Niagara, Concordia, Giclees (with an accent over the "e")

Phil, the pup, and I stopped and Niagara Falls on our way back to Michigan recently. We were in Rhode Island at a book festival and the dog happened to come along.

If you can't tell, when we were at Niagara Falls, it was a very windy day.

More posts with art soon (a new book is coming out in February) but for now, a little announcement.

Phil and I (without the pup this time) will be speaking at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan tomorrow night (November 8th) from 7-8:30 pm. Please come by if you can.

Also, just a reminder that prints from Amos McGee are being sold with the help of an esteemed colleague of mine. You can see the options at prints.erinstead.com.

That's it for now!

The prints are ready! The prints are ready!

Phil and I have noticed a curious thing happen over the last year. Whenever someone local who has read about our crazy few months in a newspaper and then runs into us in town, or the places we were regular customers at suddenly figure out that that couple who ate lunch at odd hours and seemingly didn't have a job does indeed have one....sort of...everyone turns and asks us the same thing.

"Are you going to stay in Michigan?"

Buck up, locals. Despite some bad luck and a horrible February and March, this is a pretty good state. In my opinion, one of the best. I did not plan on happily living here. My big plan was to leave and most likely, never come back. But I love my town. And I really love my state.

This weekend was a good demonstration as to why, sometimes to my surprise, I love living here. At the very last minute, after some monumentally grumpy weeks on my part, Phil and I and two of our friends (another married couple from our high school) ran up to the Sleeping Bear Dunes area.

I am a very buttoned up, uptight person. Me and my inhibitions are very close. There is something about it up there that makes me very relaxed. The nature is very friendly (see also: 200 foot piles of sand and adjacent pine forests). My friends, Philip, and I went to an apple orchard where they grow antique apples. I love food and I feel pretty confident in my knowledge of produce, but I have never seen so many special breeds of apple. A very tiny example below...

And in case you were wondering what else was in this apple paradise, the farmer has a collection of pop bottles.

All in all, it was a very relaxing, inspiring weekend. So get out there Michiganders. It's nice here. There are fall colors left to see.

Soon, I will show some pictures from my book that will come out in February. But for Now, there is very exciting news.

After some requests, some juggling, and a lot of help from a good friend, prints from Amos McGee are finally ready. With more help from my friend, there will be a link on this blog permanently...somewhere. For now, though, interested parties should follow this link!

All the information is at that link for the prints! Enjoy!

The busier I get, the more I love sports.

Hello! I have a lot of blog post drafts that I have half-started, then became intimidated by how much I could write, and so I just gave up. After ALA, I went on a few road trips and hung out in the barn as much as possible. And I am baking again! The pie on your left is evidence of that. Although I am inexplicably happy about the last busy months, I am also very happy to be home and baking. And starting another book.

So rather than try to sum up everything at once, I thought I would start small and talk a little bit about the present. I am in the beginning of a new book, which means I am walking around with a cloudy head. I live in a college town and today is the first football game of the year. It's a wild week to live in Ann Arbor. The students move back in and the city construction workers dig up all the streets just to make sure the parents don't visit too often. There are no more parking spots in town like there were over the summer and there are U-Haul vans everywhere. For the week the students return but don't have the distraction of classes, their overall presence can seem overwhelming. But it doesn't last very long. The truth is, I like the hustle and bustle of it. It marks fall's return and gives me a little boost of energy in the studio.

The same is true about the first football game of the year. I will tell you something about myself. I am crazy for NCAA basketball. I'm a super fan and a season ticket holder for U of M basketball games. Every year I get a little worse. I also love baseball. The Detroit Tigers, to be specific. Phil and I listen to just about every game on the radio (most of the time while we work in the studio). Football has never sang to me. Living in this town though, it's hard not to put on your letter sweater and join in the festivities. I like living in a town with so much rhythm.

Speaking of Ann Arbor, the Kerrytown Book Festival is next Sunday. Phil and I will be there signing at 1pm in the Children's Tent. It should be a nice day so please stop by. For more information, click here. The night before the book festival is the Homegrown Festival in the same pavilion. I love this festival. It's delicious. I recommend attending both.

A couple of comments recently asked me to post my acceptance speech. I'll work on that. I'm not sure you can find it online since it was published in the Horn Book. I promise to post more about the Caldecott next– in pieces. For now, I leave you with an image of Lake Michigan. Phil and I have been there a few times this summer, but it never feels like enough.

Deadlines! Well, really just one.

Hello, again.

I think I can finally say with confidence that it is spring in Ann Arbor. I do resent that I had to wait until the middle of May to type that, but at least it's finally here. To celebrate, Phil and I recently went to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens.

I have been chained to my desk this month and the gardens was my release for an hour or so. I have been traveling, falling quite ill, and traveling some more. I am behind. So I'm working very hard on a book right now that is due very soon. Very soon.

Unfortunately, this means we'll have to catch up on all that traveling some other time. All I can say is that everyone should win an award from librarians. It means you get to meet the nicest people and they don't even mind if you're shy.

Tomorrow, though, Phil and I will be at The Next Chapter Bookstore & Bistro in Northville, Michigan at 2pm for a signing and maybe a little question and answer session. Come by if you can! It will be a rainy afternoon! What better place could you possibly be in besides a bookstore?

After the signing, I will be going back to work. For now, though, let's look at some more spring from the Botanical Gardens.

Ollie Met Ted, Phil Met the CCBC.

Where to begin? Winter is just beginning to wind down here, although not as quickly as everyone would probably like. It's still terribly cold but I've noticed the birds are chirping a little differently, so I am assuming they know something I don't.

I am trying desperately to adjust to this new schedule, while also keeping some quiet time so I can make some art. My

correspondence has been lacking, but I'm trying to do the best I

can.

Philip and I have just returned from Madison, Wisconsin where he accepted a Charlotte Zolotow Honor for the writing of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. The winner of the award was Rukhsana Kahn for the writing of The Big Red Lollipop, who we had the pleasure of meeting and sharing a couple of meals with. Philip made a little speech, which was far better than the Caldecott acceptance speech I have been trying to write out. I was envious, but with love and pride as well.

We were hosted by the Cooperative Children's Book Center. I'm not sure I've met a nicer, more dedicated group of people. They were incredibly generous towards Philip and I, and I hope we made a decent impression. It was obviously an interesting weekend to visit Madison and talk with teachers and librarians. To be honest, it was difficult to see such devoted people having to defend their jobs and positions.

A photo from our sunny, warm trip to Madison.

The kind people at the CCBC showed us the original manuscript for The Westing Game. It was a breathless moment. They were so generous with their time and it was great to just talk about books for a couple of hours.

Well, I am off to draw a little. I'd encourage anyone who loves books to order a copy of the CCBC Choices publication. It's a great resource, and I think if I were a teacher or homeschooler, this would be an outstanding purchase.

Phil and I will be at Nicola's Books tomorrow night (Tuesday), March 8th, at 6pm for a signing. If you're in the area, please come by!

I've been doing quite a bit of research for my Caldecott speech (knowing full well I won't use it and I'll write something more personal). Luckily, I have a dear friend Oliver, who made a TED speech this past year that I can reference. He's the youngest Design Editor in the history of National Geographic Magazine (and, if I may say, he bakes a darn good cookie whenever we visit). If you have a moment, watch it. He's quite charming, but also makes an interesting argument.

An Untitleable Post.

So! Nothing new here. Same ol', same ol'. I barely can think of anything to type.

It's difficult to know how to begin this post. It's been a couple of weeks and, although I do remember my own name now, not much else has settled in. On the other hand, I have a lot of people to write ballads for, but I suppose the beauty of a blog is that I can write multiple posts. The largest thank yous and the sincerest moments of humility still need to be expressed. But I want to to do them right. I hope their absence here can be excused for the time being.

So! Allow me to tell you a little about the week of Jan. 10th (January 10th was the day I received the phone call). Monday morning, Phil and I were getting a pretty slow start because we had worked late the night before. We had very glamourous plans to take the dog for a little walk and buy some milk. It's winter, though, so it takes a while to get out the door with all of the hats and mittens and wool.

Then the phone rang.

And suddenly, we were in New York.

I've had to speak to some reporters who have asked me if this whole award was made sweeter since I won it with a book Phil wrote. I said yes, which is an understatement of gigantic proportions. But what not everyone knows is that I have an extended family at Roaring Brook Press. Without Neal Porter, editor, I wouldn't be an illustrator. And he publishes many of my friends who I met working in a bookstore. Neal was asking me what I wanted to do for lunch the next day after flying in to the city. Phil and I said we wanted to do something very low key, so we went to the Chinese place around the corner from Neal's apartment. But one of the nicest parts about having the extended family at Roaring Brook is that he invited my dear friend George (who I met working at a bookstore) to lunch as well. And actually, without George O'Connor, author/illustrator, I wouldn't be an illustrator either.

That's George. And me. Eating Chinese food.

The next day the publisher took me out to the Gramercy Tavern. At this point Phil had to fly back to Michigan early because of the impending Nor'easter. So I was alone, but I think I got through it okay. It was difficult not having him speak for me (sorry Phil). But! We ate at the Gramercy Tavern in a private little room.

Truly one of the most, if not the most, delicious meals of my life. From what I can remember. Which is not much. At this point, I was still dizzy from the week, nervous, and pretty overwhelmed. So I took the pictures to make sure this was really happening.

I think I'm going to have to continue this story in another post. So please stay tuned!

In the meantime Phil and I have some events scheduled. If you're in the New York City area, we will be at the Powerhouse Arena Bookstore in Dumbo on February 12th from 4-5pm. For more information, please follow this link.

If you live in the Ann Arbor area, Nicola's Books has generously offered to throw us a party! We will be there March 8th at 6pm. More details to follow!

There will be some more events planned and I'll post them here.

A sincere thank you and apology to those who have written me emails and comments. I am desperately behind on emails but I'm working on it. And I might get some help.

That's it for now! Back to work!

ps. I think traffic to this blog may have picked up a bit in the last couple of weeks and I might have more readers than just my father-in-law. Hello, new stoppers-by. I'm Erin. I love books and work very hard at being an illustrator. My husband is a writer and illustrator-Philip. Mostly, I try to keep up with the work he makes.

!!!!.....!!!!.....!!!!!

Please forgive this brief placeholder of a post as I am only barely regaining the feeling in my extremities after Monday. I just returned from New York and two much longer posts are coming at least...at least.

Sheesh.

I knew before this week that I had a nice family, good friends, and a pretty great publisher. But this week everyone so gracefully rose to this occasion. They covered beautifully for me and my shortcomings.

More on that later, but first—

I am so humbled to be sharing space with these two illustrators.

More soon! Thank you for the comments and apologies for this brief placeholder.

P.S. Three of my favorite frequent blog stops made some nice posts. Check them out! The first shows video of the announcements and shots of the crowd at 100 Scope Notes.

The second is the ever informative and fun to read Peter Sieruta at Collecting Children's Books.

And the third is Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast who posted some celebratory posts, all of which are great. The book on the most recent post looks amazing.

Phildecott Announcements!

Today Phil has posted the Phildecotts on his blog. You can see the results here. The things I said about the Steadberys apply here as well.

It's hard to me to really summarize how much I love a picture book. I respect them so much I tend to have a nagging feeling I shouldn't be so bold as to make them myself. I've had three really great jobs in my life, and one of them was selling books. Paper books. With pages that you turn.

Some other day, I'll write more about kicking and screaming towards ebooks. For now, a celebration of good books!

I've had a terrible sinking feeling that we are forgetting something- but we have taken copious notes throughout the year. Enjoy!

Steadbery Announcement!

At the close of 2010, Philip and I try to pick our favorite books (in very limited categories) for the year. The discussion is ongoing throughout the year. We try, and miserably fail, to read as many new books as we can (while still leaving room for the ones we missed in previous years...or decades). It's not a perfect process. But it keeps us healthily intimidated and inspired. The categories for now are limited to novels and picture books.

I love graphic novels, especially for kids (my friend George, Aaron Renier, and Andy Runton are some major frontrunners). But this year especially, Phil and I don't feel like we kept ourselves educated and up to date enough to pick favorites. So apologies, graphic novels. Your lack of presence here is not proof of any lack of love or admiration for your work. It's a lack of our own smarts.

And so, without further ad0, Phil has posted the Steadbery favorites on his blog. You can see the results here. The Phildecotts will be posted very soon.