Teaching Children To Draw Seagulls

This past week, Emerson had the opportunity to work with 100+ children at a local Vacation Bible School. The theme of the week long, all day program was "The High Seas Expedition." In addition to a set curriculum, each afternoon featured special guests from the community. The Bay Gull was a perfect compliment to the program with the ocean theme and the sea gull himself being on quite a journey of his own throughout Narragansett Bay.

A typical book event is about 30 minutes with reading the book plus Q&A time. The coordinator scheduled Emerson to fill one hour of the afternoon program. So how do you fill an hour and keep a group of 3 year old through 5th grade children entertained?

It was not an easy task that I presented Emerson with the night before his presentation. He spent hours online researching interesting facts about the lighthouses presented in The Bay Gull. We went over the information together and discussed how this would keep the whole group engaged.

With half a morning to think more about the event, Emerson came up with a fabulous idea - teach the children how to draw the sea gull! Each of the kids were given a sheet of paper and a crayon. As Emerson went through the elements of the bird, the children repeated the actions on their own paper. A few of the children chose to make paper airplanes instead (including our son) but the majority of the group followed along.

The quick activity produced countless sea gull art pieces which the children proudly showed off to each other and their guest. Children are so fun to teach because they are so eager to learn. I bet we'll see some fabulous artists, illustrators, story tellers and authors coming out of that group.

Our middle child, Grace, was very proud of her sea gull art. Not exactly like daddy's but it sure is cute.

Feel free to check out the video and learn how to draw The Bay Gull!

Teaching Children To Draw Seagulls

Rhode Island Lighthouses and Narragansett Bay History

Our home in Arizona is filled with reminders of the ocean. The walls are covered with pictures of boats, framed charts of Narragansett Bay and a few fabulous lighthouses. Most guests who spend some time with us are treated to a history lesson from Emerson about "The Ocean State" as he walks them through the pictures, telling stories about his home state. Most recently, he tracks the sea gull's journey from Bristol, RI to Block Island, describing the various points along the way through Narragansett Bay.


A visit to our house is much like his presentations to children, taking them on the trip with the bagel loving seagull. Little did we know that he has been practicing his storytelling for over two years before the book was released. The message of sharing is certainly foremost for importance in the story. All parents we know would love for their own children to be as kind, generous and polite as this seagull. The geography and history Emerson shares during his presentation is a side benefit for those children fortunate to hear him read the book here in AZ. 
 
As you flip through the pages of "The Bay Gull," you may notice that several different lighthouses are part of the seagull's journey. Emerson incorporated six of Rhode Island's twenty one standing lighthouses which together protect ships from the 384 miles of shoreline in Narragansett Bay. His illustrations were created from photographs, drawn with accurate detail and incorporated into the book as resting places for the sea gull.
 
If you are interested in learning more, there are many lighthouse resources on-line. One of the best sites to check out Hog Island, Prudence Island, Castle Hill, Beavertail, North Light and Southeast Light is Lighthouse Friends. Thanks to their hard work, you can look up U.S. lighthouses by state, then click on each lighthouse individually to receive well organized, accurate, detailed information along with interesting stories about each one.
 
In addition to all the information, the site offers lighthouse merchandise. Perhaps we'll even have "The Bay Gull" available through their site one of these days!

Rhode Island Lighthouses and Narragansett Bay History

4 Readings in AZ so far, many to go

Last Monday was the 4th "The Bay Gull" book event in Arizona. Thanks to everyone who came out to Berean's Bookstore in August, Momma's Organic Market in September, Mommy and Me at Community Church of Joy and to the 2nd - 4th grade students at Cross of Glory Lutheran School! Combined, I have had the opportunity to share the book with over 100 children in Arizona.

The readings often include applying elements of the book to specific activies or information for the children. The Mommy and Me storytime involved an activity for the children creating sailboats which ties in perfectly with history about Bristol, RI, my hometown. The Cross of Glory event covered information on creating illustrations, editing the story and publishing the book along with a geography lesson about New England which the students are currently studying in class. 

It is amazing how many children are interested in learning about writing a book. While I certainly am not an expert in the field, it is fun to share about the writing and illustration process with them. They will no doubt be using these skills through countless book reports over the years and it is exciting to be able to inspire them to pursue a dream.

The readings are free so please feel free to contact me through the website http://www.thebaygull.com/ or post a comment on the Blog if you are in the Arizona area and would like to have "The Bay Gull" shared with your children's group or school.

4 Readings in AZ so far, many to go

Self Publishing "The Bay Gull"

Our decision to self publish was based on a cheap flight to RI. In March, 2009, we got a travel e-mail about some inexpensive flights and confirmed that these rates were available for the Fourth of July.
Timing was a major factor as the Fourth of July Parade in Bristol, RI is a HUGE event, probably the biggest thing in the town for the whole year. The book starts at Bristol Bagel Works which is located on Hope Street in Bristol and the sea gull travels south through Narragansett Bay ending his journey on Block Island. If you have had the opportunity to read "The Bay Gull," you may have noticed the red, white & blue road which is how the town paints the streets for the parade route on the Fourth.
The cheap flight was a sign to us that we should launch the book during our trip back east. After booking the flight, we started looking into how to publish our own book.
Our first call was to Mona's brother-in-law who works for a marketing company in CT. He gave us some leads on printing companies who he has done business with in the past. We contacted the companies, gave them access to the book and got some printing quotes. It was important for us that the book had a perfect bind and some companies were not able to create the binding we wanted. We did contact a bindery in MA which gave us a very expensive quote on a hard bound book.
The first contacts didn't work out too well and a couple of months had already gone by so now it was early May. Our enthusiasm about self publishing was starting to diminish but a visit from some friends helped re-ignite our spark to get the job done. We shared with them our goal and they were excited to get behind the project to support us in any way.
We geared up to get busy and starting searching the internet for publishing options, plus we had a local contact through a networking event in Arizona. Ultimately, we had 4 different companies giving us quotes on the project. It took almost four weeks for us to have 4 firm quotes for the job. Premier Graphics in Arizona had a talented staff, excellent customer service, a decent price and they knew we had a deadline (which was now only about 5 weeks away) that they were able to meet.
During this time as we were working to secure a printer, there were many other steps that we were completing including licensing our company, TINK INK Publishing, purchasing ISBN numbers and creating a website for the company. In addition, we created a group on Facebook for TINK INK Publishing to get the word out that the book would be published soon.
Next we began setting up Author Appearances for our trip to RI. The first few scheduled events were with friends who owned businesses (Social Expressions, Bristol Bagel Works, Out and About Kids) and were open to helping us debut the book. We followed up on some recommendations and secured a few more spots including A Novel Idea which is next to Bristol Bagel Works and The Armchair Sailor in Newport thanks to our friend's father who works there. One event was scheduled through an e-mail connection we made with Anika Denise who is a children's author and weekly contributor to a local Newspaper. She holds a weekly storytime at a local bookshop and she graciously invited us to be a guest for the week when we were in town.
About 2 weeks before we left for the east coast, we had 7 events scheduled. Our calendar was posted on our website and Facebook plus we sent out over 60 Press Releases, several who picked up our events for their event calendars.
The rough copy of the book was available a week before the trip and after some final editing, the first 20 soft cover books were produced. Premier Graphics continued the printing and shipped the books to the east coast for us. Thankfully, they arrived the day before the first book reading!
Our journey over those few months was busy, hectic and sometimes stressful. Our "to do" list was long and this is certainly simplifying the steps. There were a few nights where we didn't get to sleep very much at all. By having a deadline, it pushed us to stay focused, getting everything done quickly so we could move on to the next thing that needed to get done.

Self Publishing "The Bay Gull"