Denise Fleming's
CHATTER CHRONICLES

Volume 6     February 2010
A Note From Denise

billanderniehearts  Happy Day!

Hello
I am sorry it has been so many months between newsletters, but in June our thirty year old daughter, Indigo, suffered a very severe stroke. The diagnosis was grim. I am happy to report that our daughter proved the doctors wrong and is making an astounding recovery. She has a fantastic attitude and great sense of humor which makes things easier for all of us.
 
For months my priority was her recovery and well-being. Now that she is doing well, I am back in the groove making books and preparing to travel and speak at conferences.

Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy will be released this summer.Yeah!
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It is full of sleepy babies. It is a very quiet book.
The books arrives at the stores eighteen months after I send the art and mechanicals to the publishers-twice as long as one has to wait to see a human baby. The wait drives me crazy.
sleepy1
sleepy2







sleepy3


















I am ready to send out the art for SHOUT!, a concept book.
SHOUT!  has a different look than previous books, as I have combined pulp painting with colored india inks, china markers, pastels, and collage. It is full of toothy kids. I really enjoyed working in the combined media. I love to color and cut and paste! I am mad for origami paper, which I used for the collage in SHOUT!. I found an online store, Paper Jade, which carries beautiful origami papers.shout12345
shoutchicken
shoutmixedmedia


I am currently working on the book design for Low Down, Way Down, Underground. Design-wise this book is proving a bit of a challenge. I have already made a few false starts.

My daughter has set up a fan page for me on Facebook. I will be updating on work and life several times a week-make that a month. I know my daughter is laughing as she reads this. She has threatened me that she will make up nonsense and post it if I don't keep up with my posts. I am very bad about posting. I am on Twitter, but that is a lost cause so don't even bother to go there. We are also working on setting up virtual author school visits. More on that in a later newsletter.

Pierre has a great interview with author/illustrator Cheryl Harness in this issue. Francoise will be sharing travel info and a bit of gossip and Jacques share his seed catalog art. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my staff here is our new staff photo.
staffwriters
Left to Right - Ondine, Pierre, Franciose, Ollie, Jaques and Odette

 
P.S. I wanted to share the photo of my friend, Randy presenting my book Buster Goes To Cowboy Camp at the 2009 ALA midwinter. Yee haw! This could be the cover of a romance novel. Francoise keeps this picture on her nightstand.
randycowboy

Send any comments, suggestions or project photos to [email protected].

Cheers,
Denise



francoise1Francoise - Owner of school for dance, former can can dancer, social butterfly
Out and About
        Bonjour!




I am glad to be back in touch.

Denise and David will be very busy this year traveling and meeting lovers of books. Their first stop will be Dublin, Ohio, where Denise will be speaking at The Dublin Literary Conference. I was hoping it was in Dublin, Ireland, as I once met a handsome, brawny lad in Dublin, Ireland. He put stars in my eyes with his smile. Oh, those were the days. I am thinking of becoming a writer of romance.  

Our Pierre plans on interviewing Melissa Sweet in Dublin, as she will also be a speaker at the conference.  Sweet, I admire that name. I might take Sweet as my last name. Then I would be listed in the telephone book as: Sweet, Francoise. Oh, moi! Next issue I will tell you all about this Dublin trip, whom we met and what they said.

Denise's upcoming appearances:

February 20, 2010
Dublin Literacy Conference - Dublin, OH

March 1, 2010
Cleveland Museum of Art - Cleveland, OH

April 6, 2010
Ashland University - Ashland, OH

April 10, 2010
Malone University Literature Celebration - Canton, OH

August 6, 2010
Concordia University Early Childhood Literacy Festival - Mequon, WI

September 25, 2010
Farmington Community Library - Farmington Hills, MI



pierregreensPierre - Self published poet
Interview with Author/Illustrator
Cheryl Harness




cherylandmimi
Good day Miss Cheryl, lover of history and pup Mimi.


P - You are so smart about all this history. Do you do much research ? I mean you cannot make this stuff up.

C - Bonjour, Monsieur Pierre.  Thank you for your kind words.  Certainly I use the computer, but I begin my study for my books and do most of my research in BOOKS:  in the encyclopedia on my bookshelf, then off to the library I go. And to museums and to the places where my subjects once lived when they lived in the world. For instance, when I wrote about Abraham Lincoln, I drove across Missouri, over the Mississippi River and thence to Springfield, Illinois, Mr. Lincoln's hometown. Inspiring and instructive!  

P - I love all those little details you add in your books. Do you have notebooks full of facts?

C - I do like little details. I own many a book full of them, and many little details reside in my head!

P - I read that some presidents had strange pets. Did one ever have a monkey? Monkeys do not get a lot of notice. Was there a ghost monkey in The White House, maybe?
 
C - Yes, indeed, President Thos. Jefferson kept a tame mockingbird and when Theo Roosevelt & his family lived in the House of White, their many pets included Josiah the Badger and a green snake known as Emily Spinach.  President Coolidge & his wife Grace owned Rebecca the Raccoon, but a monkey? Alas, I know of no monkeys - quel fromage!  

P - You are going on the road to speak. Will you dress up in those historic costumes? I most enjoy that. They used to be so bound up in clothes. I just wear a scarf and beret-very French. I also like it when you play the harmonica. Have you played the harmonica since you were little?

C - Now, from time to time I do dress up in gowns from earlier times, but not so often as I once did.  You'll pardon me, please, for mentioning such things, but I do love the petticoats, one in particular, of emerald green taffeta.   As to the harmonica [also known as a French harp, cher Pierre!] my father taught me to play back in 1975-a long time ago, no?
 
P - I want everyone to invite you to their school to do your entertaining programs. How can they reach you?

C - Oh la, glad I would be to come to talk with students!  This drawing of pictures and showing and telling, this talking about the writing & rewriting is something I do often.  I can be found at www.cherylharness.com.
 
P - Miss Cheryl, I could travel with you and dance when you play the harmonica. I will practice.Let me know.

C - Do, mon ami, practice some happy steps and away we will go!  Au Revoir!

cherylbooks

Jacques1Jacques - Former truck farmer, chef, and builder of recycled bottle homes.
Down to Earth







It is cold here in Ohio and the snow is deep.
  A lovely time for indoor crafts and hot chocolate.
The paperwhites I planted a month ago are in bloom. A bit of nature indoors assures me that spring is on its way and soon I will be in the gardens.
paperwhites

collage
Plant catalogs are beginning to arrive in the mail. These catalogs are full of great photos of flowers and vegetables.  I often cut out the flowers and vegetables and create collages. I borrowed some origami paper from Denise for the vase in this collage. I added bugs, beetles, bees and a bird to make the picture more interesting. Check out Beetle Bop for beetle ideas.


Nuture,
Jacques
Ollie1Ollie - Mixed breed pup
Bark at Ya!








Ollie here.
My first bit of news is sad. Two of our cats, Isabelle and Sammy, recently died of cancer. Isabelle was the inspiration for Skinny in Mama Cat Has Three Kittens and Sammy was the inspiration for Boris. They were both around sixteen years old.  It is not quite the same without them. Percy, the youngest cat in our family is confused. He followed Sammy every morning as Sammy made his rounds of the property making sure everything was as it should be. Percy cannot figure out where Sammy has gone.
issysammy
Isabelle (Issy)                                                          Samson (Sammy)

Indigo and her dog Sylvester have moved into a little house four houses down from us. They have three roommates, Jill a human, and Pookie and Abby who are two big canines that think they are lap dogs. It is quite a full house, full of kisses and tail wags! Georgie, Denise's pup, and I stay at home. We do not visit them. They are too rambunctious. Our heads fit in Pookie's mouth.

abbyslyandpookie
Abby, Sly and Pookie



DeniDenise
On The Lookout -
Books & Movies for Grownups

 




Every now and then I see a movie or read a book that I want to share.
I just recently saw the beautiful, quietly emotional Jane Campion film, Bright Star, about the relationship between poet John Keats and Fannie Barnes. Their time together was short, John Keats died at 25, but intense and very moving. The casting was perfect, the sets and costumes (clothes design was  Fannie's art) simple and divine. The film was shot on an estate in England and moves through the seasons. Nature is a central character in this film which evokes an Impressionist painting.    


A while back I discovered the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith.
The cover of the second book, Expresso Tales drew me in--I say this, as I am not a fan of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and would have passed this series by if I had not admired the cover design. This series format was inspired by Tales Of the City (another favorite) by Amistead Maupin which was written in installments for the newspaper the San Francisco Examiner in the 70's. Smith met Maupin at a party and discussed how he also would like to write a story in installments. Smith's series began in 2004 and appeared every weekday in the Edinburough newspaper, The Scotsman, for six months. Because the first book was written as installments, with no real time for rewrites or editing there is an immediacy  about the writing.  All the characters in Smith's series are interesting, but six year old saxophone playing Bertie is especially endearing. I love Bertie, however I often want to hit Bertie's obnoxious mother, Irene, over the head with a ball bat, or at least lock her in a room and toss the key, to give Bertie a little breathing room. This weekend I am reading The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, the 5th book in The 44 Scotland Street series. It is my valentine present to myself.





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