Breathe Deep, Seek Peace

June 2007—Book Expo
The Jacob Javits Center in New York is the scene where over 50,000 new fall titles are introduced to booksellers. Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara was just one of them. I signed free posters for everyone who visited the Andrews McMeel booth, and I even had an audience with the Pope—OK, well, at least a cardboard replica of him.

ALA Convention
At the American Library Association convention in Washington, I signed posters for librarians from elementary, middle and high schools, and from small towns and big cities, and even one librarian who was going to four countries in Africa to build up the libraries there.




Puerto Rico, July 2007
To celebrate my son Franklin’s graduation from high school, Jeanette and I took him on a trip to Puerto Rico, where he learned to snorkel. While we were there, we met up with Tamith and Aravis, two people from the Dinotopia Forum. They took us to visit the rain forest at El Junque, which looked quite a bit like the Rainy Basin.

Then we convoyed with Tamith and Aravis to the other corner of the island, where Tamith’s family has a houseboat. Her mom is a terrific cook, and made a delicious dinner of Puerto Rican cuisine, or as they call it, “comida criolla.”

Puerto Rico is sketchers’ heaven! I tried to catch my fellow breakfasters unawares by sketching in my trusty pencil sketchbook…

...or painting watercolor street scenes in the sweltering heat of Ponce or the cool nights of San Juan.

Most often sketching draws a crowd of curious onlookers.