Two years ago I met a freshly graduated student from the UMD fine arts program whose pictures were on display at the PROVE Gallery here in Duluth. Ian Welshon's work impressed me. When I learned that his future ambitions included a desire to illustrate children's books, I probed his level of interest to consider illustrating one of mine. Thus began our two years together (thus far) to bring my little poem/story to print.
At this point in time the drawings are now complete. The next step will be the layout and manuscript prep.
Every step of the way involves decisions. And sacrifices.
One of the challenges was been working within limitations. He lives in Stillwater, MN and I am here up north. A second is that of trying to find a publisher, made especially challenging because children's book publishers like to be the ones who select the illustrator. This approach of the writer picking his illustrator is evidently taboo, or at least that is what I have run across in the literature and in experience thus far.
So, we're going with the publish-on-demand arm of Amazon.com, Createspace. My dealing with them thus far have been very good. Createspace published
Unremembered Histories, my first set of short stories and we're currently working with them on this one. Unfortunately, the maximum size of the final product will be smaller that I'd originally envisioned. Nevertheless, there may be work-arounds and I am confident the final product will look good, and will be enjoyed.
The name of the book is
A Remarkable Tale from the Land of Podd. I have yet to find anyone who hasn't enjoyed it. You can
see more of Ian's illustrations for this book here.
Later this fall we're planning to have an art show to exhibit some of Ian's illustrations and to share the book. I will keep you posted.
Meantime... life goes on all around you. Make it remarkable.
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