September came and went, but I’m baaack! Lots to share and pictures to post—next time!

Meanwhile, I discovered how to make a word cloud from my picture book, The Sleeping Giant: A Tale From Kaua’i. (The above image resembles a fish, doesn’t it?) Thanks to the online program and site Wordle you can create a special word cloud from your text of choice. All you have to do is copy and paste the text into an online form and the program will conjure up a unique word cloud that represents your text, based on frequency of word usage. You can edit the word cloud by typeface, color, layout, etc.

Wonder how your story or an old love letter or school report would look? Try it out and see for yourself. If you make a word cloud, I’d love to see it. Just leave a comment with the link.

Go here to create your own word cloud and feel free to post it in the wordle gallery—like I just did! 

This big doodad consists of a bunch of little doodads. It’s called a Victorian Strobe. I found it on a 2007 holiday gifts blog. Go there and read how useless this doodad really is or stay here, prop up your feet and peruse my happenings…

Group Show at MOCHA
Children’s Book Illustrators Once Upon A Time: Then and Now at Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) will show from April 5 to May 31. View an original image from my book, THE SLEEPING GIANT, and a self-portrait I created when I was a teen.

MEET THE ARTISTS on Saturday, April 5, 2-4 PM. Come on down to Oaktown!

From the City of Oakland’s Calendar: Popular annual exhibit features the current work of children’s book illustrators alongside works created by the artists when they were children. See stories illuminated by some of today’s most innovative and exciting illustrators – and see what they were creating way back when!

Wicked Lovely Art Contest
Wicked Lovely author, Melissa Marr, held an art contest. I submitted my illustration of characters, Sasha and Donia on the first deadline, Winter Solstice. Now the contest’s been extended to Summer Solstice. A selection of current art can be viewed at Melissa’s site. Lots of teen talent there! Scroll down to peek at adult artwork, including mine. [see the artwork]

I’ve Been Listed…
…by author, Kim Norman. on her new Authors by State site. Now, if you or your nearest school want an author/illustrator to visit with the students for the day (wink, wink), you can search from a list of CA authors. Thanks, Kim! [my school visits]

Soup’s On!
Last month, I was fortunate to be interviewed by children’s book author Jama Rattigan on her blog, Alphabet Soup. Hope you’ll check it out. Jama asked great questions and posted a ton of pics. She even squeezed in my mom’s recipe for lumpia with my step-by-step photos. [go to interview]

This weekend an “earth-shaking” literature event is taking place: Reading the World X, a conference dedicated to multicultural literature education, held in San Francisco, CA at USF. I say earth-shaking because my lovely neighboring city of San Francisco, is rumbling with the footsteps of attendees from all over CA and other states, who have gathered together to celebrate, educate and share with one another—a wealth of voices in multicultural literature. Guest speakers include: Ashley Bryan, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alma Flor Ada, Leslie Tryon, Laurence Yep, Sarah Ellis, Peter Sís, Rita Williams Garcia, Jack Zipes and Doris Orgel.

I’m honored to participate as a presenter my first year at this event. Today, I’m putting on a workshop titled From Hawaiian Talk Story to Printed Page. I’ll be leaving shortly and will update this post with stories, updates and hopefully, pictures. Stay tuned…

The above image is from the picture book, Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei by Peter Sís, which graced this year’s Reading the World X posters and promotional materials.

Before summer disappears into a wisp of Bay Area fog, here’s an update of July & August:

On July 20th, I went to a Harry Potter Book Release Party and Alameda Education Foundation (AEF) Fundraiser at Books Inc. on Park St. Throngs of muggles, HP fans, wizards and witches-in-training packed the store, spilling out onto the sidewalks where the party continued. It was fun, fun, fun. Better yet, the proceeds went to a great cause. I saw lots of familiar faces and fellow Alamedans, such as the fab jazz artist and songstress, Natasha Miller. The photo above shows Natasha and I displaying each other’s respective works carried at Books, Inc. Alameda.

In mid-August, I traveled to NY with Halau Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu and performed at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Summer Festival, the NY Smithsonian National Museum for the American Indian and the Huntington Arts Festival. Our Lincoln Center Kids’ Show was rained out but all the other venues were just peachy keen—or should I say “shiny as a brand new Apple?” At the risk of sounding cliché: I heart NY!

Immediately following the NY gigs, I went on a road trip with my family to Montreal and New England. I had my first true 10-day break in years. I was off the grid and loved every minute of it.

More details and photos to come.

I’m pleased to announce that my book, THE SLEEPING GIANT, A TALE FROM KAUA’I (BeachHouse Publishing), recently earned Honorable Mention in the Ka Palapala Po’okela Awards for Excellence in Children’s Hawaiian Culture. The winning book in this category is LONO AND THE MAGICAL LAND BENEATH THE SEA (Bishop Museum Press) by Caren Loebel-Fried. Congratulations to Caren and all other winners listed here.

The Ka Palapala Po’okela Awards are given each year by the Hawai’i Book Publishers Association. The following excerpt about the awards was from an article, recently featured in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

The number of entries continued to reflect the strength of the local book-publishing industry, with a total of 105 nominations from 73 separate book projects entered in a newly shortened slate of 124 categories. These were narrowed down to two certificate awards given in each category, as determined by the votes of the Hawaii Book Academy, a group that includes librarians, booksellers, educators, publishing and media professionals, and other dedicated book lovers.

In Hawai’i, I discovered that The Sleeping Giant was nominated for a Ka Palapala Po’okela Award, to be judged by the Hawai’i Book Academy. I am standing next to a Ka Palapala display in Borders Books at Ward Centre.

Tied into the Ka Palapala is the Reader’s Choice Award, where you can vote for your favorite book among the nominees. Feel free to vote for my book ;-)! Deadline is May 11. The Hawai’i Publishers Association will announce the winners on May 18.

Just around the corner is the 3rd Annual Hawai’i Books and Music Festival in Honolulu. I’ll miss out on the fun but my publisher, BeachHouse, will be there.