This has nothing to do with books and that's ok.

Last week was not fun. Each day laughed at the day before. Monday was a jerk, guess what! Tuesday was a bigger jerk... Anyway this went on until Saturday when I ran* my first trail race in New Jersey. This race killed me. It hurt. For the first time I said "I hate this" and for a short while I meant it.

For some reason my friends take care of me. When I'm acting like a super baby they really go all in for me, I'm lucky. They text me jokes and invite me to things early in the morning. Kim bought me more then one Bloody Mary—fitting concerning my shins were split. They buy me onion rings and give out Cadbury Eggs for cheer. They listen to my theories on NJ gravity strength vs. NYC gravity. They don't judge me to my face. They listen. They're just there. Always.

But as my mother would suggest, one does have to take care of ones self. I woke up Sunday expecting another bad day, the dooziest of all bad days. I expected it for 5 full minutes. Then I put on my running shoes, grabbed my keys, my phone, and an odd thing: my grandfather's bird seed. When he died last April we decided to make little bags with bird seed and a ribbon that said "Feed the birds and remember Rob Burns," or something to the effect. I'd kept mine for a year.

His passing was the hardest goodbye I have had to say. I could go on as to why, but the basis of it is simple: he was a great man. He worked hard, loved his family, country, and God. He was a listener, a great jokster, and he loved me without question. I know that no matter what I did he loved me, I think that's actually really rare in a person. I'm lucky to have it throughout my family but my Grandfather was solid about it. No matter what, we were all one of the "good guys."

Events around that time were no easier. My sister had flown from Hawaii to Michigan for the service and then came with me to New York after. We were here for a few days before taking the bus to Boston for the marathon. My father ran his 4th or 5th Boston Marathon that year—in record temperatures. We watched runner after runner limp past us and onto Boylston St.. None of them looked good, they were all miserable and and tired. It was fitting in a way, I know my mother and I were tired too. But we stayed and waited for my Dad who did come limping up that underpass eventually, severely dehydrated and scowling. He was dry and had stopped sweating. When I suggested something to drink he said it was pointless. When I suggested he slow down possibly even walk a bit he said "I'll be damned if I'm walking anymore." Well I could understand that.

Almost a year later, this past Sunday, I ran my gimpy, beat-up self up and around the park that I love so much. I ran by the Canadian honking geese and swans. I passed the ducks and sparrows. I ran past the horse stables and the children's carousel. I ran all the way up north hill with that little bag of seed and piled it up next to a tree with a few robins poking around it. I'm sure they would have preferred a hot dog, but they were looking a bit chunky and deserved some solid healthy food.

It was silly to wait a year and I didn't say goodbye to my grandpa, but that bad week sure did take a back seat.

*Really this means I fell over and over again, flailing myself along the forest floor of Tenafly, NJ . . . located somewheres across the Hudson where gravity is much, much stronger.

Tuesday's unexpected tempo run—and its faultiness.

I just wrote this entire blog on my phone, copied over it with a link from my clip board and realized there is no "command z" on an iPhone. This blog post just got a bit more ironic.

Start over:

Yesterday a deadline moved up on me by two weeks. I lost 10 working days on a rather intensive interior. If people didn't like this book I'd be freaking hard but since most people are responding positively to it I'm mildly annoyed. (Truth? I'm stressed, worried about its completion and thus freaking hard core.)

See I'd missed two days of work recently—stuff piled up. Yes taking two days off yields hilarious amounts of work. But my absence had also given me a lot of positive surprises. Behold! New finished books for the shelf:

See my Leggo Edgar Allen Poe? He's good friends with bobble-head Kenneth.

Notice most of these titles are of a Mr. Gaiman persuasion? The latest, UNNATURAL CREATURES is so cool I could scream. Granted I had little to do with this cover. You know you have a great illustrator/artist when you say "a hand-lettered cover with 'unnatural creatures' drawn in would be cool." With a talent like Iacapo Bruno you get this:

I wish I could eat all this talent.

All this rad-ness aside, I still have to figure out how to handle my current situation, what to do. I decided to combine the two things I love most to figure it out. Yes, let's run thru Central Park (Oh! I work next to a park, right! Let's go!) while thinking about book design. I left at 5:00 for a slow run—about 5 miles through some seriously awesome scenery, right? Wrong.

Somewhere around 105th st. I realized I was out of breath, struggling, and dizzy. Was I sick? Was I really that stressed? Was last night's TRX class really that hard? A quick glance and a few short maths later I realized I was flying thru this run. This easy run had turned tempo—and had been for a while. Now I was really in trouble. So I stopped, took a breath and a picture.

There is nothing here to note: nothing.

How to deal with these long work days and runs? I'm not so sure. But I know the two can not interfere with each other. I will finish this project and I will train properly for this marathon. I just need to slow down, take a breath and kill it.

I love books, Valentines Day edition

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Usually I'm not really into this holiday but quite honestly a lot of awesome has been going on and I'm totally killing it. So lets celebrate the season with my first true loves: books!

Last night (or maybe early this morning who can tell) the New York Times bestseller list came out. Guess what? It's the first time a book I worked on made the list. Hooray! My Art Director and I had an intense revamp of the hardcover edition, causing a lot of internet buzzing and well I suppose people like it. Congratulations to Shatter Me! 

Second, Skottie Young and Neil Gaiman tweeted their first collaboration (and my current obsession), Fortunately, The Milk earlier this week. And according to my Twitter stalking, their readers/fans are loving it! So i think it's ok for me to share on my humble blog. While it'll be some time before I can share the interior, the cover snap in all it's glory:

Just hug it, you know you want to.

Yea that's not the professional digital copy that's online but a sweet picture of my bulletin board at work. There are several of Skotties sketches and finals surrounding that Sales Conference proof, and every day I look at it I love the whole lot a little more.

I was thinking about how much I loved this book while waiting for my taco fix from Domo Taco. I thought to myself, how lucky am I to work on a book so well cared for by both artist and illustrator? How much more awesome could this even get? Then I saw my reflection in the store front and realized I'd dressed like a girl Johnny Depp—or Slash either way....

Johnny Depp hat & hair, Slash jacket & pants

I'm pretty pleased with myself as you can tell. 

Have a great Valentines Day, lovers of books and words . . . and/or tacos.

Ramona Boxes

Have you been saying to yourself, "Gee I like Ramona Quimby books but I wish I could buy them with a little house to keep them in."

Well if by "house" you mean "box" then boy-howdy do I have a treat for you! 

The Ramona Quimby Collection:

And for our big spenders out there, the complete collection:

The Complete Collection

A little bit more about Ramona: This project was a beast! Look at all those lovely spines, all lined up in a pretty little row, no easy feat my friends. Anyway, eight books were commissioned, illustrated, typeset (which involved a rather painful Quark to Indesign conversion), copy edited, color corrected, and printed within six months. I'm pretty sure this is some sort of record; I'm currently on hold with the Guinness World Records people—yea that's totally still a thing—to find out. I couldn't have been more proud of my small involvement in these reprints. I couldn't be happier they're all done.

Many congrats to all the managing editors, production people, camera rooms, freelancers and color wheels for making our little Ramona that much more special for young readers. Up next? Ralph S. Mouse and my personal favorite Ribsy. Heck yea!

xx

How was your summer, fall, and erm, winter?

Oh my lord it's been forever since I did much else besides whine about work and run. Have I mentioned the running? Because I've been doing a lot of it. If you are interested about why I'm running then you're obviously not friends with me on Facebook because that's all I talk about. I can't help it—it makes me happy.

It makes me so happy that though I am running the Bermuda Triangle next weekend (one mile race Friday, 10K race Saturday, Half Marathon race Sunday) I just signed up for summer season. I've been lucky enough to be picked for mentor again, this time we're going to San Diego. Oh, and is that another fundraising bar off to the side of this blog? Yea it is. 

Anyhoot. This was supposed to be a design blog but then I fell off the face of the earth and well let's pretend I'll keep doing this for a while, shall we? Yes!

Back in July (SIX months have gone by?!) I was talking about the Ramona reprints. Guess what y'all. They. Are. Done. That was the fastest book reprint in all of human history. Google it, I'm sure it's true. Somehow the illustrator (an amazing lady by the name of Jackie Rogers) finished up 8 covers and interiors without our short deadline. Jackie did an excellent job with Ramona—still full of grit and cuteness. And while the cover design didn't go my way, I'm still proud to be a part of this project. Come February if you see this little lady anywhere on a shelf, pick it up and flip through. Oh, what lovely interior type design she has!

Stuff I helped make...

Some other stuff has been going on in the past few months too! Here's some fun covers:

As soon as it's allowed, I'll put my new passion up—Fortunately, The Milk by Mr. Neil Gaiman (ah! pinch me seriously!) To say I'm obsessed about this project is a vast understatement. Can you marry a work in progress? The illustrator on this book, Skottie Young, is a pure bonafide genius. Each day I get to work on that book is amazing, I'm in love! I'm in ridiculous kick me in the teeth love with that book. Hey weird kids, I got you guys this go around. And you're going to love it.

Promise. 

Two different kids: both kinds of awesome.

Running around Park Slope one will see many different types of children, none of whom are expected to adhere to any type of conformity. Most seem to be allowed to dress themselves, much to my delight. Yesterday when returning from Prospect Park in a rather grueling heat index, I saw a little boy riding on top of a stroller canopy wearing a girl's one piece swim suit, Thomas the Train rain boots, and sporting a wicked sweat band. I'd assume the swimsuit belonged to his sister—a hand me down perhaps. I wasn't stupid enough to ask.

Anyway, this kid clearly ruled. If I was two I'd totally want to be his friend. Oddly, his parents did not look as awesome as he did. I had no desire to be their friends, Park Slope parents aren't really my bag. But that kid? That kid had it going on!

It's a good thing I do what I do, I like little kids a lot—they crack me up! I love that little non-gender conforming kid! I think he's great. He was probably the best thing I saw yesterday. Just the thought of that outfit can get me giggling for a few minutes. What an innovator.

-----

I'm also fortunate that my job allows me to help some underprivileged kids out. Most of the time I can just send extra books to charities I know need them. But each Christmas season Harper gives its employees a ridiculous discount on all cataloged books and there's no limit to how many one can buy.

A few years ago my Aunt Laure put me in touch with one of her church's after school programs. I know this school has got a lot of awesome things going on, but the one I'm so proud to be apart of is their Spring Book Fair. With donations, and stretching the school's budget with my uber ridiculous discount, hundreds of quality books come together for this book fair. Each kid gets a free book, blanket or jammies for their very own to keep. They pick the book, they take it home—and while they are encouraged to share—it's difficult. Most of the time this is the only new thing they've got. For books to be so prized both makes my heart melt and break. I know what it means to love a story. I know what it means to be a kid and what a book can do for that kid who might not have much else. There isn't much I love more then reading... well besides sharing it with little wierd-o kids.

I got the pictures from the book fair today. Oh how I wish I could share them! If it weren't so creepy and uncool I'd post them all just so we could all look at those little excited faces! But instead I'll put up a selection of thank you cards that were also sent. A collection of my favorites:

One eye and an open mouth. Sweet side pony

I love you too, dot letters!

Sweet-heart!

This one is hard to read but it cracked me up: Thank you very much for the book your nice very nice your the nicest lady I ever know.

Yea ya'll she called me lady, fancy that. Best thing I've seen today.

Oh hey there!

Erm, yea I'm still around...and now new and improved!

Last December I started working in the Art Department, it's been a heck of a switch. Sometimes I feel like I'm going a bit backwards, removing myself from all things digital and returning to print media seems weird. But I've enjoyed learning (re-learning) what it takes to make a tangible object—but boy does it take a long time to produce a book! Even though I've been working since January I've only had one book come out in stores so far. As you can imagine it was a rather happy occasion:

Humid day, lay off the hair jokes.

That's me at the Barnes and Nobel in Mid-town with my first cover, Secret Circle: The Divide. I got thrown into this photo shoot the first week of work, and quickly got used to the craft services table. Not to mention the best (and nicest) photographer around. Plus models, make up artists, wardrobe fittings...print rules!

Since that photo shoot I've continued to work with amazing photographers, illustrators, handletterers (that's a term, right?) digital retouchers, art directors, creative directors, models—did I mention the authors?! Don't believe it, check out the pen names on the following (still unavailable, but ya'll should grab 'em this fall!) sweet projects:

Oh you read that correctly friend, NEIL GAIMAN.

Iacapo Bruno and Lauren Oliver?! I mean give me a break...beautiful illustration, amazing story.

I can't get over this series, I'm so jealous I'm not a 12 year old boy.

And of course the series all of you already pre-ordered on your favorite indie book seller internets:

So that's what I've been up to for the past few months. It's been a challenge, naturally. But there's something about the control and say I have in these projects I really enjoy. It's a bit overwhelming—I'm still on a learning curve. I'm not 100% sure this is the total fit, but I just got next season's list and it's just too good to be true:

Ramona Quimby reprints—Beverly Cleary.

If you would have told me this when I was 8 years old reading Ribsy in the back of my mom's powdered blue Chevy Nova without A/C in the parking lot of Michigan's Goff's grocery store (I truly remember this moment) I would have called you liar and pushed up my glasses in contempt. The first book I remember truly loving was The Giving Tree but people read me that book. I could read Ralph S. Mouse and Henry Huggins on my own and it was glorious...

I mean really.

If you want to check out more covers I'm on Behanced.

Kisses!

Sarah