I've gotta make this one quick.  I feel terribly guilty for not keeping up on my once a week blog schedule and leaving folks hanging about my trip to the library.  Man out of town, sick baby, new all consuming pinterest habit... I know, Excuses! Excuses!  I'm back though and I have been working.  Let's get down to business.
The library reading went okay.  I learned an important lesson about proofreading materials before a presentation.  I decided to redo my dummy book to allow for larger pictures for the kids to see, so I used a folder with clear plastic sleeves.  Well, in filling the sleeves, I managed to reverse two of the pages.  I had even drawn on the pages that way and still didn't notice it.  It only became clear when somewhere in the middle of my reading I thought, hmm, that didn't make sense.  I'm sure none of the kids noticed, but it kinda threw off my flow and concentration.  Oh, well. C'est la vie.  It was fun practice chatting with the kids about how to make your very own book.  And when asked the question, "Did you think the story was interesting or boring?", they were nice enough to say interesting.
I also had my book club (generally grownup books) humor me and give me their input on the story.  And finally, I read it to a dear friend from Portland, OR, who was visiting.  She is an educator and was very helpful in reminding me about my grammar rules.  I get a little sloppy with independent clauses apparently.
So in the end, (that was an independent clause right there :) I was able to get my manuscript in the mail to arrive in L.A. yesterday for the professional consultation I will subject myself to at the SCBWI Summer Conference in August.

My next goal is to prepare to submit my story board, character sketches, and a couple of finished illustrations for July's deadline.  This will have to do with Illustrator's Intensive I'll participate in at the end of the conference.  Even though I haven't been blogging, I have been painting whenever possible this past week.  I'll leave you with one of my favorites.  I'm really working on improving my watercolor skills.  I will probably redo it at least one more time on nicer paper, but I think this captures some of the emotion I'd like my story to convey.  I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Copyright Carrie Cartier 2012