carolyndigbyconahan.com

Hey! Fiona Bayrock and I are featured on the Seven Kicks section on SevenImpossibleThingsBeforeBreakfast. You’ll find other wonderful things, too, like a recipe for Purple Yam Cake. (Which sounds tasty and is fun to say, too.)

Forget they’re weeds… aren’t they pretty? On my street.

No, this is not my house. Around the corner. Mark thinks this is a little much, but I love it. And in case you’re wondering… I do pull weeds in my own yard. Consistently inconsistent, that’s me.

Bonus: View out my little house window, of the big hole which will soon be a mighty-fine skateboarding pool.

A young writing friend and neighbor, Bridget Zinn, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, just as great things were starting to happen with her writing career. She signed with a super agent (yay!) A week or two later she went to the emergency room with a headache (it was a very bad headache) and a few other mysterious symptoms. She got an incomprehensible diagnosis (She’s young! She’s fit! She doesn’t drink, smoke, or eat meat!) followed by a grueling course of medical treatment, and medical bills, bills, bills. This is SO wrong. She’s a talented, funny person, and a positive force in the writing community. Helping out, organizing events, sending reminders for writer friends’ book events even after chemo, as the nasty side effects kicked in! We need people like this in the world. We need them happy and healthy and on their feet. We can’t fight the cancer for her, but maybe we can help a little with the bills. Here’s a link to an online auction where you can purchase many cool items and services and do good at the same time. I am offering the illustration above, from Bubble Homes & Fish Farts.

Fiona Bayrock rocks the book launch thing! These are scenes from her launch at the Vancouver Aquarium... That's the Vancouver in Canada, not the Vancouver right across the river from me. I wish we lived closer, so I could take advantage of her mad skills, er... I mean, so we could do something together.

Here are links to some very nice reviews. (They’ve all been nice, luckily.) Jen Robinson’s Book Page, The Well-Read Child, The Miss Rumphius Effect, and Just One More Book! (audio review). Anastasia Suen has some ideas how to use Bubble Homes on her blog, Using Picture Books to Teach the Six Traits of writing.

So! It’s out. I have a fart book. A whole box of them, actually. Does this mean no one will take me seriously? (Like THAT was going to happen!) Oh well. Working with great people and having a great time will be my revenge. Ha! I should mention at some point that Bubble Homes & Fish Farts was written by Fiona Bayrock, so it’s her book, too. It was her book first, If you want to get technical about it. I am only the illustrator…

We got a nice review from Kirkus. (One more TOOT.) Interested? Read on.

Bayrock’s love of “way cool science” bubbles over in this surprisingly substantial book. How do animals use bubbles? For sailing, running, breathing, nesting–even playing (dolphins seem to blow bubbles just for fun). Sixteen double-page spreads cover 16 wholly different ways that fish, insects, amphibians and mammals use bubbles. Did you know that one species of spider creates a bubble home to live in underwater? That the popping bubbles of snapping shrimp can be “so loud it gets in the way of U.S. Navy sonar”? That the water shrew can actually run across the surface of the water courtesy of the bubbles trapped between its hairy toes? Lively expository prose deftly combines straightforward facts (the scientific name of each animal), sound effects (the “fwap-fwap-fwap-fwap” of tree frogs creating foam) and kid-friendly comparisons (the gourami fish spitting eggs into its nest looks like it’s playing basketball). Conahan’s whimsical watercolor illustrations, complete with conversational bubbles, add humor and interest. Three pages of additional facts and a combined glossary/index round out a volume that’s sure to rise to the top. (Informational picture book. 5-10) KIRKUS Jan 15/09

Happy New Year! Let’s have some fun with this thing.

Bet you thought I meant something else. Why would I want to think about THAT? Bleah.

From all of us to all of you. (Though Molly would rather be chasing a ball.)

This is a character for a picturebook project. He’s based on a pleasant old fellow I often see around my neighborhood, walking his dog and reading a book. (Or, once, a newspaper.) My neighbor does not look like the character he inspired, except for the book. The connection is in how he presents himself to the world,or avoids doing so… They don’t walk very fast, either one of them.