Friday, October 4, 2013

Summer, continued...
San Francisco!

In August my husband Kevin and I flew to San Francisco where our daughter, Bethany, now lives. I was thrilled to share The Eye of the Whale during two big events at the Marine Mammal Center (the organization responsible for the whale rescue) - Marine Science Sunday and Race for the Seals.

 It was wonderful to connect with the many volunteers and people at these events. 
Here I am telling this group the story of The Eye of the Whale.


I am posing with two volunteers in front of the life-size humpback whale tail that I bring to events.


Here is my 'roadie' Kevin, my husband, setting up the pvc-pipe structure behind the humpback whale's tail in one of the Marine Mammal Center's classrooms.


I loved this dog's Killer Whale costume at the Race For the Seals! 
Many people and their dogs came in costumes.


I also gave a presentation and had a book signing at the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Here I am giving my slide presentation which includes photos of the actual whale rescue. 


I re-connected with James Moskito, the diver who was featured in The Eye of the Whale and 
his partner, Holly Drouillard, who was also a crew member on the Superfish.


I was excited to meet the librarians and families when presenting at three branches of the San Francisco Public Library. Below is the Portola Branch. I also presented at the Main Branch and the Ortega Branch.


It was a fantastic trip. A highlight was climbing Mount Tamalpais 
with our daughter, Bethany, and her boyfriend, Andy.









Recap of the Summer: 

It was a busy summer with many book events 
launching The Eye of the Whale on both coasts.


MAINE


In July, I drove up to Maine and joined 39 other authors at the Books in Boothbay Festival. I was one of four authors asked to give a presentation about The Eye of the Whale. Here I am with writers Martha White and Sandra Dutton (in the hat). Martha, who is EB White's granddaughter, edited a book of EB's essays on the dogs in his life titled: EB White on Dogs (also a Tilbury book). Sandra wrote Martha Mae and the Gospel Truth and many other children's books.



I also presented at the Portland Children’s Museum and had a book signing at the Maine Coast Bookstore in Damariscotta. A highlight was being interviewed on Portland’s local news program: 207.

 Here are some of the children at the Portland Children's Museum posing with the baby blue whale.


DELAWARE


My dear friend Liz Stafford and I drove to the Delaware beaches together and we had events at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth, Bethany Beach Books and Sand N Stone Nature and Sea Glass Shop in Lewes. At Sand N Stones, I met many volunteers with the MERR Institute (Marine Education, Research & Rehabilitation Institute, Inc.). Their commitment to saving marine mammals and excitement about The Eye of the Whale was incredibly moving and inspiring. Michele Buckler's jewelry and photos in her shop were beautiful. 

Here I am outside Sand N Stones with Michele (on the right) 
and Suzanne Thurman, Director of MERR.


At Browseabout Books in Rehoboth, I am giving a short presentation to a packed room.


The children enjoyed the craft project.
Here I am looking at the wonderful art that is being created!



At the Bethany Beach Books book signing, I am enjoying seeing our good friends, John and Sue Clifford. Years ago, John took me out kayaking with a pod of dolphins just off the beach at Bethany. I will never forget the experience of looking into the eyes of the dolphins several feet away.







Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Eye of the Whale is Officially Launched 
at the Bethesda Library!


The book party at the Bethesda Library on Saturday, June 1, was a wonderful celebration. I showed slides as I shared the journey of creating The Eye of the Whale from interviewing members of the rescue team to the final illustrations and at the end of the program, we unfurled a 23-foot long baby blue whale mural. I had also painted and erected a life-size humpback whale's tail on one wall (18 feet across!) and exhibited six paintings from the book on easels around the room.

After the presentation, the children created a beautiful underwater mural, as well as their own pictures of whales and fish to take home. I enjoyed signing 81 of my books that were sold by The Friends of the Library.

The best part of the afternoon was meeting many new friends and seeing old friends who came to support me and the book. Thank you to everyone who took the time from their Saturday afternoon to come by. It meant the world to me. I'm so excited that the story is reaching more and more people!






The creators of the mural include: Herman M, Rachel C, Fiorella T, Maristella T, Sufyana J, Payton Cillay, Sandhya Jain, Sean Cushing and Carla Morales.

Thanks to Susan Stockdale, Lulu Delacre and Karen Leggett for the photos!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A Memorable Visit at Politics & Prose, Washington, DC


There could be no better place than Politics & Prose to have the first presentation and book signing of my new book, The Eye of the Whale. More that 150 second and third grade students attended and were a wonderful audience! I could see in their eyes that the rescue story clearly moved them, as it moves me every time I tell it. They asked thoughtful questions and were very knowledgable about many facts about whales. Even though they were close when guessing the size of a newborn baby blue whale, they were still surprised to see my life-size 23-foot-long painting of one!















Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Next Big Thing - A Global Blog Tour!

This blog tour began in Australia and has now gone international.
Thank you, Linda Shute, for tagging me!


1) What is the working title of your next book?
The Eye of the Whale - A Rescue Story

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
In early 2006, my uncle emailed me from California about an amazing whale rescue off the coast of San Francisco. A humpback whale had been tangled in hundreds of yards of crab-trap lines and was struggling to stay at the surface to breathe. Four divers risked their lives to rescue the enormous animal and what followed was a rare display of animal behavior. The whale swam in joyous circles and then swam to each diver, nudged them and looked at them. The article gave me goose bumps. I wanted to capture and impart that feeling in a picture book.

3) In what genre does your book fall?
It is a non-fiction picture book.


4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
For the Captain, I would cast George Clooney. For James, the main diver, I might pick Keanu Reeves. For Kathi Koontz, the crew member from the Marine Mammal Center, I’d like Helen Hunt.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When an entangled humpback whale is freed by four divers, her remarkable behavior toward them reflects a profound connection.


6) Who is publishing your book?
Tilbury House Publishers

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About a year. There were so many facts, descriptions and details from my interviews and research that it was a challenge to figure out how to structure the book, what point of view and what tense, how to pare it down. Revisions of the sketches and text took several years. 1000 words became 388 words. “Showing” (in the illustrations) won out over “telling” (as it always does).

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are other picture books about animals that have touched my heart:

Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again, by Craig Hatkoff, Juliana Hatcoff, and Isabella Hatcoff
Owen and Mzee: The True Story of A Remarkable Friendship, by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatcoff, Paula Kahumu and Peter Greste
Stay - The True Story of Ten Dogs, by Michaela Munteen, KC Bailey and Steve Kazmierski



9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Until I read the email about this event, I had no idea that new evidence suggests that some of the larger whales may have the ability to experience emotions. All four divers felt that the whale was thanking them and this amazed and excited me.


10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
One of the biggest challenges of creating the illustrations for this book was to portray how the whale looked, tangled in crab trap lines under the water. Photos of the event were all from above the surface. Diver James Moskito was kind enough to make a small clay model of the whale for me (above) showing how the humpback looked. As he wrapped embroidery thread around the small clay whale, I began to understand how badly she had been tangled and how I would depict her in my illustrations.



Thanks for stopping by to learn about my new book!
JenniferOConnellArt.com

The Next Big Thing - Blog Tour continues on Thursday, April 11,
with the following authors: