PBParty Entry #47 : Dragon Dance {ART}

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GENRE: *SEL, Lyrical

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WORDS: 265

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Query:

Hello PBParty People!

Have you ever had a creative image in your mind that won’t sit on the page?

A child dreams up a dragon design, but she just. can’t. get. it. right. The dragons she draws have spikes and crowns and clubs and claws. They’re bearded and bat-eared and blue-tongued and bald. But none of them match her dancing dream-dragon. She journeys through perfectionism and despair, to eventually find joy in her own creations.

DRAGON DANCE is THE MOST MAGNIFICENT THING meets WHEN I DRAW A PANDA, lyrically-written with a dream-like quality to the art that incorporates some of my 7-year-old’s favourite dragon designs, reimagined and rendered in my own style.

I am a neurodivergent writer and illustrator, creating stories that reflect my own personal experiences. It is important to me that my biracial, neurodiverse children see themselves reflected in the stories I create. I have assisted in courses with the Children’s Book Academy and taken several illustration courses with OC Art Studios. I am an active member of multiple critique groups, and a member of SCBWI and Julie Hedlund’s 12×12. I am active in parenting and kidlit corners of Twitter, with 6k+ followers.

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

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Excerpt:

I dream up a dragon to draw, but when I start sketching, she dances around.

I race and chase, trying to see her clearly. She frolics through fields of long purple grasses and flows around trees with fiery crowns.

Her body is round, so I decide to start there. I think round will be easy, but my lines wibble and wobble and won’t make a circle.

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