illustrating my first books, Loons and  Awesom Ospreys, (real winners),  and if I were the jealous type, I’d have lots to be jealous about Christina Wald! The first thing anyone comments on Henry is how great the illustrations are. And they are great! What a special talent both Joyce and Christina have. Where would children’s authors be without their illustrators!?! It takes a special kind of talent to illustrate what’s in another person’s (the writer’s) head. Both illustrators nailed it in my opinion. Mountain Press in Missoula, MT and Sylvan Dell Publishing in South Carolina found my illustrators for me so I am grateful to them, too!

At book signings espiring authors often ask me whether or not to have an illustrator illustrate their book for them and send it in complete. The answer to that is “it depends. ” It totally depends on whether or not you have want the book look exactly like you want it to, and it depends on what kind of relationship you have with the illustrator. If you have to have the book exactly like you want it, then have the illustrator illustrate a couple illustrations for you (or maybe you’re doing it yourself),  but don’t go to all the trouble and expense of doing all the illustrations until you have a book contract. Send in only a couple illustrations. Sometimes that works.  However, if you send it in with the illustrations,  it may be harder to find a publisher. Many publishers have their own illustrators and/or want (and/or need) to develop the illustrator. That’s cool, too. However, if you have to have it exactly like you want it, or perhaps you’re just working together with an illustrator friend and you have the time to wait for just the right publisher and the energy to keep searching for the right publisher, then do that. So, that’s my “that depends” answer to that question. And to tell you the truth, and sorry if I step on anyone’s toes if I say this, you absolutely have to write the manuscript first! I know that sounds funny to say, but I’m surprised at the number of espiring authors that want it the other way around. Actually, I do kind of understand that. It’s fun to see the finished product and hard to wait. However, you’ll have to do the work first. So, keep writing and sending in and writing and sending in…And keep the faith. I’ve always wanted to be an author and my dream didn’t come true until I was 45! So, hang in there and keep writing!

Oh, and I hope you enjoy listening to my Radio Blog from Book Bites for Kids, with Suzanne Lieurance.  I really struggled with explaining how a heron’s legs are inside its body cavity, but next time I’ll suggest that the listener go to any grocery store and look at a whole chicken, or at Thanksgiving take a good look at the turkey before it’s cooked or while carving it. (The drumstick is really the shin bone – the thigh bone and knee is inside its skin.) The purpose of a a bird’s knees being held tight against its body inside its skin is to keep its legs out the way of its wings. Or, I could have said, which I do in children’s programs, is to imagine the bird wearing a big t-shirt that comes down over its knees. That might help, too, but I sure didn’t think of that at the time! Oh well. That was my first live Radio Blog, so I was kind of nervous. I’m sure I’ll do better next time. And, I truly appreciate how kind and how easy Suzanne Lieurance from Book Bites for Kids was to talk to. What a kind person.

Happy Spring to all!

Donna

Click the play button to hear Donna on Blog Talk Radio Book Bites for Kids
talking about her new book “Henry the Impatient Heron”