I’m applying for a mentorship for picture book author/illustrators and the application window just opened today. Despite having downloaded the sample application three weeks ago, attending all the prep Zoom meetings, and doing loads of research on the mentors I want to apply to, my mind is flooded with a rousing and multilayered chorus of self doubt:
“Is this story any good?”
“You should do a more typical kids’ book.”
“You really need to spend more time sketching animal anatomy.”
“My color sense is still not where I want it to be.”
“Maybe I should just submit this directly to publishers.”
“It’s not finished enough. You can’t submit this to anyone yet.”
“You need more spreads in your portfolio.”
and so on…
I’m determined to get through it though. I’ve gotten a portfolio ready, prepared my dummy book (a quick sketch book of thumbnails that shows general story flow), and prepped answers to the questions on the sample application. Just gotta finish three spreads (half of which was in the last newsletter) and fill out some Google forms. Wish me luck!
In other news, I’ve watched three movies now about upwardly mobile crime and social class: Good Fortune, Crime 101 and How to Make a Killing. They’re quite different in tone (a wry comedy, an emotionally taut drama/thriller and an emotionally taut but romantic comedy/thriller). Nonetheless, they all share the theme that stealing from the rich is a way (perhaps *the way*) to give yourself a fair shot at the life you deserve (and that the rich definitely stole from you). Is America finally ready to wrap its head around the obvious class inequities multiplying at an exponential rate through our culture? One can only hope.
And because you don’t just come here for dire social commentary, here’s a recent conversation I had with my big kid while looking at movies to rent from our local library:
Kids! A never ending source of comedic timing and delivery, if not anything else.