I can sign a book for you too!

I’ve had a few happy firsts this past week or so. Here are a few of them

The Elephants’ Guide To Hide-And-Seek at a bookstore!

Look what I finally got to see for the first time in person at an OPEN bookstore! Two months after it came out, THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, my first picture book, on an actual shelf, at my favorite local bookstore, Village Books—which is now open because YAY Whatcom County, WA, we made it to phase 2!

I signed and personalized a big stack—so it kind of was my first bookstore book-signing too. Any copies of my picture book THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK purchased now and through the month of June at my local bookstore Village Books can be signed and personalized by the author—me! Village Books offers all sorts of shipping options including media rate (99¢!) or curbside pickup.

A huge thanks to anyone who had planned on coming to my local book celebration that would have been at Village Books—it means the world to me. While it was a bummer to postpone in May and now cancel in June (while VB is open, it’s uncertain when events will happen again), I’m happy that Village Books and I can collaborate in this way for now. And anyone who was holding out for a signed copy—here’s your chance!

Here’s the link to order. During checkout, there should be a comment box where you can make a note that you’d like me to sign your book and who you’d like it signed to. Please know that I’ll be going in and signing them all at once, so any books ordered will arrive in early July.

Another happy first from the past few weeks—I finally got to read my book to a classroom (via zoom)! It was especially sweet for me after having my first in-person visits with classrooms all cancelled this year. The 2nd graders I chatted with all asked great questions and it was a pleasure to spend time with them.

My first author visit—on zoom!

My main goal for this year was to enjoy the moment as I became an author and got to share my first book with kids. While I haven’t been able to do that the same way I’d planned, I’m enormously grateful to anyone and everyone who has helped me make lemonade out of lemons the last few months. Enjoying the moment seems more important now than ever—so cheers, health, and happy reading! For all who have celebrated with me—thanks!

Me with my elephant pals. I like to bring them to zoom events.

Yay for a successful virtual launch party!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who attended our virtual launch party for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK! So wonderful to see so many new and familiar faces there. If you missed out, I’ve posted the video below for your viewing pleasure.

The highlight for me was being inspired by all Gladys Jose had to say—I’m thrilled to have had the chance to make this happen with you Gladys! And we even had elephants attending!

My son Lars dressed up!

If you attended (or watched the video later) and would like a bookplate signed by both Gladys and me, send me a message by April 24, 2020 to let us know (US residents only). We’d be happy to send you one! (note they may take a while but we will send if you ask). Books can be ordered anywhere books are sold but here’s a link to my local indie, Village Books—they can ship at media rates (in some cases only 99 cents!).

Download our activity kit—Gladys says the Elephant game was an instant hit with her daughter!

The activities for kids we mentioned during the launch are all posted here on my website, including:

• A fun activity kit made by our publisher

• Our virtual hide-and-seek game, where you can share silly creative hide-and-seek pics

• A link to a Pinterest page with elephant crafts of all kinds

• A link to a curated playlist of silly and wonderful elephant videos

Follow us on social media:

• Check out Gladys’s webpage to learn more about her other books

• Kjersten Instagram: @kjerstenhayes Twitter: @kjerstenhayes

• Gladys Instagram: @gladysjoseillustrates Twitter: @gladysjosedraws

A huge shout out to Joni Sensel for reaching out and offering to help us with tech support. Joni is an incredible writer for all ages. I’m especially a fan of her work related to creativity and grief. Check out her website here.

This image only captures one screen’s worth of attendees—loved seeing how many showed up!

If you want a signed bookplate, let me know by April 24. Happy to send one!

Thanks again to everyone for helping us celebrate our joyful book during a difficult time. Especially because the world is unsure and hard right now, I hope you find some time to play in the middle of it all.

Wishing you enormous fun!⠀

Pachyderm Egg Hunts—Elephant Hide-And-Seek taken to new levels!

Check out this Easter “egg” my cousin made (okay it’s a painted rock—but that works!) 💛🐘 After reading THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, this guy is ready for a hide-and-seek egg hunt. LOVE IT.

⠀Thanks for sharing this happy egg-rock, Laura ! It brought a welcome smile to my face.⠀

Also, turns out there is an entire genre of youtube videos with Elephant Easter Egg hunts. Who knew? Think the Elephant Hobby And Sport League (in THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK) would approve. Pachyderm hide-and-seek at all-new levels! For your watching pleasure, here's one:

I also made a playlist in case you want more.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate and happy spring too. It may not feel like a time worthy of celebrating much, but I welcome the tiny flower buds popping up just now—reminders that life persists.

⠀
🌈🐘🌷⠀

Happy Book Birthday to THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK!

Today is the book birthday for THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, written by me, art by Gladys Jose, and published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Hooray! It’s a funny tongue-incheek book about getting in the game despite feeling awkward or unsure.

I learned to write funny books in part because humor has always calmed my own nerves. Laughter helps. So especially during these times, I hope this happy funny book finds some kids and brightens their day.

Cheers!

Also check out my book birthday twitter thread about the making of The Elephant guide.

And maybe I’ll see you at my virtual launch party!

A Virtual Launch Party!

A party now? YES! A virtual party! All are welcome to come to a virtual book launch party on Monday April 13 at 11:00 am pacific time via zoom to celebrate THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK, a picture book written by me and illustrated by Gladys Jose. BOTH Gladys and I will be there! Hooray! We’ll share a bit about how our book came to be, answer questions about writing and illustrating, and hopefully have lots of fun. Register here! KIDS ARE WELCOME! So are grown-ups. 🙂

There will be elephants but you have to bring your own cake!

*And—yes, I hope I’ll still get to have my local book launch party during Children’s Book Week at Village Books here in Bellingham (May 9 at 10:30—but if not then, hopefully at some point). But we need happy things in life RIGHT NOW and here’s a great excuse to have a party where friends from all over the country who wouldn’t be able to make it locally can join too! Hope to see you there!

Art for Bellingham!

Inviting all Bellingham kids (and the grown-ups who love them) to make art and messages for our senior community members who are self-isolating during this time! The goal is to create a virtual public art space to help our community stay better connected while we all social distance during the covid-19 pandemic.

I threw this project together because it breaks my heart to think of our beloved Bellingham community as fractured right now. I thought it would be lovely to empower kids to help their community while helping us all connect with some of those most isolated and at risk.

The video below I made as a mini art lesson to rally participation, feel free to share it with your kids!

Please send PHOTOS of any art or messages to me (use the contact form on my website). I’ll add them to a shared dropbox folder, where participating adult care facilities can access them and print them out for their residents (or share the link for those who are tech-savvy, no actual paper mail involved for safety reasons!).

I hope you’ll consider joining or inviting your kids to participate (messages from grown-ups are welcome too).

And please invite others! Thanks!

PS I originally posted this on social media but I am adding it here as an easy place to link for those who want to share. Thanks to everyone who has already participated! I’ll be sending our first round of messages by the end of this week so please get messages in by Thrusday April 2.

Booklist review!

I got an email from my publisher today that said that Booklist has given THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK a great review! What a happy piece of news. The full review will be in the April 15th issue but my publisher said I could share this quote right now.

The world turns upside down right as I'm about to send my book out into it

A few weeks ago I was busy planning my first school visits as an author, coming up with creative silly things I could put on the internet to celebrate, and thinking of fun activities for my book launch party (still planned for May 9 at Village Books in Bellingham, but who knows what the world will look like by then…).

How many elephants do you see in the photo? Can you find the “king of hide & seek?” How many elephants are wearing glasses? How many elephants have rainbow ears? How many silly questions about this picture can a person ask?

But now the world has turned upside down. Pandemic is a big word. Somehow in the chaos of the last few weeks, I forgot to post things here I put elsewhere that would have been fun to post. My excuse: my mind is often in a fog, juggling a lot of emotional labor for my family, worries for my community, anxiety for all the small businesses and people at risk for covid-19, and then to top it off trying to reinvent the wheel with how to celebrate my own little dream come true. Even while I mourn not celebrating how I’d imagined.

I originally planned on wearing these yellow chucks that match THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK to a school visit on March 20. It was a bummer to be stuck at home instead but it occurred to me that it would be fun to wear them anyway on that day so I did. It was one little plan I could keep from before.

But here. Here are a few happy things that I managed to pause for in the midst of all of it. My ridiculous elephant collection. My colorful shoes that match my book. My cats playing hide-and-seek.

Cat Hide-And-Seek!

To contribute much needed comfort to my community and world, I present you with a new game to try while in your new situation always-at- home trying not to think about all the hard things all the time.

Pro-tip: cats like their humans to be it.

But once in a while…

They are willing to take a turn.

I made some art last Christmas that unknowingly set the tone for my year, “Even when the world feels sad I will make a joyful noise.”

Christmas art I made, but maybe I can try to do this now too? Not sure, but maybe I can try.

And I threw a bunch of wishing rocks in the water yesterday.

Mostly I wish you well.

Guess I’m hoping for a rainbow even in the rain.

Love to everyone out there. Hope you are healthy, safe, socially distanced but not isolated, and reading a lot. I wish for you all the rainbows I can wish.

Author copies!

Just a few short months until THE ELEPHANTS’ GUIDE TO HIDE AND SEEK comes out (April 7), and I got a surprise package on my porch!

My author copies! And a lovely letter from my publisher! Such an exciting moment.

I especially LOVE the funny peek-a-boo cover under the book jacket.

And these colorful end pages!

It’s a real book!

Ten years of StoryStorm!

Here I am wearing my Bureau Of Fearless Ideas shirt, with more picture book ideas than I’d ever know what to do with, having just completed another year of Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm challenge (back in 2010—the first year I partook, it was called PiBoIdMo). StoryStorm is a challenge where you agree to come up for a picture book idea every day of an entire month. But beyond ideas, StoryStorm has helped me cultivate larger work habits of play and flexibility in my work—I brainstorm for everything and it nearly always pays off. So grateful for this challenge every year and thought I’d celebrate here!

Make a joyful noise!

While kids and cats ran around my house making lots of joyful noises yesterday, I drew and cut a prayer. Just after midnight I finished it, welcoming in Christmas Eve in the dark of night. Sending a wish out into the world for more joy in the darkness of winter, wherever it’s needed out there. Merry Christmas!

Advanced Reader's Copies!

Eeeak! Look what I found in a package on my porch! Advanced reader’s copies! Happy surprise and happy me!
Also, I might have cried when I showed them to my family. 💛🐘💛😭😍

Dahlias in my garden

Made a dahlia collage a few days ago.

The Dahlias in my garden make me so happy!

Enjoy!

Cover Reveal of my first book! Pre-orders too! Happy day!

LOOK! It’s going to be a real book!

Happy happy day! Excited to share the cover of my first picture book, THE ELEPHANTS' GUIDE TO HIDE-AND-SEEK! Isn't it gorgeous?! And yellow just happens to be my favorite color. Yay for Gladys's beautiful art—thank you Gladys and thank you Sourcebooks Kids, I LOVE IT!

And look at this! Even though it comes out April 1, 2020, you can already pre-order it!

Thanks to everyone who already has ordered a copy! Hope you enjoy it!

Beach or bust!

Been working at some new art samples in between summer adventures. Here’s my latest. Enjoy!

Ride On

Four years ago from last Saturday I made a stupid mistake riding my bike, went over the handlebars going fast downhill, and crashed face-first into the gritty pavement. Over the following months I struggled with the after effects: a concussion, a mangled chin, a mangled hand, severe flashbacks, and severe headaches, to name a few. It’s not easy to get up after a crash. But people do.
🚲

Fast forward to last Saturday and most of last week, where I spent the four-year anniversary of my crash at one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to, teaching my son how to ride his own bike, surrounded by joyful families soaking up the view, writing a piece I’ve been scared to write (but need to write) about riding bikes, and mostly, celebrating being alive by living life to its fullest, taking in all the beautiful things.

If you’ve ever had a crash, small or large, I hope you can get back up and ride again too. And if you are in the middle of doing just that, I send you all the encouragement and love I can send.

🚲
Ride on.
❤️

Mischief Managed

Long time no blog! Realized I’ve been posting bloggish things lately on Instagram while forgetting that I could add similar things on my happy little blog here. I’d like to be better about giving both attention so I thought I’d add some highlights from my last few months to catch up a bit. That and I have about a million works-in-progress I’m excited about. I can’t keep up with my own ideas which is a good problem I guess. Here are some sneak peeks from one of my favorite pieces I’ve been working on.

What I said about this project on Instagram is still true: sometimes overly well-behaved little kids grow up to write books full of all the mischief they never allowed themselves to partake in when they were busy being young painful perfectionists.

Hope you’ve been up to happy mischief too!

STORYSTORM 2019! Brainstorm, Play, and Ideas

Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm! Play, play, play! Ideas, ideas, ideas!

These three core creative values pretty much sum up the heart of my creative process. They also sum up Picture Book Author Tara Lazar’s annual Storystorm Challenge, which I’ve participated in for many years.

The Storystorm challenge (used to be called PIBOIDMO—picture book idea month) is a challenge on Tara’s blog where participants agree to come up with a new picture book idea every day for 30 days in a month. 30 ideas! In a month! Seems crazy at first. But no. It’s great. 

Because where do I get my best ideas? Out of a pile of terrible ideas. It’s true. Basically I get my best ideas by coming up with lots and lots of ideas, putting every idea into the pile, and then later worrying about whether they are any good or not. And that same basic concept has now extended into so many aspects of my creative process that I feel it somehow captures the entire spirit of writing and art for me.

My Bureau of Fearless Ideas shirt and my Field Guide To Fearless Ideas poster, both purchased at the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company in Seattle, a storefront for the Bureau of Fearless Ideas, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for kids.

So in the spirit of fearless ideas, here I am this past week wearing my Bureau Of Fearless Ideas shirt next to my Field Guide To Fearless Ideas poster, (purchased here, more info in the caption). And why am I wearing my BFI* shirt? Because STORYSTORM = FEARLESS IDEAS! And it’s that time of year. I’ve just finished up 2019’s challenge and I’m celebrating all the ways ideas, brainstorming, and play make my art better.

This past year I signed a contract for my first PB after working at it a looooong time. And THE ELEPHANT HIDE-AND-SEEK HANDBOOK (scheduled for release from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky in 2020) was definitely born from this process.

So cheers to fearless ideas and fearless brainstorming! And a big shout-out and thank you to Tara for all she’s done for the writing and illustrating community over many years!

THANK YOU TARA!

The bumper sticker on my car. Bought it at Wild Play zipline course on Vancouver Island, BC. Pertains to art and writing too.

*BFI = Bureau of Fearless Ideas, a real place. It’s a tutoring center for kids. But they also have cool shirts and posters. And in Seattle they have a Space Travel Supply Company. So that’s awesome.

Happy New Year!

Squeezing in a quick New Year's collage in the midst of family visits, kid chaos, and all the fun this time of year can bring. My past year brimmed with adventures, delights, and people for whom I am grateful. Most notably after many years of working at it, this year I can finally say I'M GOING TO BE AN AUTHOR! How awesome is that? VERY! It's a dream come true. So grateful for all who helped me along the way.

As for the coming year I know this for sure: in addition to more adventures, delights, and good times with good people, my new year will be full of ART. How do I know this? Because it's what's calling my name and because it's what I choose. To make more art, share more art, and carve more time for creative play. MORE ART! More collage!

For 2019, may your compass also point you in the way your heart calls. May your year be full of people and projects that make you come alive. May the wind fill your sails. Happy New Year!