Fun news, Featherheads! We're going to interview illustrator Aedan Peterson—and yes, I do mean we, because I am looking to get some questions from you.Aedan is Ollister B. Pembrick's right hand and the illustrator for Douglas McKelvey's Wingfeather Tale "The Places Beyond the Maps" (catch him in last month's live chat here). He's also on the Wingfeather animation team and is starting a degree in animation this fall!You can find Aedan on Instagram, Facebook, and Etsy. Check out some of these beautiful pieces:
What questions do you have for Aedan? Post them below! I will forward five total questions to him, and in a week or two we'll post his responses here on the site. :-)
Grobblins, probably?
Hey all, you may have noticed that the forum isn't loading and some embedded content has disappeared or stopped working. The best I have figured is that grobblins have stolen something from the inner workings. They aren't malicious and I suspect they didn't realize that some of the gear handles only look like spoons. Grobblins are difficult to espy, but difficulty does not deter me any more than it does Ollister Bahbert Pembrick himself, so we'll figure this out one way or another. (The sidebar moving from right to left is also due to a stolen gear-handle, I think, but we shall see.)Meanwhile, we needn't let that stop us from enjoying each other. Poke around and read some old blog posts. Have fun chatting in the comments. :-)
Sculpting the Saga
There's a little white church building in Connecticut that for many years has hosted concerts by me, Jason Gray, Andy Gullahorn, Eric Peters, The Gray Havens, Jill Phillips, and many more. It's called Community Coffeehouse, and it's run by some of the kindest New Englanders in the world.One of those New Englanders is a bonafide sculptor named Scott Lee Johnson. I visited his studio a few years back and marveled at the pieces he had made, many of them intricate, artful religious scenes like you'd see in Italy (the header image above is one of his pieces titled, "Jesus and the Homeless Woman"). A few years ago, Scott gave me one of the best birthday gifts I've ever received. He called and said that he wanted to drive it down---all the way from Connecticut!---and was a little vague about what it was. I knew he was a sculptor, and so of course I was deeply intrigued. Well, when he showed up and unveiled the gift, I literally gasped. Then I got goosebumps. Then (of course) I got a lump in my throat.This is what he gave me:
I don't want to spoil anything if you haven't read the Wingfeather Saga, but this is Janner and a certain Gray Fang, from a scene in The Warden and the Wolf King. A priceless gift, and I'll forever be grateful.But that's not all. Scott went on to create four more pieces--two bookends, the first of Peet the Sockman walking on his hands (from book one), juxtaposed with the other of Artham Wingfeather cradling that same Gray Fang in his arms (from book two). Every time I see these pieces on my mantle, I'm reminded of the transformation of Peet from the shadow of what he was to the protector he was always meant to be. And here's the awesome thing. These pieces are small enough that he can cast them and make a set JUST FOR YOU.
But that's not all. Scott also made a bust of the intrepid bibliophile Oskar N. Reteep, which makes an excellent addition to anyone's library wall---and this one is also for sale, along with a small "sketch" version of the Warden and the Wolf King sculpture I mentioned earlier.
Check out Scott's website here, and support him by placing an order for these ultra-rare and lovingly made tributes to the Wingfeather Saga. I know Scott poured a lot of heart and time and skill into the crafting of these pieces, and it shows. Thank you, Scott, from the bottom of my heart, for making these pieces. It's an honor.https://youtu.be/8wDHpYerX3M
Live interview starting any minute!
This weekend, Andrew is at the Great Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati, along with Jennifer Trafton, Jonathan Rogers, and Douglas McKelvey. Sarah MacKenzie of Read-Aloud Revival is also there, and she's going to stop by the Rabbit Room both during today's book-signing event to interview all four of them! This is supposed to start pretty soon, so click over to her Facebook page to find it. If the video persists after the chat is finished, I will post that link later today. :-)UPDATE: Here's the video! :-)[embed]https://www.facebook.com/sarah.amongstlovelythings/videos/1924849287761307/[/embed]
Live chat videos and links
Last Tuesday, Andrew, his friend Doug McKelvey, and illustrator Aedan Peterson all hung out in the Chapter House to talk about Doug's Wingfeather Tale and to answer questions about writing, the animated series, and more. It was a great conversation, and I hope you were able to make it! If not, or if you'd like to watch again, here are the videos. Below thou shalt find links to many and sundry items of relevance.Part one:[embed]https://www.facebook.com/WingfeatherSaga/videos/1489974181034728/[/embed]Part two:[embed]https://www.facebook.com/WingfeatherSaga/videos/1490077347691078/[/embed]Librarian that I am, I must catalog for you all the wonderful people and projects that came up during the conversation. Here they are, in alphabetical order:Aedan Peterson on Instagram
Andrew Peterson's music website
Andrew's books/music/Wingfeather loot in the Rabbit Room store
Andrew's posts about writing:
"Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?"
"How Long Does it Take to Write a Book?"
The Arcadian WildDouglas Kaine McKelvey's website
Doug's books in the Rabbit Room store
"Common Trepidations Encountered in Collaborations"
Doug McKelvey Tells All About Cassowaries (podcast episode)
The Flabbit Room community for young authorsThe Green Ember (S.D. Smith)Jamin Still's website and art shop
Jennifer Trafton's website and writing classes
Jennifer's books in the Rabbit Room store: Henry • Mount Majestic
Jennifer's posts in the Rabbit Room
Joe's posts in the Rabbit Room
Justin GerardNicholas Kole on InstagramWingfeather Saga on KickstarterZach FranzenDid I miss anything? Let me know in the comments and I'll find you a link.
A few great questions came up during the evening, some of which Andrew and Doug were able to discuss and some they weren't. Among them: Who are the writers who make you want to write? Who are the writers who make you want to read? What books have shaped you? Do you have any tips for aspiring writers? (There are some good ones in the links above.) When you're writing, do you start with the end in mind or do you let the story tell you what it wants to be? Do you ever collaborate while creating, and how does that work out?Some of you Featherheads are writers, but even if you're not, I'd love to know how you all would answer these questions. Come on over to the forum and tell us what you think.
The melody fierce and joyful
With this excerpt we come to the end of "The Places Beyond the Maps" as well as the end of Wingfeather Tales. We've had some good forum discussion about these stories—conversations about dragon hunting, the risks of friendship, where we got stuck and what we loved. You Featherheads! I enjoy you. It's good to dig into this stuff together.What a full, rich story this last one was. So hard. So unexpectedly graceful at times, even in the midst of those hard places. Like the glorious number One Thousand, so satisfying to count to. I was hoping for a paragraph or two that would close out our book club with poignancy and beauty, and this part was perfect.
The man was curled on his side in the middle of a shallow river whose waters rushed dark and behind him the darkness grew while before him a clear light spread like the refractions of diamonds and yet there was no source to it but it was everywhere, and he knew that he had been crossing that river though he had no memory of his first steps into those waters or of why he had lain down in it.He tilted his head and listened now because there was a lovely music, and at first it had seemed far away but it drew steadily nearer and the man felt himself stirred by the melody fierce and joyful, and he sensed in it the beginning of something like a kindling of a flame in his bones, a stirring that was both within and without and that was calling him to rise and he thought that it must be the music of the whatever-came-next, the music of the forever wild and unmapped lands, of the places beyond all maps, urging him on across that last river, and it came to him with a sense both of nostalgia and of expectation that it was a music he had known before or perhaps always known and had always heard in the wind and the stars and in the beating of his own heart like a melody that had never ceased playing though he could not quite yet name it, and he craned his head towards the source of it and opened his eyes.
What was your favorite part of this week's reading? Post it in the comments!I hope you were able to join us for Tuesday's live chat! The videos are still available on the Wingfeather Saga Facebook page (here and here).See you in the forum!
Live chat happening right now!
On collaboration: Douglas McKelvey
TOMRORROW NIGHT at 7:30 Central, Andrew will be hosting a LIVE CHAT with author Douglas Kaine McKelvey. Doug wrote our Wingfeather Tale "The Places Beyond the Maps." He is also in the process of republishing his book The Angel Knew Papa and the Dog.https://youtu.be/tym_7loNi4cRecently at the Rabbit Room, Doug reflected on the trepidation and blessing of finding a new illustrator whom he could trust with his story. He asked,
...what makes the difference in any successful artistic collaboration versus those that fail?Undoubtedly there are many nuanced factors that might come into play, but I’m convinced it’s mostly about the ability, and the simple willingness, of the collaborator to enter into a creation that is not their own, and to find a way to translate it into a new language that is their own. Which is maybe the same as to say that you actually have to bring your full self to the project. And to do that, you actually have to care about the original piece. You have to foster a deep connection to it. You have to crawl inside it emotionally. You have to go to that daunting and dangerous place where you are actually risking something creatively, rather than just coasting on the rote mechanics of your craft, phoning in something that’s passable (but that doesn’t add any new layer of richness to the original vision). At the end of the day, it can’t just be about collecting your paycheck. ...As an author, one always secretly hopes in these situations that the artist will not settle for merely illustrating the text, but will instead set out to make the project their own, moving beyond mere competence and into the realm of deep creation, yielding that visual poetry that has its own interior substrata of symbolic meaning.
As I was reading this, I couldn't help but think of "The Places Beyond the Maps." Thank you, Doug. You brought your full self to your Wingfeather Tale, and we are deeply grateful for your kindness and the generous gift of your collaboration.(You can read the rest of his article here.)Join us on Facebook Live tomorrow night as Andrew and Doug talk about "The Places Beyond the Maps."
This week is the last week of our Wingfeather Tales book club! Madame Sidler will be reading part five of "The Places Beyond the Maps." See you tomorrow at the live chat, here on Friday for an excerpt, and all week in the forum. :-)