Imminent Brain Implosion

So I've been neglecting my poor blog because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and all the blogging I'm actually doing over there instead. If you are curious, here's the link.

There's been so much to do that I've been in constant state of blind panic as I worry about what I'm forgetting. Not to mention that no writing has been getting done and you can imagine what I've been spending all my time on.

But I'm really excited that our BookCon panel is this Saturday! I am looking forward to seeing as many people as I can there! We are up against John Grisham and Carl Hiaasen, but I'm sure people would rather see us, right? Right? :o)

Here's the information again for anyone who wants to come! We will have some buttons and bookmarks to pass out AND if you come by our table, we would LOVE to have you take a photo submission for our blog!

The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Date: Saturday, May 31
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: Room 1E02
Speakers: Aisha Saeed, Ellen Oh, Grace Lin, I.W. Gregorio, Jacqueline Woodson, Lamar Giles, Marieke Nijkamp, Matt de la Peña, Mike Jung
Description:
After taking the Internet by storm, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is moving forward with brand new initiatives to continue the call for diversity in children’s literature. Join the WNDB team as they share highlights of their campaign, discuss the success of grassroots activism, highlight diverse books and how everyone can diversify their shelves and talk next steps for the campaign. Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake ID) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities). Special Guests include acclaimed Authors Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Matt de la Peña (The Living) and Jacqueline Woodson (Beneath a Meth Moon). Moderated by I.W. Gregorio (None of the Above, 2015).

BookCon Panel!

It's been an amazing experience to see the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign take off as well as it did. Clearly, it was a message that truly resonated with people and I say it's about time! To top things off, we have the great pleasure of announcing that we have been invited to host a panel at BookCon on May 31.

The World Agrees: #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Date: Saturday, May 31
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Location: Room 1E02
Speakers: Aisha Saeed, Ellen Oh, Grace Lin, I.W. Gregorio, Jacqueline Woodson, Lamar Giles, Marieke Nijkamp, Matt de la Peña, Mike Jung
Description:
After taking the internet by storm, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is moving forward with brand new initiatives to continue the call for diversity in children's literature. Join the WNDB team as they share highlights of their campaign, discuss the success of grassroots activism, highlight diverse books and how everyone can diversify their shelves, and talk next steps for the campaign. Ellen Oh (PROPHECY Series), Aisha Saeed (Written in the Stars, 2015), Marieke Nijkamp, founder of DiversifYA, Lamar Giles (Fake ID) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities). Special Guests include acclaimed Authors Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon), Matt de la Peña (The Living) and Jacqueline Woodson (Beneath a Meth Moon). Moderated by I.W. Gregorio (None of the Above, 2015)

We got a terrific right up in Publisher's Weekly - link is here. 

If anyone is going to be in NYC for BookCon, I hope you will come and support us! We'd love to see you!!

DIVERSIFY YOUR SHELVES

Today we're revealing part three of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, a project that’s near and dear to my heart! Part three is called “Diversify Your Shelves,” and it’s all about taking a personal approach to promoting diversity in literature.

What, exactly, does that mean? Is this maybe something we’ll do for a week and then go back to buying books by old white guys?

Well, no. “Diversify Your Shelves” is a continual celebration of fabulous diverse literature, by fabulous diverse authors. Checking out what books we have on our shelves, and seeing how we might diversify them, is just a jumping off point.

There's also going to be a “Diversify Your Shelves” chat on Saturday, May 3^rd at 2PM EST to discuss our favorite diverse books and authors! Use the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag to join in!

But wait! Why is this so important?

Well, there are lots of people blogging about this more eloquently than I, like here, here, here, and here, but some of my biggest reasons are:

Because, at every conference I or my writer friends attend, there are kids asking why they can’t find books with characters who look like them, either on the cover or in the pages.

Because the same thing happens at book signings, except there the kids are saying they’ve always wanted to get into writing, but don’t think they’ll be successful because they’re people of color.

Because queer kids are still killing themselves over being different (or being told that they’re different) and the greater representation they have in books, the less alone they’ll feel.

Because awesome genres like YA wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t moved away from the old, white dude model of literature and started reading stories written by ladies. Diversify Your Shelves is a continuation of that principle—hearing all stories from all voices.

Because it’s 2014, but we still keep seeing all-white panels at book festivals, or even all-white male panels (in genres vastly dominated by women!) and that’s kind of insane to me. Diversity shouldn’t be the exception. It should be the norm.

And because, at the end of the day, when I look at my shelves, I think:

I can be better.

I can do more.

And I’d love for you to join me.

So, without further ado . . .

Let’s Diversify Our Shelves!

           

Here’s how it works: this weekend, May 3rd and 4th, we’re all going to head out to our local bookstores* to pick up books by fabulous diverse authors. (Need recommendations? Check out the May 3^rd #WeNeedDiverseBooks chat!) Then, once you’ve returned home, snap a photo of your new diverse book(s)** and post it as a comment below! And if you want to get really creative, you can take Before and After photos of your bookshelves: Before, when they weren't too diversified, and After, when you've added in books by fabulous  PoC authors, queer authors, and authors with disabilities! Woot! 

This Monday, May 5th, one lucky winner is going to win FIVE BOOKS OF THEIR CHOOSING out of the choices below!!! And every Monday throughout the spring, a new winner will be chosen to receive two fabulous diverse books! Woot!

But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Remember when I said “Diversify Your Shelves” was a continual celebration? That means any time you buy a book from a diverse author, or featuring a diverse character, snap a picture of that book and post it to Twitter with the #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag! We’ll retweet you, and help spread the word about what diverse books people are buying! And by participating in the “Diversify Your Shelves” movement, you’ll be showing publishers the kinds of books you want them to buy, showing conference organizers which authors you want to see on panels, and helping tweens and teens find representation in books! Which, really, is the awesomest prize of all!

REMEMBER: THE WINNER OF THE PRIZE PACK WILL BE CHOSEN MAY 5TH!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Obviously, not everyone has the money to “Diversify Their Shelves” at this particular moment. That’s okay! Because stopping by the library and having them order a book by a diverse author, or even sending them an email about your interest in diverse books, can make a big difference in the “Diversify Your Shelves” movement! You can even snap a photo of a certain section in your local library, and then snap another one after they’ve ordered more diverse books for you! That way, you’ll not only be diversifying your own shelf, but you’ll be diversifying the shelves for your entire neighborhood! Go, you!

**Don’t worry, e-book lovers! You can totally enter the contest too. Just snap a photo of your reading device with the book’s cover showing (or a screenshot of the purchase), and you’re good to go!

We Need Diverse Books Campaign

Recently, there’s been a groundswell of discontent over the lack of diversity in children’s literature. The issue is being picked up by news outlets like these two pieces in the NYT, CNN, EW, and many more. But while we individually care about diversity, there is still a disconnect. BEA’s Bookcon recently announced an all-white-male panel of “luminaries of children’s literature,” and when we pointed out the lack of diversity, nothing changed.

Now is the time to raise our voices into a roar that can’t be ignored. Here’s how:

On May 1^st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.

For the visual part of the campaign: 

• Take a photo holding a sign that says “We need diverse books because ___________________________.” Fill in the blank with an important, poignant, funny, and/or personal reason why this campaign is important to you. 
• The photo can be of you or a friend or anyone who wants to support diversity in kids’ lit. It can be a photo of the sign without you if you would prefer not to be in a picture. Be as creative as you want! Pose the sign with your favorite stuffed animal or at your favorite library. Get a bunch of friends to hold a bunch of signs. 
• However you want to do it, we want to share it! There will be a Tumblr at http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/ that will host all of the photos and messages for the campaign. Please submit your visual component by May 1^st to weneeddiversebooks@yahoo.com with the subject line “photo” or submit it right on our Tumblr page here and it will be posted throughout the first day. 
• Starting at 1:00PM (EST) the Tumblr will start posting and it will be your job to reblog, tweet, Facebook, or share wherever you think will help get the word out. 
• The intent is that from 1pm EST to 3pm EST, there will be a nonstop hashtag party to spread the word. We hope that we’ll get enough people to participate to make the hashtag trend and grab the notice of more media outlets.
• The Tumblr will continue to be active throughout the length of the campaign, and for however long we need to keep this discussion going, so we welcome everyone to keep emailing or sending in submissions even after May 1^st.

On May 2^nd, the second part of our campaign will roll out with a Twitter chat scheduled for 2pm (EST) using the same hashtag. Please use #WeNeedDiverseBooks at 2pm on May 2nd and share your thoughts on the issues with diversity in literature and why diversity matters to you.

On May 3^rd, 2pm (EST), the third portion of our campaign will begin. There will be a Diversify Your Shelves initiative to encourage people to put their money where their mouth is and buy diverse books and take photos of them. Diversify Your Shelves is all about actively seeking out diverse literature in bookstores and libraries, and there will be some fantastic giveaways for people who participate in the campaign! More details to come!

We hope that you will take part in this in any way you can. We need to spread the word far and wide so that it will trend on Twitter. So that media outlets will pick it up as a news item. So that the organizers of BEA and every big conference and festival out there gets the message that diversity is important to everyone. We hope you will help us by being a part of this movement.

My website is safe again!

Thanks to Alex who gave me the heads up about the virus on my website and to my amazing web designers, Denise and John Biondo, who worked really hard to clean it all up for me. Ellenoh.com is safe!

My author website HACKED!

 Guys, my Ellenoh.com website has been hacked. Please do not go there!! It has been infected with very bad malware.  Fortunately, my blog is hosted on blogger and I never moved it to my website. I always thought that was a pain but now I'm very grateful because my blog is safe.

I would gladly hurt the person who did this to me. Also, if you see any emails from ellen@ellenoh.com - DON'T open for now!! Delete! Everything has been compromised and it's a huge mess. I'm real sorry guys!!

We Are Still Not Doing Enough for Diversity in Kid lit

I’ve written about Why Being a POC Author Sucks Sometimes. I’ve written about the importance of Diversity and Diverse Reading Lists. And I’ve even written about Diversity in Writing. The discussion about why diversity in children’s literature is continuing because POC are still greatly underrepresented at less than 10%. (see this fantastic post by Malinda Lo at Diversity in YA.) There’s even an article in CNN about “Where’s the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?" There’s a lot of good talk but there’s still no action. And furthermore, there’s a lot of lashing out that somehow when we ask for diversity, we are somehow anti-white. If we talk about our need for representation, our articles are just "race-baiting" and discriminatory toward whites. How can asking for more authors of color and characters of color in children’s literature mean we are anti-white? I will never understand this thinking and I have no use for it. Kelly Jensen, a librarian and true supporter of diversity, said in her excellent post “When you support one group of people, it is in not denigrating another group of people. Instead, it’s doing your part to raise everyone up.” And this is what we are fighting for. Raising us all up because diversity is good for everyone.

How bad is the problem?

Of the 3,600 books the Cooperative Children’s Book Center reviewed in 2012:

• 3% were about Africans/African Americans; 1.8% were written by Africans/African Americans
  
• 1.5% were about Latinos; 1.6% were written by Latinos
  
• Less than 1% were about American Indians; less than 1% were written by American Indians
  
• 2% were about Asian Pacifics/Asian Pacific Americans; 2.3% were written by Asian Pacifics/Asian Pacific Americans
  

Click here for a fantastic illustration by Tina Kugler that really highlights the problem based on statistics released by the CCBC.

There are a lot of good people out there fighting for more diversity in publishing. But it’s not enough. There’s even more people who nod their head and agree whole-heartedly that we need more representation. But it’s definitely not enough.

Today I’m pointing fingers. At publishers, librarians, teachers, booksellers, publicists, conference and festival organizers, reviewers, journalists, in fact our entire media. You are all not doing enough. There are some wonderful children’s books authors of colors out there publishing amazing books that are just not getting the attention they deserve. They are ignored. Where is their media coverage? Where are their book tours? Why isn’t their more diversity at book festivals and conferences? Why is it that any promotional materials talking about ALA award winning books don’t also highlight the Coretta Scott King or the Pura Belpré, etc? (See Meg Medina’s post on this.)

Publishing and promoting books that include diversity by white authors is a good start for diversity. But that is not enough. Publishing and promoting authors of color so that we break the arbitrary 10% cap is what is really needed. We need more published authors of color. But if current authors of color are not promoted, then it hurts the chances for all other potential POC writers. It becomes a vicious circle. A self-fulfilling prophecy that continues the belief that books by and about POC don’t sell. We are not doing enough to break this prophecy.

Recently there was a big controversy over the fact that BookCon was featuring an all white male power panel at BEA. Lerner Publishing Group editorial director Andrew Karre said in the PW article, “If they really want to put their money where their mouth is, they should have a panel on this topic, the issue of diversity in children’s books.” I want to put a rallying call out for this to happen. Meg Medina, the fabulous author of the award winning Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, and I were recently talking about how we wanted every conference and every festival in the country to have a diversity panel until the day comes when we don’t need to do it anymore. So yes, ReedPOP, please include a diversity panel to make up for your world class blunder. And please don’t fill it up with white people. We authors of color are here yelling into the crowd. We are writing our books and fighting to promote them in an ocean filled with white capped waves that wash over us. But we are here because there is a need for us. And we won’t stop fighting or raising our voices.

Several months ago, I was at a school event where a very young black girl was standing shyly off to the side as I was chatting with some 6th grade students after my presentation. She gave me her notebook and asked me to sign it, which I was glad to do. It was a book of her own poetry and short stories. I smiled and said “I’m so glad to meet a young writer!” She beamed at me and said “I love writing and I want to be a writer but I didn’t think I could because I’m not white.” I was surprised and asked her if she’d read any books by Walter Dean Myers, Angela Johnson, or Linda Sue Park. She nodded and shrugged her shoulder and said, “But I’ve never seen them in person.” To this young teen, an author of color was a mythical creature, not to be believed, until she’d seen one in person. She couldn’t believe in her dream to become a writer until she saw for herself that a real life POC had done it. This is why we must continue to fight for diversity in children’s literature. For all of our children, so that they can see that we exist and that they can believe that their dreams of becoming whatever they want, can come true.

Teen Librarian's Book Battle!

So I just found out that PROPHECY won a book battle over at the Teen Librarian's first ever book battle in her library and I couldn't be happier!!

Here's the link to go read all about it!! Thanks so much Teen Librarian!

NoVa Teen festival, Gilded Winner and other news...

Hi everyone! Sorry for being out of the loop for awhile. I caught a terrible cold that apparently didn't want to leave me. Ever cough so bad you bruise your ribs? Yeah, this is not fun. It hurt so much that it even hurt to eat! I find that unforgivable! But in any case, I'm on the mend and can actually focus on things like writing a blog post - which takes more brain power than I have had these days!

All right, first things first! The winner of my Gilded contest is Patrice Caldwell! Congrats Patrice!

Secondly, wanted to post up some pics of my fabulous time at NoVa Teen Festival.

The day before the festival, Jessica Spotswood, Lamar Giles and I had an event at a local high school. It was a lot of fun, plus I got to hang out with Jess (who is always wonderful to be with) and meet Lamar in person for the first time! Lamar and I have the same brilliant editor, Phoebe Yeh, for our first books, and we've been talking online for years now! Lamar is just as great in person as he is online! Plus, don't miss his new fantastic book Fake ID!!

Lamar and I got to be on the first panel of the festival (about Identity) with Sarah Guillory, Diana Peterfruend and Meg Medina. This was a fantastic panel and we had a great discussion and I would love to do this again real soon!

I have to take a moment to say that meeting Meg Medina was like meeting a long lost friend! Meg is the winner of the 2014 Pura Belpré Award for her excellent book Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass! I have wanted to read this book for a long time and I now have a signed copy to cherish for myself! Meg is also a huge supporter of diversity and so like minds started rocketing through all the things we should, could, and would do to keep diversity on everybody's minds.

 

 

 Next up was my Breakout Panel with my dear friend Marie Lu, who I adore and who you all know I'm a big big fan of! There's something very comforting about having a discussion with someone you really love and admire a lot. It makes for a great and stimulating discussion. Plus, it helps when you have a huge crowd of eager fans (mostly Marie's) with lots of smart questions.

And then it was time for the signing!

Here I am with Lamar, Sarah and Meg at the signing part of the day! I was grateful and so appreciative of everyone who came and bought Prophecy and/or Warrior! It was exciting to have such a great turnout! In fact, I underestimated and didn't bring enough SWAG, which I was sorry about, but what a great problem to have!
 

 I met some really lovely teen readers who were super sweet and smart and I just wanted to hug them all!

I got to see another teen reader who, btw, is going to be a big author one day in the near future! She's got the drive, the determination and some amazing story ideas! I got a good feeling about her.

Ok, last picture and an important one! Because this is with Danielle Ellison who is not only an author and an editor (for Spencer Hill Press) and a bookseller and YA event coordinator, wow, right?, but she came up with the whole NoVa Teen festival idea! Along with Nico Piro, Arlington YA librarian extraordinare, and Lelia Nebeker, YA book buyer at One More Page, these 3 amazing women put together one of the best events I've ever attended. I have so much respect for them. Even Marie Lu, who has been too many many events, couldn't get over how great the festival was for a first time event! There were tons of teens and authors and volunteers and books!! So to Danielle, Nico and Lelia, and all the wonderful volunteers that helped make Nova Teen festival happen, thank you very much. It was truly a splendid event.

I think there was one more thing I was supposed to blog about but my cold medicine has worn off and my brain has turned to goo. So here's me signing out for now!

GILDED By Christina Farley

So my very dear friend, Christy Farley, has just released her debut book GILDED and I seriously couldn't be more excited!!! I love love love this book! Because it is set in Korea and has a Korean MC!!! Here's the summary:

When sixteen-year old, Jae Hwa, is uprooted from her home in L.A. to Korea, she thought her biggest problem would be fitting in with her classmates and dealing with her dismissive grandfather. But she was wrong. A Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she’s next.

Jae trains with a Korean master, confident her taekwondo will be enough to fight Haemosu. But she’s wrong again. Desperate, Jae delves into the ancient arts of metamorphism and uses her growing power in the Spirit World.

And then there’s Marc. Irresistible, charming, and mysterious, Marc threatens to break the barriers around Jae’s heart. But Marc has a secret of his own. One that could help destroy Haemosu. As Jae grows closer to him, she must decide if she can trust him and whether putting his life in jeopardy is worth the risk.

Jae thought she knew all the answers. It turns out that she’s been wrong about a lot of things: her grandfather is her greatest ally, even the tough girl can fall in love, and Korea might just be the home she’s always been looking for.

I've been  so happy and excited about Gilded and now that it is out, I want everyone to go read it. So I'm doing a giveaway for a copy of Gilded!!! All you have to do is tweet or tumble back to me or leave a comment on the blog! The giveaway will be open for one week!!!

NOVA Teen Book festival

I'll be at the NOVA Teen book festival on March 8th, 2014. Just take a look at all the amazing authors who are going to be there!! If you are in the area, please come by! It's going to be awesome!!

HOORAY FOR BOOKS TONIGHT - BETHESDA LIBRARY TOMORROW!

Hey guys!

Tonight at 7PM, I am part of a panel with some fabulous authors at HOORAY FOR BOOKS in Alexandria!

Megan Shepherd - The Madman's Daughter
Victoria Schwab - The Archived
Stephanie Perkins - Anna and the French Kiss

Tomorrow, this same group of ladies, plus Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked), will be at the Bethesda Library at 2PM.

If you come, you will get to hear an old ancestor story that I've been holding on to for quite a while. it will be worth the commute!!

Heading to ALA Midwinter!

I've been invited to be part of the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association's annual author talk dinner this Saturday in Philadelphia. I'll be attending with the fabulous Soman Chainani who wrote one of my favorite fantasy books School For Good and Evil, as well as my wonderful former editor Phoebe Yeh, VP and Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, Random House. What's particularly exciting about this, besides being able to hang out with 2 of my favorite people in the world, is that I also get to see a whole lot of librarians.

I adore librarians! They made my life better.  I'm not kidding. Growing up, I spent most of my time in a library. And I always got wonderful help and support from public librarians who showed me the way to world after world of wonderful and magical stories. When you are poor, the library is a haven, a safe place to go and lose yourself. Or find yourself. I owe a lot to librarians and the public library and I'm pretty excited to be going to ALA and meeting not only APALA members, but librarians from all over the country.

So I'll be walking the floor of the convention on Sunday morning. If any librarians out there see me, please don't hesitate to say hi! I'd love to meet you!

WARRIOR IS OUT!!!

Today is the release day for WARRIOR, the second book in the Prophecy Series. It's been an amazing year seeing Prophecy published and now Warrior. These books are labors of love and I am so grateful to have a fabulous publishing house, HarperTeen, to send my books out into the world. I have also been blessed with hearing from so many wonderful readers that have touched my heart. Thank you to all of you! I am so glad to be able to share Kira's journey with my fabulous readers!

So today, for WARRIOR's release, I get to share with you my oldest daughter, Summer's portrait of Nara, the kumiho, a nine tailed fox demon. Given Nara's importance in WARRIOR, I think it is only fitting to have another picture of her to commemorate the release date!

I can't wait to hear back from all of you and see just how you feel about Nara and Gom, the new Warrior characters. I hope you get to love them as much as I do!!

More Warrior Fanart!!

Today I get to share with you the cutest little goblin drawing I've ever seen! This is 14 year old Sharon's illustration of Gom from WARRIOR! Gom is a dokkaebi, goblin like creatures that always carry magic cudgels. I am dying from the cute!!

Gom is another new character in WARRIOR that I love. I can't wait for all of you to meet him and tell me what you think. Thank you Sharon for this amazing artwork!!! If I could make a plush from this picture, I would, I love it so much!!

WARRIOR releases tomorrow!!! YAY!!!!

WARRIOR Fanart!!!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it forever, the best part of being an author is FANART!!!

This beautiful rendition of Nara, my kumiho (nine tailed fox demon) character from WARRIOR is by the incredibly talented 13 year old Erica. She sent me Nara and my heart just melted. WARRIOR comes out on New Year's Eve, only a few days away! And Nara is one of my favorite new characters in the book. So imagine my joy when I received Erica's artwork! I'm in love!

Thank you Erica! This is truly a beautiful kumiho!!!

WARRIOR Quote!

The fantastic team at HarperTeen did this beautiful social media graphic for the release of Warrior! If you like it, feel free to use it to help spread the word that Warrior is coming out December 31st of this year!! Woo Hooooooooo!

Helping Hands over at the Thirteeners!

I did this for the Helping Hands post we did for the Friday the Thirteeners blog post. Go take a look at some very helpful and handy advice! Go here!

All artwork by my Oldest since as we all know by now I have no artistic talent.

December already?!!

How did time fly so fast? Just yesterday school was starting and the day before that it was summer time. How can it possibly be December already? Please someone tell me my calendar is wrong. 2013 isn't almost over, is it? Really?

Wow.

But December does mean something big is coming up. WARRIOR, the sequel to PROPHECY, is out December 31st! And Prophecy paperbacks will also be out this month! That means, watch out for lots of giveaways! If you want a paperback of Prophecy and a hardcopy of Warrior, you will have some opportunities in the next few weeks as I gear up for some Holiday giving!

And I will just leave you with a look back at the first year of a baby elephant. Too cute...

Ellen Picass-Oh

Hi everyone! So I've not been blogging for a while because I am lame. And I'm going to be even lamer and recycle a blog post I did for the 13ers. But as I'm fairly sure no one saw it there, I feel justified as there was a lot of hard work involved, as you can see.

So this blog post is based off of a dare by my buddy Elsie Chapman. It's great if you are a fantastic artist, like all 3 of my kids. But not so great if you have problems drawing a straight line or a circle. Which would clearly be me. Knowing my inability to draw, Elsie dared me to draw my MC, Kira from Prophecy. And I foolishly took the challenge!

Here's my first attempt. It was important for me to make sure I was accurate by including the yellow eyes and a bow and arrow. The boots were just a special extra I did. But my youngest came by and berated me for drawing her naked. 

 So I gave her some clothes and a sword. But then apparently my middle daughter came by and asked me if I was drawing a sailor. Damn it, she is not a sailor! So my youngest said, put her on a horse!

 My oldest shows up because of the shrieks of laughter emanating from my room and she takes a look and says "why is she riding a platypus?" At this point, I decided to call it a night and loaded up my self-portrait.

They have now taken to calling me Mama Smurf.

And BTW - here's how real artists do it:

 Kira by our very own and extraordinarily talented Natalie Whipple.

Another Kira by the amazing Joni who blogs at Lace and Fog Authoress. 

From now on, I shall leave the art to the artists!!