At my agent's suggestion I got to throw my illustrator hat in the ring on a fun story that will go to press next year. (in other words I got to submit some rough sketches). The editor passed saying they didn't think my style was a fit with the story. That's a bummer because I think it would have been a lot of fun! This is another example of how a lot of good can come from a rejection. For one thing I figured out how I like to illustrate skeletons in a fun way. This is tricky, because as my niece pointed out, when one illustrates a small skeleton you run the risk of people thinking of a kid skeleton. Kid skeletons are a bummer if you think about it. Also if you get too anatomically correct with a skeleton it gets creepy. Now, a bit of creepy is great because it is a skeleton after all, but too much defeats the purpose of it being for a kids book. So it was a good problem solving lesson among other things. I'm thankful for the opportunity and I got a lot out of it.
Here are a few examples of the sketches I submitted. I left out some of my favorites because I don't want to reveal the plot before the book is out.