Eric Rohmann was great, once again. I got to his apartment around 11:30, and we promptly took out my “stuff” and talked about what I am working on and where I need to go with it. He had all sorts of great ideas and offered great advice for honing my story and exploring the tangents to make sure I don’t miss any great ideas lurking in my subconscious. I also got a little sneak-preview of his next project, which looks just awesome. I love his painting style.

Over lunch we talked more about the “business.” There are many ways to get into the children’s book world, and I feel like there is definitely a place for me in it somewhere, though I am set on taking my time and being patient. I want to do good work, not just get work out the door. It was also good to learn that publishers can be quite flexible about the timeline: if they know I have a day job (and I do), they can give me more time to work on things (which I will need.)

Finally, we went back up to his apartment to look at a couple things online. I’ve felt like I have been taking a lot of his time without being able to offer much in return, so I thought I’d offer some website development time, if he wanted it, since I know web development. I’m not sure he really wants to set anything up right now, but it was good for me to feel like I could offer something to him. We spent a bunch of time looking at Bear Skin Rug, which I hadn’t seen in a while. Finally, at about 5:30 we both realized we needed to be other places, and we parted.

Previously I wondered why Eric was so good at being encouraging and supportive, even after seeing the obvious gap between the quality and maturity of his work when compared to mine. But as we were talking it came out that he has his MFA, and for a time he considered taking a faculty position at some university or another. He would make a great teacher, though it would be a shame to take him away from his books. I think “unofficial mentor” suits him well, anyway.

It was a great visit, and I think the biggest thing I need to work on right now is my painting, and the style and design of the book. As a result, I have recently spent too much money at the various local art supply stores, and not enough time actually drawing and painting, but I am making progress. I think.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2004 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Children’s Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.