Press Check Complete!

Hi Everyone,
Thursday was an exciting day for me… I drove to South Florida to attend the press run for my new book, When You Lose Someone You Love. It was truly special because in addition to being the artist and author, I’m also the publisher! It’s hard for me to describe my elation as I watched the press churn out large sheets which will be cut down and bound into books. I took photos of some of the press sheets to share with you. Hard to imagine that by July these press sheets will be cut, trimmed and bound into gift books.

The book has 112 pages, and the last 32 pages (shown above) will have color. The first 80 pages (shown below) won’t have color, but will have both line art and half-tones.

In addition to watching the pages being printed, I got to see the cover proofs. You’ll notice that there are two versions in the photo below: one with a bar code, which is the version you’ll get if you order the book, and the other with a logo imprinted on it, which is to help raise funds for the Modern Widows Club.

I know first-hand that when you lose someone you love, you often feel confused and alone and aren’t sure how to get your life back on track. Joining MWC made a big difference in my life; I felt an immediate connection with the other widows I’ve met through the organization, and am deeply grateful for the support we provide to one another both in person and online. I care so much about the organization that in addition to creating custom-imprinted books, I am also going to donate a percentage of book sales to the Modern Widows Club, to help continue the wonderful mentoring work they do with widows around the globe. If you know someone who has been widowed, please tell them about the organization. MWC membership is an affordable $25/year. Coincidentally, today, June 23rd, is International Widows Day… please take a moment to check out MWC’s post about it. And now the really exciting news: since the book has been printed, and is on the way to the bindery,        I am taking pre-orders! Pre-orders won’t be shipping until August (after all the wonderful Kickstarter supporters get their copies), but it would be helpful to know how many people want books so I can order boxes and shipping supplies. So if you would like to comfort someone who has lost a loved one, I’d be honored if you would consider gifting them a copy of When You Lose Someone You Love.Click to pre-order the book, or hit the ‘SHOP’ button at the top of my website, then hit ‘BOOKS’, and you should see this:
In addition to my first self-published book, regular blog readers know that I am hard at work on my next two Zenspirations® Color, Create, Pattern & Play books, and reached out to all the Coloring & Patterning Enthusiasts to help me create inspiration examples. I’m not sure what I was expecting– but I have been totally AMAZED and AWED by the submissions! Last week I sent all the volunteers pdfs of four designs from the new Birds & Butterflies book, (which you can see on last week’s blog post) and have been truly delighted with the variety of creatively colored and patterned submissions.
There are way too many masterpieces to share in tonight’s blog (and I don’t want to ruin the surprise for those of you who plan to get the new books when they are released in October), but I did want to share a few examples so you’ll know why I’m so excited. Here are some examples of delightfully different owls. The once below were create by Hannah Kalish, Jamie Haberkorn and Kim Aarts.

The next row was created by Kathryn Leonard, Tina Walker and Terri Brown.

I especially love the ones below where the artists turned a simple coloring page into an interactive scene. From left to right these were created by Lora Trapp, Puneet Sekhon and Rita Barakat.
I’ll be sharing all the incredible submissions with my editor on Wednesday, and will be in touch with the artists whose work she wants to include. THANK YOU to everyone who took the time create an inspiration piece– you certainly have inspired me! And if you didn’t have time to create something this past week, but would be interested in having your work featured in one of my books, there will be another opportunity to submit something for the Trees & Leaves and the Heartfelt Expressions books in a couple of months.

If you are as impressed as I am with the wonderful owls, please take a moment to leave a comment about the inspiration samples. I’m sure the contributors would like to know that their work has sparked some new ideas and directions for you, and I’d like to know if there are particular techniques you’d me to include in the new books.

So until next week, Happy Coloring!