The Story within the Story
Feb 22, 2012
By the author, Jim Doti
The reader now knows that Jimmy is afraid of school. In the next two pages (pages 5-6), I need to give a vivid example of why Jimmy is so fearful of school. I’ll do that by introducing a classmate that ridicules him. I also need to set the stage for […]
Continue Reading →Starting the Writing
Feb 15, 2012
By the author, Jim Doti
Now that I’ve storyboarded
Jimmy the Elf
, I have a good sense of how to move the story along. But I don’t know yet all the twists and turns in the plot that I’ll need to come up with in […]
Speaking is Complex
Feb 15, 2012
By Dr. Judy Montgomery, CCC-SLP, Professor, Chapman University
Many children have felt the disappointment of not having clear speech when they entered school. Many times the tentative, or immature, speech patterns they used at home were warmly embraced by their families and even gently encouraged. Why not? It […]
Storyboarding the Book
Feb 10, 2012
By the author, Jim Doti
After running the Surf City Marathon, I was relaxing in a lounge chair by our backyard pool. My wife, Lynne, stretched out in the chair beside me, seemed to be enjoying the book she was reading. While my tired legs soaked up the […]
By the illustrator, Lisa Mertins
Although I hadn’t been contacted by Jim until after he’d done the writing and story boarding, while he was working on his end, I was conducting an illustration workshop for the staff of the UCLA Daily Bruin. We did some conceptualization exercises for […]
Art Style
Feb 01, 2012
By the illustrator, Lisa Mertins
I mentioned the stylistic issues I had regarding how A Christmas Adventure wound up in connection to the art show and I’ll expand on that:
For a couple of years before Christmas Adventure, I was producing my illustrations by scanning my drawings and taking the images into a drawing […]
Continue Reading →Visualizing the Story
Feb 01, 2012
By the author, Jim Doti
In constructing a narrative arc that includes a beginning, middle and end in a children’s picture book of 32 pages, as I did for A Christmas Adventure in Little Italy, I like to work with an outline. Such an outline basically involves storyboarding the book.
Before doing that, I spend […]
Continue Reading →Coping with Being a Kid
Jan 25, 2012
By the illustrator, Lisa Mertins
“Look for Lisa” (next time I impose like this, we’ll offer a prize!)
When I was young, I didn’t think of being teased as being bullied. It just hurt my feelings and I had an unconscious desire to get people to stop. To this day, my reaction to […]
Continue Reading →Confronting a Challenge
Jan 25, 2012
By the author, Jim Doti
I believe all of us have been subject to some form of bullying, especially in our early years. For me it occurred as a result of a speech impediment. Kids would make fun of me because of this condition. But in life, we either confront these challenges and grow from […]
Continue Reading →How the Art Will Be Produced
Jan 17, 2012
By the illustrator, Lisa Mertins
The only thing that ended up stressing me out about
A Christmas Adventure in Little Italy
was the art show we were so fortunate to hold at Chemer’s Gallery in Tustin at the end of 2010. Hanging the work in a gallery wasn’t […]
