Sandhenge Publications

Jim Potter, Author

Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Collaboration

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(To  listen to the audio of this blog post, use the purple play button.)

K-9 Kudzu: Observations of a Working Dog Who Loves to Play, by Jim Potter.      – I’m a German Shepherd, but a K-9 police dog can be any breed of dog. I’ve met K-9s of different breeds. Some are German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and Labradors (also known as Labs). I know a Treeing Walker Coonhound who is a therapy dog. You might be able to guess how a Treeing Walker Coonhound got its name. Yep, the breed’s great at treeing racoons. I’ve heard stories about a Chihuahua who’s good at discovering drugs. She works at airports, but I haven’t met her yet. – Illustration by Gina Laiso, Inegrita Prosuctions.

Collaboration

Copyright 2023 © by Jim Potter

I call myself a cave dweller. My computer cave room is where I, alone, write blogs and books. But, at some point, I do collaborate. While writing my books, I read my new chapters to Alex—my wife—and she regularly encourages me and improves my work.

Currently, I’m collaborating with Gina Laiso, Integrita Productions, as she creates colorful illustrations for my first children’s book, K-9 Kudzu: Observations of a Working Dog Who Loves to Play.

There are twenty-six chapters in K-9 Kudzu and most of them have at least two or three spot-illustrations. I’m sharing a few of them with you in today’s blog post.

From K-9 Kudzu: Observations of a Working Dog Who Loves to Play by Jim Potter. – Another word that begins with the letter “f” is fire. As a deputy, Tom doesn’t fight fires, but he’ll go to the scene of the fire to help with traffic control. Sometimes people get in the way of firefighters doing their job. Whenever we go to a fire, I’m always hoping that Sparkle, my Dalmatian friend, will be there. You may have guessed—I’m sweet on her. – Sparkle will visit schools with her firefighter friends when they’re teaching about fire safety. It’s funny to me, but everyone seems so impressed when, on command, Sparkle will demonstrate what to do if a person’s hair or clothing is on fire. She’ll drop to the floor, rock back and forth, and roll over. – Sparkle is incredibly intelligent, so doing a drop, rock, and roll demonstration isn’t much of a challenge. But it’s important. Showing children how to respond to emergencies can help save lives. – Sparkle’s not trained to be a therapy dog, but she gives emotional support to the firefighters who live at the fire station. She’s a loyal companion to the fire crews and she’s also a watchdog in case of trespassers. – I sure wish Sparkle and I could spend more time together. – Illusration of Sparkle by Gina Laiso, Integrita Productions.

Gina kept telling Alex and me that we needed to decide what Kudzu, a German shepherd police dog, looked like since he’s the book’s narrator, and would have a recurring image in different poses.

We knew we wanted Kudzu to look friendly and intelligent since the book was going to be educational. We also wanted to show the playful side of Kudzu because the best police K-9s have a heavy play-drive. And finally, we wanted K-9 Kudzu to be engaging and humorous without looking silly.

Eventually, all three of us were pleased with K-9 Kudzu’s branding image showing him playing with his blue ball.

When I originally sent Gina my finished book, I included ideas and placemarks for many illustrations, but my plans weren’t deeply developed. Then, she started a storyboard and layout, plotting the images among the formatted pages.

I’ve mentioned previously that my visual artistic skills are nearly none. I draw stick people.

Lucky for me, both Gina and Alex work extremely well together in communicating effectively and developing superb images. Gina creates the illustrations, then, at times, Alex, a visual proofreader, will recommend a tweak. The two professional artists are focused on the best presentation of the image while my feedback is more about it fitting into the context of the story.

It’s amazing how well the three of us work together. We listen attentively, we’re creative, and our egos are in check so we can produce the best outcome. That’s only possible because we respect, trust, and enjoy one another. I have no doubt that our finished product will be just as rewarding as our collaborative journey.

A bloodhound illustration by Gina Laiso, Integrita Productions, in K-9 Kudzu: Observations of a Working Dog Who Loves to Play, by Jim Potter. To be published in summer of 2023.

Gina had at least one book illustration job before us with total creative freedom to visually tell the author’s story. Her client wasn’t critiqing a thing during the process. That must have been liberating for Gina. In contrast, we’re eagerly engaged with each newly illustrated chapter. We can’t be Gina’s typical clients. I know we slow her down.

We’re lucky Gina is patient with us as we all work towards getting the illustrations “just right.” I marvel at her welcoming attitude upon receiving our suggestions. It can’t be easy. Fortunately, she doesn’t see it as going backward; she sees it as forward progress.

If you’re planning on writing a children’s book with illustrations, I wish you the best in finding a J. Alex Potter and a Gina Laiso. They’re both precious gems.

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Until next time, happy writing,

 

 

To contact Gina Laiso, Integrita Productions, click on the following Facebook link.

http://www.facebook.com/IntegritaProductions

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