The Conference

Well, I survived the Austin SCBWI conference on Saturday. I had been pretty calm all week leading up to the event, even though I was scrambling to put my dummy book and portfolio together to present to the literary agent. I was pretty calm even after I realized that by paying through my business paypal account, my name tag mistakenly read "Nessa Dee Art" instead of my real name, and everyone, including the agent I was meeting with thought my last name was "Art." I was even calm after displaying my little hodge podge of a portfolio next to the portfolios of incredible, seasoned artists. I was there; I had accomplished the goals I'd set; I was confident.

Then I sat down to listen to the first speaker, and a pit formed in my stomach. I had 40 minutes before I was about to show a piece of me to someone who knows the business...someone who can tell me that I don't have what it takes for this business. I started to sweat. I could barely listen to the amazing artist sharing expert advice on making it in this business. What if I cry? That would be so lame. Whatever you do...even if he crushes your very soul, Vanessa, DON'T CRY!! 

I arrived at my review a little too early, but instead of festering my nerves, the wait actually calmed me down. Maybe it was the lighthearted atmosphere, or the nice volunteers there to help, or the fact that no one was wailing from having their soul crushed to a pulp, but the pit in my stomach was reduced to a small pin prick.

After a quick ten minutes, I walked out of my meeting with a lot of sound advice, feeling more confident about my work. Thank you, Mr. Pfeffer, for the wonderful advice, and for lending this novice your ear later in the day when I had a few more questions!

 I have some new goals set, and I'm anxious to move towards the next step. And if you haven't noticed on the sidebar of my blog, I have a new website: nessadeeart.com It's a work in progress, but it's up!

Also, if you click on either the illustrations or paintings buttons, they'll take you to my portfolio site.

AND, if that's not exciting enough, I have a cute and easy Valentine's Day craft for tomorrow, so check back.

Now, I'm off to tend to my three sick babies. You'd never know this guy had a cold by the smile on his face.

He's just the happiest baby. 

xo 

nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

I hope this day finds you all well! I, myself, survived the weekend having attended a children's book conference, met with an agent, and left my baby all day for the first time. It was exciting and nerve wracking, and I'll tell you all more about it tomorrow.

But for the moment, I'm going to sit back and relax, and enjoy not having the stress of an immediate deadline.

And spend a lot of time watching, and listening, and playing, and laughing, and chasing, and flying...

...and smoochingxonessa dee

Dummy

My dummy book is almost finished! All of the illustrations are finished, text is added, and printing has begun. I just need to assemble the pages and I'll have a mini copy of my book. Then, the hard work begins...trying to find a publisher for this little project, which could take weeks...years...might never happen. But I will have the satisfaction of knowing I tried instead of the lingering echoes of "what ifs." Here's a few pages:

xo

nessa dee

At the Lake House

A couple of weekends ago we finally celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family at my Tio Jay's new lake house. The weekend flew by too quickly, as it tends to do, but it's always nice to get together with family and have an excuse to gorge oneself with delicious festive food. I think I ate a whole pie by myself in two days. It was worth it.

If having twenty people and three dogs crammed into a house wasn't exciting enough, my brother, while trying to park a camper, buried a truck deep into the mud. This was our lovely view from the sunroom of the lake house:

Thankfully there were plenty of big strong men to stand around contribute ideas on the best ways to get the truck out, while my cousin, RJ, did all of the work.

Then, once the truck was free, there was another meeting of the minds to discuss the best way to go about parking the camper, while cousin RJ did all of the work.

We might as well have dubbed RJ a super hero because he also fixed a garbage disposal, changed some light bulbs, and made a pretty awesome breakfast taco.

Thanks Tio Jay and Tia Joy for sharing your awesome lake house with us!

xo

nessa dee

Did I tell you we have a new baby?

A baby grand, that is. Audrie has been playing on this piano since she was a we little thing. In fact, all the kids have "played" it. It belonged to Audrie's grandmother and since they have recently downsized and have moved into a barn, MiMi so graciously gave her beautiful piano to Audrie as a birthday gift.

So now we have two pianos in what we like to call the "piano room," both of which were inherited from grandmothers. Now if we could only convince Finn to take piano lessons, we could have dueling piano fights!

Just to clarify [and so my mother-in-law won't kill me for telling people they live in a barn]...my in-laws are living in a small house built into the back of a barn...temporary digs until they can build their new house.

xo

nessa dee

Postcards

I was supposed to post these postcards yesterday, but when I say "tomorrow" on this blog, I usually mean "the day after tomorrow" or "never". At least in this case, it's the former and not the latter. So here they are:

As with the business cards, they are double sided, have a glossy finish, and are keeping with the theme of the blog/website by showcasing the little girl with her umbrella and dog. On the other side, I chose to include an illustration that had a similar color scheme and style to keep the overall look uniform. The big blank spots are the places my phone number resides.[ Forgive me, but I don't want to give my number out to the world...just a bunch of strangers I meet at a conference.]

So there are my promo cards. I am working like a mad woman to get my dummy book completed and my website up and running. Perhaps I'll have something to show for it "tomorrow."

xo

nessa dee

Hello, business cards!

I spent the weekend working in preparation for the Austin Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference. The conference is in two weeks, and I still have a lot to do to get ready including finishing a dummy book and refining my portfolio. But I can cross two big things off my list: business cards and promotional post cards. I can now breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing those are ordered and I don't have to pay $300 in shipping charges to get them here before the conference.

For today, I'll show you my business cards:

I decided to go with my blog [and soon to be website] header design to keep things uniform. This isn't necessary, but it does help to let people know they've made it to the right place when they get to your site. Plus, I'm kind of fond of this little girl and her dog. I think there's a story brewing with these two, but that'll have to wait. One step at a time, Ness, one step at a time. My business cards are double sided and are going to have a glossy finish, and once printed the little dog should be sitting on the bottom of the card. 

I can't wait to see the final results!

I'll show you my post card designs tomorrow.  

xo

nessa dee