Authors, Kai Strand & LA Dragoni

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with my readers. Today’s guest is illustrator and author, Hazel Mitchell. (Isn't she adorable?) Welcome Hazel. Tell us about you, please. Originally I am from Yorkshire, England, but now I live in Maine, USA   creating books for children. It's my dream job! I went to art school in England, then got sidetracked, joined the Royal Navy, later ran a graphic design business and then moved to America and began illustrating. When I'm not drawing I love to sail, read, garden and look after my animals. I have 2 horses, 2 dogs, a cat and several snow shovels. I still miss England, especially fish and chips and mushy peas, but I'm learning to love lobster. See more of my work at www.hazelmitchell.com .      Mushy peas? Really? Ha ha. Can you tell us about your latest book? '1,2,...

Welcome to Three Times A Charm. I love meeting new authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the children’s publishing industry and sharing their careers with you. Today’s guest is author and artist, Marit Menzin. Marit tell us about yourself, please. I’m a collage artist as well as an author. My award-winning art has been seen in galleries, magazines, and other publications. I was the recipient of the 2010 Ann Barrow Scholarship from the New England chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and a finalist at the 2005 SCBWI Winter Conference Showcase in New York City. In college, I studied chemistry and biology, and later computer science. I have loved art since childhood, and Song for Papa Crow, my first picture book, combines my love of nature and art. I’m a member of SCBWI. What a seemingly eclectic background for an author/artist. Tell us more about Song for Papa Crow. I’m the Author/Illustrator of Song f...

Today the World of Ink tour brings us our guest, illustrator, Jessica Love, here to talk about her collaboration with author Sands Hetherington in Night Buddies, Impostors, and One Far-Out Flying Machine. Kai: What age range is your book for? Jessica: I think it will appeal to 8-10 year olds. Kai: Can you share a memory of yours or a story of you from when you were within the age range of your target readers? Jessica: I grew up in the woods, in the middle of the Los Padres National Forest, in Southern California. I was happiest playing imagination games by myself, or drawing. I would sit in my room for hours and hours, illustrating these stories that I would narrate to myself as I drew them. I had a penchant for melodramatic, sweeping tales, and I would often work myself into hysterical tears as my epic tales would reach their apotheosis. I think at the time my dad was reading me The Lord of the Rings, and so it was important for all the stories to be in...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week we have a tag team of author and illustrator visiting with their seasonal title! Michael Hebler and Anita Driessen are visiting with us. Let’s start with you telling us a little about yourselves.   Michael Hebler (Author) - I am a native to Southern California where I still reside.  In addition to writing, I am also a film publicist, currently working unit publicity.  I began writing in college where I was fortunate to watch my first penned one-act play performed on stage by the Orange Coast College Theatre Department (which is where Anita and I had first met) and was hooked from that moment, and the writing bug has never left.  I currently have three publications.  In addition to 'The Night After Christmas', I have also published two books in my adult Chupacabra Series, 'Hunt for the Chupacabr...

Three Times a Charm is a weekly feature that spotlights authors, illustrators, bloggers, agents, editors or promoters from the publishing industry. This week illustrator Julie Hammond, joins us. Julie, tell us about you. Hello readers. My names Julie Hammond. I illustrate, and occasionally write, children's books. I draw a lot of my inspiration (see what I did there?) from my family, work and the outdoors. This has been a great year for my art career because by the end of Spring 2013 I will have illustrated 7 picture books. That's crazy cool!  My work is done digitally but I just recently switched from traditional watercolor. I live in Saint Louis, Mo. with my super supportive husband and children, a lazy cat, a hamster and a fish named Dog. You’re very punny, Julie! J Tell us more about your current projects . At the moment I am working on another book from Guardian Angel Publishing. Most recently "Riley's Heart Machine" written by Lo...