THE BLOG
Doodling
The Webster unabridged 1966 dictionary defines doodle as: an aimless more or less automatic scribble, outline, design, or improvised sketch traced while one is mentally occupied with something else (collected his random doodles from his wastebasket, inked over the penciled lines, submitted the pictures to the art editor – Russell Maloney)
So does doodling help you pay attention or does it take your mind away from what you should be listening to. Does it help you stay more focused? Maybe it depends on how much we are concentrating on what we are doodling. A lot a daydreaming can be going on when we should be concentrating. When I’m doing art work I can listen and draw and chew gum at the same time but if I’m trying to work on a book dummy or some writing then I can’t chew gum. It takes full concentration. So is that student in your classroom listening while he is doodling away at his paper. Maybe the doodling is helping him concentrate and remember more about what is going on around him. Maybe it is waking up both sides of the brain or maybe his mind is a million miles away.
The Successful Finish of the Picture Book Marathon
With Picture Book 25 and 26, the Picture Book Marathon is finished. It has been a fun thing to participate in. Doing a picture book idea a day might lead some people to think that it is fairly easy to come up with ideas and to finish the writing and drawing for picture books. Ideas do come shooting out of the air and hit me at odd times. One idea came as I was riding a bike on a trail. The first line of the book popped into my head and the light bulb went off. Then I had to keep repeating the line in my head until I got home to write it down because ideas can pop in and out of my brain with the same speed and then they are gone for ever.
It takes a lot of rewriting and rethinking and redrawing and letting your brain live in the book before the idea is ready to read in a critique group and then more rewriting and rethinking and redrawing. It can take up to one year to refine a 32 page picture book and then you have to take the time to try to sell the idea to an editor or agent. But it is a lot of fun to see a book progress from that first bike riding idea scribbled on a note pad to the finished book dummy. Opening a new box of printed picture books is like Christmas for a 10 year old.
Sherry
Here is the link for the Picture Book Marathon Blog
Picture Book Marathon
Picture Book Marathon Book 24 
- Picture Book Marathon Book 23
I thought if you had a pig and piglet that were farmers, what would they raise on their farm. The answer was synthetic pork products and the reason to jump into growing such products was when piglet was looking around in his local book store and ran across the cook book “Glazed Ham”.
Picture Book Marathon
Picture Book Marathon Book 22 
- Picture Book Marathon Book 21
Picture Book Marathon Day 22
Picture Book Marathon Book 20 
- Picture Book Marathon Book 19
Well it’s happened. During every marathon there is the chance to hit the wall. It usually happens around mile 22 or 23. It happens when you start to pass the same people, over and over again. Or when you see people starting to walk and it looks very inviting. The only thing to do in a marathon, when you hit the wall, is to catch a ride with the sag wagon or keep on running. So I will keep on running or in this case, sketching.
“The Crazy One-Eyed Cat” The idea for this book came from a conversation with my son and daughter-in-law. They have seen the crazy one-eyed cat. They say it ate Jimmy’s pet rat. It attacked Milo when he played in the sand box. Things got worse when Mr. Morgan sat an old pan of cooked Tilapia Fish outside to soak overnight before he washed it. In the morning, it was licked clean. The nights got crazier after that. They couldn’t tell if the screaming at night was from Milo and Jimmy or if it was THE CAT! Don’t leave your windows open at night. This would be a great story to share with your little children right before you tuck them in bed and leave them alone in their dark rooms.