On the Journey to a Published Book (oh, and a bit of a Giveaway too)

Hello

I've been deeply immersed in my painting and drawing work of late.  I've been spending time working on both this farm animal inspired scene and some line and wash work (featuring rabbits) to send to my agent, not to mention filling my sketch pad with frenzied doodles and notes! 

Since my Focus Meeting which I wrote about in my last post, I've found myself being very motivated and driven, and the ideas for these new pieces of work have seemingly appeared out of nowhere.  This, I believe, is the gift of sitting down with yourself and eeking out what it is you really want to be doing with your life.  I'm a firm believer that the Universe will deliver the goods if you only focus upon what it is you actually want to be doing, believe that it's going to happen and then do what is necessary to get things moving (by which I mean that sitting around dreaming on a soft cushion isn't going to deliver the goods, you have to use a bit of action to get the ball rolling, if you get my drift).


This might sound like hocus pocus to some, but I have living proof that magic and miracles occur when we invest energy and action in ourselves and our dreams.


Anyway, I decided at my Focus Meeting that I needed to invest some energy into getting myself a children's book to illustrate so I contacted my agent last week and told her that I was in the process of creating some new work for her portfolio.  My agent is a very lovely, but very busy lady so I was delighted to hear back from her a few days later with some very uplifting news.


She has had a lot of interest in my work from many different publishers, but due to the economic climate, they're just not producing as many books as they were before and so therefore, competition is high.  This was a huge boost in two ways:  One, I'm delighted that publishers are liking my style and what I do.  Two, it means I have to go that extra yard to make sure that they choose my stuff for their books over all the zillions of other illustrators who are all gunning for the same work!


I love a challenge.


At the end of the email, she mentioned that she had been chatting with a publisher the day before who liked my work very much, and had asked if I had any ANIMAL THEMED WORK they could see which might be useful...


...I nearly fell off my chair.

You may call it serendipity or a miracle (because I could have started to paint anything when you think about it).  I'm still on my journey to getting a book to illustrate but I know a sign that I'm on the right track when I see one!

I'll keep you posted as things progress :D

Meanwhile, Spring is springing here all over the place, and it put me in the mood to host a little Giveaway!

SO!

One lucky person can win a fine art print of one of my favourite pieces; 'Home' as shown above.  The print will be titled and signed by myself.
  
To be in with a chance of winning it, all you need to do is leave me a comment under this post telling me what your favourite children's book was when you were small and why.  A winner will be drawn next Monday.  Please feel free to share this post with your friends and family by clicking on the Facebook, Twitter and Blog buttons below.


Good luck to you, and have an enormously happy week!


Love Julia x x x


**edited to add:  I am absolutely blown away by all your kind comments regarding my journey to getting a book to illustrate - I hope I haven't confused anyone into thinking I've actually got a book to do yet, as I  haven't - but I hope to one day - I just wanted to clear that up and make sure I hadn't given the wrong impression anywhere in my post.  Thank you anyway, for all your heartwarming positive messages, I will definitely let you know as and when things progress!  You're all so lovely x x x