As many of you know, my next book, Steven the Vegan, is currently being illustrated by my long time friend, and buddy, Ron Robrahn (Hi Ron! <insert waving hand here>).

I thought it would be a treat to share one of the drawings as they reach their final stage.

There is a page in the book where Steven is asked “Which part of the chicken is the nugget?” A question I’m sure we all asked ourselves at some point, whether seriously, or humorously. (Is that a word?)

Here is the sketch Ron did for the page.

And here is the (near) finished color version of the sketch.

Pretty cool huh? I can’t tell you how great it is to see a story come to life… even if it is 2D.

Steve Barancik of www.best-childrens.books.com has written what I think is a great review of “The Tale of Eartha the Sea Turtle”.  He was concerned at first because the book was rather specific in nature, and not a general story. I told him it was intended to be such a story, and here is what he had to say.

Bodenstein’s storytelling is a little heavy-handed for general audiences, but likely perfect for those with a special interest in undersea life – turtles in particular – or parents seeking a book with a message of environmental stewardship.

Me and my heavy handed writing. What the story doesn’t do is tip-toe around the problems that plague our ocean friends.  It’s intended to show how man’s negligence can and will continue to affect our oceans until we do something about it.

Author Bodenstein makes a point of the fact that some humans were responsible for Eartha’s plight, and others for her rescue. His narrator puts it directly to readers, asking, essentially, “Do you want to be one of the good people…or the bad?”

At the end of the book, the child clearly make a decision about how they feel about protecting our oceans most valuable resources, it’s animal life.

You can read Steve’s full review here.

Only days after my book was finalized, it has appeared on Amazon.com! I have to admit, that was pretty fast. I haven’t even finished the shopping cart for my web site yet. I sent Amazon.com some page samples so they can add the “See Inside” option to the book. It seems to sell more books when people can see the inside, especially picture books.

The list price for the book is $12.99. It was suggested to me that the book should be priced $17.99, but I though that to be too expensive for a picture book. On my web site, I’ll be selling the book for $9.99, and $12.99 for a signed copy.  Shipping is about $2.77 via media mail.

As I promised there will be a special package deal on my site called Paulie’s Special. (Paulie is Eartha’s parrotfish friend). The Special includes a signed copy of the book, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle Fact bookmark, Four color postcards of the real Eartha, and an 8 x 10 photograph of Eartha. The deal will sell for $19.99, and $2.00 from every sale will go to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center where Eartha was cared for.

After just over one year, its finally happening. I cannot tell you how excited I am. Some of my family, and a few friends, have already seen and read the book and have given it high praise. My first step, once I receive the books, is to send a few copies to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center to keep in their gift shop. Then, the marketing begins…

Today I received my final proof of my first book, and it was perfect. Over the next two week I will be getting everything setup to start selling the book, and “special deal” online.

I have also been compiling a mailing list of potential retail outlets to solicit the book to. in addition to the official website, the book will also be available on Amazon.com.

This week being Thanksgiving, I guess I can say I am thankful the book is finally done! It’s been a bumpy road, but well worth it. What I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve make will make my next book go much smoother.

I received some more storyboard sketches for Steven’s book today. As I looked over these storyboards I was trying to decide if I want to post these sketches as sort of a “How it was done.” documentary. This would share with all of you how the process of writing and illustrating a children’s book is done.I know it seems that writing and illustrating is easy, but it actually is an ongoing process that changes and evolves. Recently Ron, my illustrator, and I discussed adding some additional pages to get the visual story across better. These pages were not in the original story outline.

Adding pages adds more to the equation than just more content. You have to take into consideration printing costs, the added weight to the book, and shipping costs. Additional changes may include character changes. Sometimes physical changes to the characters occur later in the development. Those changes impact earlier drawings. For instance, let’s say we we realize that a character should be wearing a specific style of shirt, but we don’t realize this until 15 pages in. So this causes us to redesign the beginning of the book.

Like I said, it’s not as simple as it sounds.

So, what do you think? Should I post the storyboards? Leave comments and let me know.