Book Launch a Success!

This past weekend was my book launch and I cannot believe the number of people who came out to support me...I am humbled, really, by the show of support from family and friends.  Many thanks to everyone who came out to support me and a big thanks to Marti Gorman, my publisher from Buffalo Heritage Unlimited, who made this all a reality for me:)  Above is me and my good friend and partner in art crime, Jennifer Seth-Cimini who was one of the first to buy the book.

I couldn't have done any of this without the assistance of my niece Amber Orlando who helped me to plan and organize the launch.  She was so helpful!  She is starting a party/event planning business called Effortless Occasions and I highly recommend you use her services for your next event.  She planned the food, drink, kids activities and display of my art influences that I used during the illustration process.  She also took care of all the day of events, food pick up and set up, decorations,
last minute details, etc.  I would have pulled my hair out if it were not for her:)  Look at how beautifully she set the event.

That's Amber in the middle with her daughter Emily and her cousins Becca and Abby on either side.

In addition her mother-in-law, Terri Orlando, made me the most beautiful cookies that looked just like the dog character Bean from the book! Aren't they adorable!

Several of my students from Villa Maria College came out early to help me with set up and stayed to help me sell books and welcome guests.  They are so awesome!  Thank you so much Teeanna and Sarah and Brandi!  You are the best!  And they made delicious desserts for my guests!

I also had my family there helping me with little errands, and many friends who came to support.  It was such a great event and we SOLD OUT of our launch quantity of books!  The publisher is busy getting more books delivered for my reading at Dog Ear Books this Thursday and my art show at Know Park this coming Friday and Saturday, November 21 and 22, 2014.  I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's feedback on the book.  So far I know that several children were read to sleep by the book Sunday night and that is the biggest compliment of all!

My First Picture Book Launch!

Yes!  It's true!  I will be launching my first published picture book!  Can you believe it!  Isn't that awesome?  I am working with a local boutique publisher that specializes in publishing local authors and illustrators.  It's being published under the name CrissCross AppleSauce an children's book imprint of Buffalo Heritage Unlimited.  They are publishing my illustrated work for Robert Louis Stevenson's poem called The Swing.  I have shared this project with you before on the blog and this past summer, on a whim, I decided to send it to Buffalo Heritage to see what they thought of it.  They loved it!  And wanted to publish it!  Now I am planning the launch party and release of the book and wanted to share it with you all so you can share with your friends.

Here is the invite I sent out for the launch party with the details....

Please do stop by if you are in the area!  I will have all the original art there, plus some of my artistic influences.  I will also have lots of the early work I did on the book so you can see the steps of the process if you are interested.  There will be coloring pages and bookmarks for the little ones to make, so please bring the family too!

And because children are near and dear to me I can't have a wonderful opportunity like this and not share it with others.   So as a way of giving back, with the launch of The Swing I will be donating 50% of the proceeds of the sale of my books to Feed My Starving Children.  

Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God's children hungry in body and spirit.  Their approach is simple:  children and adults volunteer and hand pack meals specifically formulated for malnourished children.  FMSC then ships those meals to nearly 70 countries around the world and changes children's lives!  It is a wonderful organization that my family and I have supported for 3 years now.  Every year the college where I work holds a two day event where we volunteer and pack around 100,000 meals.

My family and I are doing the food pack event again this year and you can too!  The event is being held November 7th and 8th at Villa Maria College.  If you are interested drop me a line and I'll sign you up!  The money I will donate from my book will go to purchasing the food items and supplies for sending to the children.  If you have a chance check out the link to their site or watch the video above and see what they are all about.

So either way I guess I'll be seeing you!  Either at the book launch or at Feed My Starving Children food pack!