Mike Curato: Chauffeur to the Stars!

This past weekend was the ALA (American Librarian Association) Winter Meeting here in sunny Seattle. This resulted in an overabundance of brainy people eating at Cheesecake Factory across from the convention center (which is a change of pace), AND a chance for me to take some publishing friends on a tour of Seattle! Win, win!

Angus, me, Brenda, and Steve enjoying the balmy Seattle weather in our “family photo”

The willing victims of my day trip were my lovely agent Brenda Bowen, Angus Killick from Henry Holt, and Stephen Savage (yes, Stephen Savage, illustrator/author of Little Tug and Where’s Walrus?, and illustrator of Polar Bear Night–squee!). I took them for a taste of real Seattle coffee at Vivace, a loop through Volunteer Park and Conservatory, a drive through North Capitol Hill’s historic mansion district, an obligatory Kodak moment at Kerry Park (see above), and a stroll down Ballard Avenue which resulted in 5-star comfort food (mac & cheese, pan-seared brussel sprouts, and butternut apple soup) at Bitterroot BBQ.

Get in a car and go to Ballard and get out of your car and go to Bitterroot and eat this…now.

Not bad for a soggy Sunday afternoon!

This Thursday I fly to NYC for the SCBWI Winter Conference, and I can hardly wait!!!

SCBWI Success Story!

A beautiful SCBWI Bulletin Cover by Mike Lowery

Hello dear readers! I forgot to post this for you when it first came out. I was asked to write an article about my “success story” (page 8) for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators! I am actually heading to New York next week to attend their Winter Conference for the second time. Would you believe it’s been a year since all of this book madness began!? That also means it’s my blog’s first birthday! Yay Bloggie! You did it!

In other news, I am working on artwork for book 1! My days have been filled with running around taking weird reference photos and getting all the initial comps drawn. Excitement he wrote! Also, this weekend I am going to make an appearance at the American Librarian Association‘s Midwinter Meeting, which is conveniently taking place here in Seattle. Brenda is going to take me to see some of the exhibits. I am very excited to share a cupcake with her at Cupcake Royale. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I created a lot of the pieces from last year’s winning portfolio for a show I had there last December. Many a cupcake from their cafe has “posed” for an Elly drawing. As we all know, cupcakes are what polka-dotted elephants like best.