Book Inspiration for Nancy Miller's Goodbye Gloomies

Book Inspiration - Nancy Miller & Goodbye Gloomies

The inspiration for illustrating Goodbye Gloomies came from my friendship with author, Heather Tietz. We’ve know each other since 2009 when I was signed as the illustrator for her picture book Yes, Jesus Loves You (Ambassador Books). I’d gotten to know her through email and promoting the book. We decided on a joint submission. This isn’t a common practice in the business, but we both shared a mutual respect for the others work. She decided to send me some of her recent writing, and I settled on Goodbye Gloomies to illustrate. I showed her various character development sketches. When we both agreed on what the Gloomies should look like, I began storyboarding. We sent it off to Guardian Angel Publishing and they released the book in March 2015. We continue to share marketing efforts and ideas on this new book and it’s been a fun journey.

Bio

Nancy Miller grew up sketching and drawing to her hearts content. She received her B.F.A. Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. During her career, she has worked as a graphic designer and staff illustrator. Her work has appeared on product designs, magazines, newspapers, and picture books. Goodbye Gloomies is her fourth picture book she’s illustrated. She resides in the Savannah, Georgia with her husband, son, and guinea pig.

VISIT NANCY:

website www.nmillerillustration.com

blog www.nmillerillustration.blogspot.com
Heather’s website www.heathertietz.com

Book Inspiration for Toni B. Rhodes, The Writing On the Walls

Book Inspiration for Toni B. Rhodes, The Writing On The Walls

For as long as I can remember history has been my passion. I love trying to imagine how people lived in the past -- what they thought, how they dressed, what they ate, how they lived their lives on a day-to-day basis. When I started writing educational materials about 20 years ago, I was naturally drawn to writing about history and social studies. Unfortunately, history is the least liked subject for most students, so I've tried to find unique ways of approaching the study of history.

For 11 years I worked at Emory University, and one day I found myself in the dusty, subterranean Theology Library. (I can't remember why I was there.) I stumbled upon a book titled Medieval English Graffiti. I was immediately fascinated by the 200 rubbings of medieval graffiti taken from English churches by a woman named Violet Pritchard. Apparently, people scrawled writing and pictures on the walls of their churches quite frequently. That was a surprise to me!

The idea for an educational activity book started percolating in my imagination. Studying medieval and ancient graffiti could be a way to get kids interested in history! Well, after ten years of starts and stops, my book The Writing on the Walls: Discovering Medieval and Ancient Graffiti will be published in May this year (2015) by Prufrock Press.The book is intended for grades 6 - 8 to supplement the study of the cultures of medieval England, ancient Pompeii (Roman Empire), and ancient Athens (Greece). 

ABOUT TONI B. RHODES:

My love of history goes back to my dad, who was an artist and amateur historian. On family vacations we had to stop and read every historical marker and tramp across every Civil War battle field. We visited Colonial Williamsburg and most of the Indian mounds in Pinellas County, Florida, where I grew up. As a child, I don't think I was too happy about our family explorations, but as the years passed, the love of history slowly began to rub off on me. When I became a teenager and learned to cook, I made my dad "Jailhouse Chili" -- supposedly a recreation of the spicy hot dish served to prisoners in the Wild, Wild West. My dad loved it, even though it gave him heartburn for a week, but I don't think my mom was excited about having to buy all those hard-to-find and unhealthy ingredients.

After getting a Master's Degree in education and teaching for ten years, I started writing educational materials. Guess what subject I chose to write about -- history! (and social studies, too).

Visit Toni B. Rhodes' website to read more about Toni and her books.