Recently in merry-go-round Category

My own daughter won the first-photo-of-a-bookstore contest. Congratulations Piffin! Do you really want me to send you an autographed copy? Guess not. Oh dear, I was cut of from the internet for three full days, quelle misère. Now there's a new modem, a new router, a new network card, works like a zonnetje. You missed the whole development of another NRC drawing, too bad. I really feel like I've been away, crazy. Oh and I joined a life drawing class, I'll show you after some classes. It's been too long, I suck. Exhausted now, see you in the morning.

Wendy noticed it. She saw the pic on the left side of this page, and said so in yesterday's comments. And it's true, my new Little Golden Book arrived yesterday, hurray! I had planned to do a contest like last year, with Tim's Bed. To send a signed copy to the first person who finds my book in a bookstore. But I received my copies so late, that it's already in the bookstores! Willem told me that Praamstra in Deventer had a whole pile of them. So the competition is off, sorry. We could of course do first photo in a bookstore, couldn't we? Okay. I promise a signed copy for a beautiful picture like this one, with the new book! I am quite happy with the way it turned out, though I don't like the way they tore apart the picture above one bit. Probably my fault, I probably was a page short. Water under the bridge.

I'm DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE !

Tomorrow the last one. If I get that done, The Book Will Be Ready! At last, I can't believe it. One more though. I'm afraid I'll need six weeks of fysiotherapy, just like after Tim. I am growing roots in my chair here.

I am not speaking to you anymore. Nobody sends me their favourite song. Except for my own husband. And except for Lex who sent me an mp3. Oh, and Jan, I almost forget Jan. Don't you people like my music? I am listening to Chet Baker right now. And I recommend this, you only have to tell them what kind of cell phone you use. I lied, because I don't have one at all. And that was not an option. (Too much green in the drawing, I'll see to that tomorrow) --> Done.

Maybe I'll add something tonight, but right now I can't think of anything interesting to write. I can hardly find the keys on the keyboard, I've drawn myself blind, and besides that, I have to cook dinner now.

Okay, I'll write some more, 9 PM, peace and quiet. I just voted my favourite songs in the top 2000 of the Dutch radio. Not that I am fanatical about things like that, but every single year Bohemian Rapsody is number 1, so maybe some people with taste -like myself- should take action. I just wanted to vote on Forever Young (which wasn't even on the list) but it turned out I was supposed to vote on three to ten songs. O my. So I clicked here and clicked there. From Maggie Mae to Heart of Gold. And then I had to explain my number one. I hadn't even realised the song at the top of my list was going to be my number one. But allright, that was Smells like Teen Spirit. Easy one to explain. I saw Nirvana perform in Stuttgart, 1991. They were Sonic Youth's support act. And I had played one Sonic Youth song approximately three hundred times while giving birth. Great contraction music, Sonic Youth. So I had to see them when they came to Stuttgart. I had never even heard of Nirvana. And they sucked, to be honest. And the Longhorn was outrageously dangerously overcrowded. And I was wearing white shoes. But I can say I have seen Kurt Cobain. I am forever young.

What's your number one?

One spread, two single pages to go.

This is all very quiet and silent and lonely work. So I listen to the radio. I've always done that. VPRO radio. Years ago, in my studio in Rotterdam, I knew exactly when they broadcasted, which days, which frequencies, and at what time. Nowadays they have something called horizontal programming. Every day the same. Lovely. And because of the time difference, I can listen to De Avonden (The Evenings, after Holland's most famous novel) every single afternoon. Although lately I usually Skype with Willem while working. So my work is not even lonely anymore. Exorcising the meaninglessness of our existences together :-)

From one extreme to another. Yesterday a fully finished shiny end product, today the pity start. A bicycle race, oh my. I don't even dare show the whole sketch, it's hard. I am going to beg Michiel for some Maya help. Nine bicycles, audience, one girl (recognizable) in the lead and the finish in the distance. Give me Voltaire anytime.

I might be illustrating a children's book, but I am a serious children's literature skeptic. My kids never used to read, didn't like it, weren't good at it. School teachers have always wanted to label them dyslectic. For lots of reasons, I never believed them. One of those reasons being that kid's books are just plain boring. Talking bears, that sort of stuff. As they get older, their reading (and writing) problems gradually vanish. Piffin is a now great Nabokov and Dostojevski fan, so I don't think she's very dyslectic. Otger is at a turning point. The Hobbit and Harry Potter. Then what? But now The Great Discovery. Maybe everybody but us has known about this for ever, but we haven't. Pendragon has got him reading! And how! Day and night, night and day. And even the website of the book cover illustrator!! Otger has been designing his things in Maya all afternoon, totally inspired. Ha!!!