TODAY'S FEATURED POST

Making Books is a Team Sport – On Becoming a Author

Kirbi Fagan

The submission process for writing illustrators isn’t a linear path. Today, I thought I’d outline the process on becoming an author-illustrator while sharing a bit of my own experience of emerging from the slush pile. Submitting Solo Most illustrators will relate to pitching their artwork to an art director. I walked that path standing in line or paying for portfolio reviews to get my work seen for many years. Mailing or emailing an art director…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

Canto

YESTERDAY’S POST

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Painting Sleepy Hollow

Gregory Manchess

October 29, 2025 - Of all the books and stories I’ve loved, one stands out as a near perfect Halloween tale for me. It’s old, yet rich with descriptions and characters, moods and smells, colors and sounds, myths and hauntings. All the tastes of the season that Autumn-thinkers appreciate. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It’s a book I’ve wanted to illustrate for so very many years. In childhood, I first found the story in a book of Shirley Temple’s Book of Fairytales my parents gave me. I didn’t read the short story because the illustrations by Arthur Rackham scared the snot out of me. I had nightmares just looking at those creepy, goblin-filled trees and weirdly distorted fairies. (It didn’t take much to give a kid nightmares if he grew up in a slightly haunted house as I did.)…

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