Halloween in July

I seem to have Halloween stuck in my head... I've been working on a new picture book, on the subject of Halloween again - The Green Halloween. It seems like I've been revising the writing for ages. Well, at least a decade. Like a lot of my writing, I think I first got the idea at least ten years ago. This is very tricky writing because I decided to do it in rhyme - very hard to do, getting the meter and rhythm right. The PictureBookArtists critique group I'm in has been so helpful, giving me suggestions, new ideas... I'm almost there, almost ready to submit to publishers. This is one of the spreads. The sketches are really rough, but I hope to keep the loose, free feeling in the final art.

You know, I think I have more revising to do...looks like I spelled "ghoulies" wrong! It's always something...

What's happening in the garden?

Tomatoes... They're coming...

Day at the Dunes

4th of July Weekend, so we all pile in the car and head to Dunes. I think those of us in the midwest take the dunes of southwest Michigan for granted. I really don't think there are such great, big, sugar-sand dunes next to a lake like this anyplace else. The big dune here is 260 feet high... and this is nothing like The Sleeping Bear Dunes farther north at 600 feet.

Lake Michigan water temperature is 65 degrees, but that doesn't stop these people!

View from the top. Every year I say I have to get to the top or I might as well cash in my chips, or whatever. I made it again! Running down is, of course, the fun part...