Friday, December 21, 2018

In the beginning...



You just need one person to open that door for you. In the fall of 1999, Tracy Gates was an editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers at Random House. One of my promotional postcards landed on her desk, and it piqued her interest, so she followed the URL listed on the card to my website. Now, in the late 90s, that was a commitment—those portfolio images took a long time to download. That same day, I fired up my dial-up modem to check my email, and there was an email from Tracy—inviting me in to show my work, wondering if I had written any stories. From that meeting came GOOD NIGHT, MONKEY BOY, published on June 12, 2001. Tracy also edited two of my other early picture books—BAGHEAD and BUBBLE BATH PIRATES. What a thrill it was to see her at last week’s reading of HEY, KIDDO in Brooklyn.

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