Upcoming Book Signing: Cape Author Fest, May 11, 2013

Book Signing this Saturday!

 Incase you needed another reason 

to come to the book signing at 

Lovely Things this Saturday--

We'll have sea glass themed cupcakes by Chefette Toni!!

Saturday, Sept. 8th

2-4:00 

Lovely Things 

Fore St., Portland, ME

I'll be signing copies of both Journey of the Sea Glass & Down East in the Ocean. Stay and have a sweet treat and do some shopping in this beautiful and unique store! See you there while supplies last! ;)

https://www.facebook.com/ChefetteToni

http://www.lovelythingsstore.com/


Books and shopping and cupcakes, oh my!

"Journey" Review in Parent & Family!

Be sure to pick up a copy of the latest issue of Parent & Family Magazine!

Journey of the Sea Glass was featured in a book review (page 9) by the wonderful "Reviewed by Mom" column! The magazine is free and can be found locally in Maine, with more information online at www.myparentandfamily.com

We're also offering a "prize pack" giveaway for readers of Parent & Family, which includes:

Signed copy of Journey of the Sea Glass, 

Coloring pages & crayons,

Sea Glass Starter Kit.

To enter, simply visit their Facebook page and leave a comment sharing something that you enjoyed from this issue (the article about Journey of the Sea Glass, perhaps!?) before October 1st, when a winner will be chosen at random. Good luck!!

Read the article, below! (Click to enlarge)

Thank you Kristin and Parent & Family for a lovely review and for sharing my book with your readers! 

We have a winner!

We hit and went over the 200 Likes on Facebook goal!
Thank you everyone for supporting NicoleFazioIllustration by liking my FB page! 

The winner of a free copy of Journey of the Sea Glass is..............

Erin Smith!

Enjoy, Erin!! Thank you!

Sea Glass Starter Kits!

These are the brand new "Sea Glass Starter Kits" that I'll be selling along with the Journey of the Sea Glass books! I brought them to my most recent signing event at Longfellow Books in Portland, and they were a huge hit! I only had two left at the end of the day from the batch that I brought!

 I realized that some kids might not know what sea glass is, so I put together these collection kits. I thought it would be nice for kids to have their own special jar to bring to the beach, so that they can begin their own sea glass collection. There's also a little note in there, with a brief definition of sea glass. It makes for a nice little gift to present the book and the jar together! There are also a couple pieces of tumbled glass inside to start off the collection.

Kits contain: Small jar, tiny note with sea glass description and website to learn more,
 a few pieces of tumbled colored glass to get the collection started!

They're all handmade/assembled with love by yours truly...and apparently I need to get back to work and make more already!

So keep your eye out for these when you come to a signing! I'll try to have them stocked and ready (though not all locations will allow me to sell them through their stores). I'll make note of which events I'll have them at on the website's events page. 

Good deal, huh!

See you at the next one!

Currently they're only available in person. If you'd like to have one shipped to you, feel free to contact me, there will be a small shipping charge added.

There's still plenty of beach weather left this summer, so get out there and start collecting! Have fun!

Upcoming events!

Events this month:

L.L. Bean's Kids Fest

Saturday, August 11th

10:00 am-2:00 pm

Suzanne Buzby Hersey, author of My Maine and I will be there signing My Maine, among many other wonderful authors and illustrators--

Lynn Plourde and Ben Bishop, Brenda Reeves Sturgis, Don Carrigan, Robin Taylor Chiarello,                   Liza Gardner Walsh, Donn Fendler and Karen Pond.

Bring the kids for an all day event, full of face painting, crafts & activities, dancing, knot tying and other free lessons, Slugger the Sea Dog and more!

For all the information on Kids Fest 2012, click here 

•

Book signing at Kennebooks

Wednesday, August 15th

10:30-11:30 am

Suzanne and I will be signing both My Maine, and Journey of the Sea Glass. We'll have free handouts and coloring activities for the kids, and will be signing and reading the books. Hope to see you there!

Visit Kennebooks website here

•

Book signing at Longfellow Books

Saturday, August 18th

1:00-3:00 pm

I'll be at Longfellow books in Monument Square in Portland signing Journey of the Sea Glass. I'll have free coloring pages for the kids, and also some Sea Glass Starter Kits available for sale (only $1!). Hope to see you there!

More info on Longfellow Books here

First Summer Book Signings

I'm so happy that my newest children's book is being received so lovingly! It just came out last Monday and I've already had two very successful book signings, and have many more booked and in the works! It's fun to chat with people of all ages, local people who are always excited to wish a fellow Mainer good luck, and folks visiting from out of state enjoying Vacationland and doing some shopping. I thought I'd share some photos and fun from the first two signing for Journey!

First up was a perfect Friday evening at Motifs in Portland. It had been a hot hot week, but last Friday (July 20th) was cool, breezy, and sunny. I was just happy to be sitting outside for this one! I set up shop outisde the entrance of Motifs on Commercial Street, which is right on the bustling waterfront strip of the Old Port, near the boat warfs and lots of amazing food and shopping.

My book, nestled in so nicely with other sea glass themed items!

Motifs carries a beautiful mix of clothing, accessories, jewelry, home accents, and books and cards. Visitors will find lots of nautical and Maine-themed items, while locals enjoy the variety of clothing, shoes, and unique pieces on a regular basis. They also have a great little section of quality gifts for 

kids and perfect selection of classic and new children's books (above, bottom right)!

Even the mannequins were dressed in their best sea glass inspired attire! 

I was visited by several fabulous friends and family, and also met lots of wonderful people while chatting and signing books. I'm always particularly honored to receive great feedback from teachers and librarians--because they really know their stuff! I met quite a few preschool and early education teachers that day, who all said how much they like wordless picture books for that age, since the kids are too young to read, but enjoy creating their own stories. I hope their classes have fun with this one!

Me and my amazingly supportive big sis, Dani. She and Jen hardly ever miss a signing!

Overall, it was a really enjoyable and successful first signing, especially since the book had only hit stores just days before the event. We sold lots of copies of the book and got the word out, enjoyed the Maine summer weather, and hopefully made some new friends and fans, too!

Like my sea glass earrings? A sweet gift from Kate at Shoreside Chic.
(www.shoresidechic.com)

••••••

Next, I headed to Belfast! 

Yup. We're in Maine! (This must be a beautiful drive in the fall, leaf peepers take note!)

The weekend of July 27, 28 & 29 is the "Belfast Bound Book Festival"! It's an amazing festival in which over 20 area shops and bookstores participate and host guest speakers (authors, illustrators, publishers), demonstrations, book signings, informational sessions and Q&A, readings, and more for both adults and children.

More info here!

Bangor Daily News article about the festival here!

I was honored to be asked to join the festivities this year, and signed books from 2-4 on Friday (27th) at a wonderful store called, Beyond the Sea (creator of the book festival event!). They had lots of copies of both Journey of the Sea Glass and my second book, Down East in the Ocean, on hand, and I got to signing before I even had sat down and unpacked! That's always a good start!

Great sea glass collection of books and handmade local art!

My time slot was shared with some fabulous ladies. It was great meeting the very friendly and wonderful Nancy Griffin, author of Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book. There were also yummy locally made mini whoopie pies to taste! 

We were also joined by author Katie Clark, author of the children's book, Grandma Drove the Lobster Boat, and the rest of the "Grandma Drove" series, which are so entertaining and funny, and have lively and beautiful illustrations by Amy Huntington.

We were also visited by well known Maine author of dozens of cherished children's books, Lynn Plourde. She was just a few doors down at The Purple Baboon signing Lost Trail, (illustrated by Ben Bishop) the recent graphic novel adapted from the true story, Lost on a Mountain in Maine. 

The weather was just warm, which was a nice surprise, I was preparing myself for a raining day, but we lucked out. The store is so great; I bought myself a new good book to read, a card, and some caramels (I can't resist a good caramel!). I had to stop myself there, I would've bought up the whole store if I could! Perfect mix of a bookstore along with gifts, jewelry, pottery, sea glass arts, and more. I'll definitely be making another trip to Belfast, there were so many wonderful shops and galleries that I just didn't have time to stick around and explore that day. (Fall season-Christmas shopping, anyone?)

Tile coasters and pottery at Beyond the Sea.

Loved this linocut in a gallery window! Love it, want it.

It was a great day, and I was thrilled to be invited to be a guest at such a grand celebration of books! 

A huge thank you to Nanette (above) for having me,
and for dreaming up such a lovely event for book fans!

Photo credit: Thanks to Lynn Plourde's husband, Paul Knowles!

••••••

For upcoming events and signings of all three books, visit me on Facebook and keep checking this blog! And for Journey of the Sea Glass events, check out the new website for the book!

Thank you to eveyone who came to these events, it always means a lot 

to hear your kind words and feedback and meet you all in person!

Happy reading!

 :)

Yarmouth Clam Festival

Thanks to the very generous and talented artist & jewelry designer, Kate Clark (of Shoreside Chic), 

you can find my new book for sale tomorrow alongside her sea glass jewelry 

at the Yarmouth Clam Festival! 

There aren't a lot of copies, but they are signed, so hurry hurry! :)

*Look for booth #93, which is located close to the intersection of Main St and Bridge St.*

Her work is fabulous! Check it out:

ShoresideChic.com

She'll be there Friday, July 20th, in the arts & crafts sale area starting at 10am!

More info on the festival here.

Have fun at the festival

Eat some kettle corn for me!! 

I'll be at Motifs in Portland doing a book signing there, from 4-7:30pm

"Journey" signing at Motifs!

Journey of the Sea Glass is expected to start arriving in stores this MONDAY! I still haven't seen the finished product myself, and I'm so antsy to finally see it! We're kicking off the brand new book with my first signing for this one at Motifs in Portalnd. And what a great location! It's right in the heart of Portland's Old Port on the waterfront, 221 Commercial Street. Their new space there is just beautiful. I'll be set up either in the front of the store's entrance or right outside the front door. It's supposed to be a beautiful day, so stop on by after a nice day at the beach! Motifs is just across the street and down a few doors down from Portland Lobster Co. and Longwarf (and of course all the great shopping), so make a day of it and stop by for some books and chit chat and free stuff for the kids, then go get some dinner and take a boat ride from the warf. Come on, don't even try to tell me that doesn't sound like an amazing evening!?  Hope to see you there for this hot-off-the-press book signing! This will be the first of many through the summer. Tell your friends and family!

I don't have prints made from this book's illustrations yet (and I can always make special order requests of any piece) but I will have some free coloring activities for the kiddos, as well as my "Sea Glass Starter Kits"! A great addition to the book as a gift, or for a new young sea glass collector (sea glass kit includes small sea glass pieces, not suitable for kids under 5). More on that and photos soon!

Please help me spread the word by sharing to Twitter & Facebook! 

Thanks!

Giveaway #3! Free Book!

Hello!

Guess what.

We're doing another FREEBIE giveaway! 

And what better prize to offer up, than a signed & personalized copy of my new book,

 Journey of the Sea Glass

This is a great book not only for children to enjoy, but for all ages of beach combers and anyone who loves art or the ocean!  A beautiful piece for the coffee table, even if there are no kids in the house.

My goal is to reach 200 fans on my Facebook page, 

so help me make it happen, and you're in the running for a free book! Once I hit 200, I'll pick a winner. If you're a FB fan, you're automatically entered! So please share with your friends, spread the word, Tweet it, link it, text it, send it, Facebook it--whatever you can do! 

*Bonus Points* 

If you refer a friend and they like the page, give me their name or have them give me your name, and I'll enter the referrers name again. So the more friends you get to join, the bigger your opportunity to win.

CLICK HERE 

for NicoleFazioIllustration on Facebook

Link to share with your friends: https://www.facebook.com/nicolefazioillustration

Thanks, everybody! Good luck & I'll see you on Facebook!

"Journey of the Sea Glass" Book Trailer

Check out the book trailer I just finished for my new book, Journey of the Sea Glass! The book is due out next month, July 16th (I think!!). 

So finally here's a sneak peek at the book that I've been working on so hard for

 a                     very                     long                     time                     !         

I really hope you enjoy it. Be sure to check out the book as soon as it hits stores. You can find it on the DownEast website, Amazon and local Maine stores, right away. And then hopefully many more stores nationwide soon after!

I owe a great big THANK YOU to the wonderful and talented Billy Libby, whose beautiful song, Bus Ride (off his latest album, "Pitter Patter"), was playing in my head as I was putting together this trailer. He so graciously shared an instrumental version of this song that I love so much, for use in the trailer video. It fits so perfectly, I just love it. I'm sure you will, too, so here's a link to his website to hear more: billylibby.com

• • •

Let me know what you think! I want to hear from you all with your thoughts or any questions! Follow me on Twitter @Fazillustration or find me on Facebook to keep in touch! Thanks!

Interview at MomsInMaine!

I was recently approached by a fantastic, brand new (and already rapidly growing!), "mommy blog" website for an interview about being an illustrator, my children's books, and living in Maine!
MomsinMaine.com is a great local resource for parents raising their children in Maine, and I was more than happy to be featured on their site. It came at a perfect time, too, as I am beginning to promote my newest children's book, Journey of the Sea Glass, coming out next month! I hope that the readers of MomsinMaine will enjoy it and spread the word. This was my first interview of any kind, so I apologize if I rambled on at times – it's all still so new to me! I'm honored to be one of the very first interviews/articles on this new Maine resource, that I believe will be a huge success.

Here is the link to the blog, where I'll be right there on the front page for a few weeks. 

Just follow the link to "read more": 

www.MomsInMaine.com

(After that, the link to the interview will move to the archives, 

where it will remain so that you may always read it in the future.)

I made the front page! 

Thank you for this fun opportunity, Michelle! 

Giveaway #2! Loons with their fledglings

The first giveaway last month went really well! I got some new interest to the good ol' Facebook Page, and lots of hands up wanting the little Box Turtle, who went to the first lucky giveaway winner, Farah!

 Let's do it again! 

Who wants some free art?

Loon Family;  Original art, Sepia ink and watercolor on Arches watercolor paper. Approx. 5.5" x 5"

This is a cropped portion of a page from Journey of the Sea Glass. I decided that I wasn't quite happy with the way it was turning out (colors were a little too dark), so I started this particular page over again and was much happier with the second version. It still makes for a fun little painting, though, I think!

So, same rules as last time. If you like this one, and you would like to own this original as my gift to you for supporting my work, it's pretty darn easy.  Here's how you'll be in the mix to win:

1. "Like" my Facebook page and/or "follow" this blog. 

Already do? Bravo, you're halfway done!

2. Leave a comment either on this blog post, or on the corresponding Facebook post on my page 

and/or "like" the image on the Facebook post HERE.

3.  Enter all week, and I'll post the winner on my blog and on my Facebook page on Friday, April 20th. I'll send the winner a private email or message, as well to get in touch with you privately for your mailing address.

* AND if you get a friend to Like my Facebook page, or follow the blog, your name will be counted twice!

The winner will receive the art signed and matted within a week or so of winning.

Easy enough, yes?

Enjoy!

The fine print: I'll use a random number generator (like random.org) so there's no cheatery. 

The Journey of "Journey of the Sea Glass"

Hello! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, and it was because I was working like a mad woman to finish my latest book! Journey of the Sea Glass is finally done, and will be available this summer!

It's a 32 page picture book for all ages that follows the journey of a piece of sea glass, beginning in the 1940's as a young boy's bottle of Lemon-Lime Soda Pop which breaks, travels through the skies with sea gulls, floats through the ocean with an octopus and a whale, crashes through years and years of waves, and eventually ends up in present day, where it's discovered by a curious young girl and her grandpa at the beach.

Coming soon, summer 2012!

This book was by far my biggest artistic challenge to date. It was a completely different format from my other two books, in that there was no manuscript. So, other than the publishers coming to me with the basic concept, and a few little ideas that they wanted to see implemented, the rest was all up to me. The whole story was on my shoulders, which was really exciting, but also a big endeavor to tackle in the same amount of time that I would have had to just illustrate a story. I decided to use sort of a simplified graphic novel style, combining several "panels" of scenes on top of full bleed illustrations. So in total, there were almost 60 pieces that made up this book! Huge difference from my last book, Down East in the Ocean that had I think 11 total, plus cover.  I also decided to really push the ink work in this book, and even though there are washes of watercolors, all the underlying value and shading, line work and details, were all done using the pointillism technique, which is my favorite. Using very (very!) fine tip Rapidograph pens and sepia ink, I stippled relentlessly for many months, to get the look just right. It ended up being much more realistic and detailed than anything I've done in the past, which I hadn't really planned on one way or another, but it just happened that way! That's the direction my style likes to take these days, I suppose. I used the same technique in Down East in the Ocean, the only difference being that the scenes in that book were much more simple, big and bold, and in this book, there were lots of little details and much more space to cover.

I have to say, it feels fantastic to be finished, and I'm really excited for you all to see it. Like I said, it was my first ever attempt at a wordless picture book and being an "author", so I really hope that when it's out in the world it makes sense to eyes other than my own!! It was a ton of work, I was quite literally nocturnal for a while there toward the end of the project, pulling lots of all-nighters (shout-out to my Starbucks Double Shot Espresso energy drinks, and our little Riley Dog for keeping my company and refusing to go to bed until I did) and napping during the day.  I think my family and friends forgot what I looked like after not seeing me for so long! But I think it was all worth the effort, because I've already had interest from several book stores to carry it, as well as scheduling local book signings, and really kind words from my editor at Down East Publishing, which is always a huge relief. I hope this will lead to more exciting projects in the future...though I will probably bite off a little less to chew next time, for the sake of sleep and sanity. ;)

Here are a couple sneak peeks from the interior of the book, enjoy!

First page spread in Journey of the Sea Glass, which starts in sepia tones, and eventually ends in full color.
©Nicole Fazio

A coloring transition spread in Journey of the Sea Glass.  ©Nicole Fazio

I'll be doing another post soon with one of the pages post stipple/pre watercolors with some details. Stay tuned for that!