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One of the things I do during my school visits is have a child from the audience pose for me. I ask the student to act as if he or she is fighting a battle, and then I give them props and costume.  This is probably the most fun part of my visit.  I then use the child as a model while the audience watches me draw.  When doing this, I stress the idea of looking at something while drawing it, and that even a professional such as myself might make a mistake.

Also during my visit I talk about the writing process, and how I don’t just write my stories once, but I write them “again, and again, and again…” to make sure that they are as good as they can be.  And when I’m done with all of that writing, I feel like the guy on the screen in the last photo.

Thanks to Arielle Goldstein for the great photos.  You can read Arielle's blog here TechnicallyLibrarian

Fangbone! Pumpkin

I just got this excellent shot of a Fangbone! pumpkin from Tom Angleberger.  Yes, the same Tom Angleberger that is responsible for the very funny and hugely popular "Origami Yoda" series of books.  It seems that he's a pretty big fan of Fangbone!  Check out how the horns are made of pumpkin as well.  Look closely, and you can see there's a little carved skull on the top.

I've never net Tom, but we have chatted through e-mail a handful of times.  One of these days I hope to run into him in person. Thanks for taking the time to make this, Tom, and for sending along the picture.