Book Launch a Great Success!

About 70 people crowded into Magers and Quinn Booksellers (the photo doesn't show the people standing down nearby aisles) to hear some stories, buy some books, and eat some Cracker Jacks! The launch was a great success! Thanks to everyone who came and contributed to the excitement.

(The arrow in the picture is pointing to Holy Crocodile! displayed on an end shelf.)

Taming Foxes

In the story of St. Brigid and the Fox, there are two semi-tame foxes -- one is the king's pet, who is killed by a woodsman. The other is St. Brigid's fox. Only recently had I heard about a Russian experiment to domesticate foxes. As it turns out, the project has been highly successful and within only a few generations, they have created foxes who behave much like dogs. (Of course, this gives insight into the domestication of dogs too.) Read an overview about fox taming by clicking here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com

The above bronze sculpture (which I did years ago) shows a fox jumping through a hoop made out of St. Brigid's skirt.

You can easily see the influence of the sculpture on the second St. Brigid drawing from Holy Crocodile!

Ravens to the Rescue!

When I was two, I was given a book titled Bible Stories by my grandmother. It was a collection of Old Testament stories, with wonderful illustrations by Lajos Segner, that completely captured my imagination. Here is the one of my favorite pictures from the story Elijah Is Fed.

The cover of my Bible Stories has been missing as long as I remember. It's stained and torn, and there are some pencil scribbles over the text -- in other words, it was completely loved. I remember asking my mother to read me stories from this book, over and over, long before I learned to read.

In many ways, Bible Stories, was an inspiration for Holy Crocodile! The Old Testament animal stories were among my favorites, and the lush illustrations drew me in, while I listened to the words being read aloud. The format is similar too -- a collection of short stories, each matched by an illustration.

Here is the illustration to my own story Raven to the Rescue, from Holy Crocodile! What's missing from this picture, is the continuation of the image on the opposite page, which shows a little monk running to warn St. Benedict that his bread has been poisoned.

These two raven stories are almost mirror images of each other. Elijah is given bread by the ravens, to save his life. Benedict has his bread snatched away by a raven, to save his life. In both cases, the ravens act as a guardian angels, fulfilling the will of God.

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A note about Bible Stories. This book was published by Whitman Publishing Co., Racine, WI. Whitman published children's books from the early 1900's into the mid 1970's. Bible Stories was originally copyrighted in 1950, and my addition appears to be from 1959. It's a slim book, and possibly was part of the "Golden Book" series (which Whitman published) -- but since I'm missing the cover, I can't be sure. The inside title page (and my de facto cover) says "Illustrations by Lajos Segner." Segner is credited with being the author and illustrator on the OCLC website. This book can still be found in a few libraries around the country: http://www.worldcat.org/title/bible-stories/oclc/18603098

Sadly, an Internet search turns up no information about Lajos Segner, except the above link.

A Saintly Dog and a Favorite Saint

Saint Roch is very popular in Europe. You will see little statues of him and his dog, tucked in niches on street corners and in churches, across the continent. You can always recognize St. Roch because his dog is with him, holding a loaf a bread in his mouth. In addition, St. Roch always wears a shell the symbol of pilgrimage to Santiago, Spain (though he was a pilgrim to Rome, the Spanish shell is, and was, a more recognized pilgrim's symbol). He also typically points to a wound on his leg, symbolizing recovery from the Black Plague.

The Black Plague, or Black Death, was probably the worst pandemic in human history: killing an estimated 450 million people around the world; peaking in the 14th Century. It's estimated to have killed 30-60% of Europe's population -- causing profound religious, social, and economic upheavals.

St. Roch interrupted his pilgrimage to nurse people who were sick with the plague, until he himself became infected. He recovered in large part because his dog brought him food and wouldn't give up on him. (Luckily, nowadays the plague is treatable with antibiotics.) It's because he's a patron saint against the plague, that his statue is found throughout Europe. He is also a patron of pilgrimage, and dog lovers like him too!

Here is a painting I did St. Roch and his dog. The model for the dog was my beloved dog, Joop.
Joop was kind-of greedy... I doubt he would have shared his bread gladly. But under extraordinary circumstances, he might have risen to the occasion; because despite his naughty ways, he was a good dog... like most all dogs... and a saintly presence in my life, by just being himself.

Here's the picture of St. Roch and his dog from Holy Crocodile! Notice how in, both my painting and my drawing, the loaf has a little bite taken out of it. Even though the dog is pretty much a saint to share it's bread -- it couldn't resist having a nibble first. And who can blame it? I'm sure St. Roch shared whatever he had with his dog... just like the dog shared with him.

Saved by Sea Otters

Probably the first story I ever heard where an animal helped a saint was the story of St. Cuthbert. Cuthbert developed hypothermia and would have drowned if sea otters hadn't come to his aid.

This legend planted the seed for a series of saints and animal paintings, and lead to my researching and writing Holy Crocodile! 

The painting above of St. Cuthbert Saved by Sea Otters, is done in egg tempera paint on a wooden panel. (The moon in the painting was cut off in this picture, but he glows from the moonlight.)

Here's the drawing of St. Cuthbert from Holy Crocodile! The story still takes place at night, but the sky above St. Cuthbert is white because that where the text of the story goes.

It's hard to see in the painting, because the photo is so dark, but what I like best in both the painting and the drawing are the sea otters little pink tongues!

Ever thought about medieval ships?

Two of my stories required drawing medieval ships. Above are a few of the images I found for references. I like the one with the flying fish best!

St. Modomnoc only had to sail across the Irish Sea in his boat... Good thing too, or his bees would have gotten too tired, and maybe drowned.

St. Brendan, on the other hand, had to spend seven years sailing his ship. It must have been stinky and crowded, but at least they stopped often in wondrous places... including their yearly Easter mass on the back of a whale! Here's a detail of his ship, anchored around the whale's tail.

Bee Inspired!

On the wall of my studio is a pastel drawing by my friend, Francesca. It combines a quote from St. Ambrose with images of bees. Ambrose is another saint who had a bee encounter. As an infant, bees supposedly swarmed in and out of his mouth without stinging him. People took this as a good sign -- that he would have a honeyed tongue and be a great talker... which came true. He became archbishop of Milan and had the guts to threaten the Roman emperor, Theodosius, with excommunication after a massacre. Theodosius was forced to do months of public penance before Ambrose readmitted him to the Eucharist.

The words on the drawing read (capitalized as in the art):
QUANTUM PHYSICS: "it is Not possible to predict the OUTCOME of aNY situatioN."
"god is the author of NatuRe; NatuRe CaN be chaNged." AMBrOSe

When it came time to draw the bees for St. Modomnoc's story in Holy Crocodile, all I had to do was look to the left of my drawing table for inspiration.

Inspiration for Roch's Dog

Wire Fox Terriers are a relatively new breed (1800's), so they weren't around in St. Roch's time; but they have been an inspiration to me. The form, though not the coloring, of Roch's dog is modeled after Alfie. Alfie is a fine, loyal friend... but I don't know if he's saintly enough to share his food. Though he is saintly enough not to take my food away, when he sits on my lap, while I eat!

Wolf Inspiration

Years ago I purchased a tin wolf, cut out of a diet coke can, at a craft fair in Boston. I've always loved this wolf. So when I was thinking about the wolf I wanted to draw for the story The Tot and the Wolf (St. Ailbe), I turned to my tin wolf for inspiration. You can easily see the connection.

Spiders!

Saint Felix being hidden by spiders, from Roman soldiers, is the story that would have appealed to me most as a child. I was fascinated by everything about ancient Rome, and enthralled by the bravery of persecuted Christians (especially those being thrown to the lions). Add to that, spiders and spiderwebs are just cool. And spiders take on good, bad, and even god-like forms in legends from around the world. To read some interesting spider tales-- including how they were part of a Christmas miracle-- check out this website: http://www.spiderzrule.com/legends.htm

The Book is Out!

Click here to order: Holy Crocodile on Amazon!

Click on the above link to go to Holy Crocodile! on Amazon... or order it from your favorite small bookseller.

Galley Proofs

I'm working on the galley proofs of Holy Croc. Even though it's all low resolution, it's fun to see how the images align with the text. I especially love the typeface that the designer chose to use for the titles. It's as if the words have been chewed on by a friendly crocodile! This image is a screen-cap of my computer desktop, so you can see see some of the smaller thumbnails of stories off to the side. A few of my stories have to be shortened up a wee bit, to fit around the pictures. Otherwise, it's all looking good!

Back Cover Copy

I just got the back cover copy from my editor... exciting!

Holy Crocodile! back cover

Imagine riding across a dangerous river on the back of a friendly crocodile! 

Or making friends with a whole pile of snakes. Or going into hiding with the help of some spiders! 

These are not your everyday saint stories! God used both wild and tame animals to help saints when they needed it most. Here are just a few you’ll find in Holy Crocodile!

• St. Pachome and the friendly crocodile

• St. Colman and the alarming mouse

• St. Brigid and the amazing fox
• St. Cuthbert and the lifesaving sea otters
• And many more!

Told in beautiful illustrations and charming narratives by mixed-media artist Caroline Cory, these stories will delight and inspire young and old alike.

The above text should run somewhere over the body of the croc... this image runs around the book cover.

The Book!

I'm looking forward with great anticipation to the publication of my first book, Holy Crocodile! in the spring of 2013. In this blog I'll be running past the publishing process from the author/illustrator side and posting related tidbits as they come along.

Everyone keeps asking if I have a publishing date yet. I don't... beyond spring. But I do have the sample book cover to prove that's it's on track! I love what they did with the font for Crocodile! It's got a nice bitten flavor to it. My feedback and hope is that the publisher shortens the subtitle to "Stories of Animals Helping Saints" or "Stories of Saints and Animals" or something else that takes up a little less room visually -- preferably keeping the subtitle down to one line.