Hi! I’m Kayla Stark, an illustrator working primarily in the children’s publishing world. You’re reading “Odd Thoughts”, my blog/newsletter where I talk mostly about illustration, process, publishing, and anything else that’s tangentially related in my life. Join in! Everyone’s welcome!
How’s it going everyone? As I build this newsletter palace, I am balancing my typical inclination to make it very “structured” with the quality that I KNOW will create consistency for me—keeping it casual and adaptable. With that, I have a mishmash of info for you today. It’s numbered (structure 🙂), but also a bit all of over the place in terms of a theme or topic. (ahhh casual 😎) Let’s goooo!
One: I made an FAQ Page
Last week I met with an illustration student from Belmont/Watkins, a local art college. I get requests for interviews like this every so often as part of their assignments. I can’t always meet or answer the call, but I try to as much as possible. After last week’s interview, I thought it would be a good idea to make an FAQ page—somewhere I can direct students to that might be helpful.
Here’s a preview of the first four questions in the “general” section. But…there’s a lot more if you want to click over and learn more about moi—a reintroduction of sorts! (click the screenshot below or the link above)
Two: I Have a New Agent!
After 2ish months of prep and 4ish months of querying, I’m proud to announce that I’m now repped by Lara Perkins at Andrea Brown Literary Agency!
We’ve already been strategizing our initial outreach, new portfolio pieces, and a pitch for my picture book idea. My personal goal is to have the edits/artwork ready for the pitch by the end of October! There isn’t too much to do (since I already made the dummy) as long as I don’t overthink it. 🙃 I’ll update with any info I’m able to share!
When I talk about agents and querying, I tend to get a lot of questions about the querying process and about what an agent actually does. Soooo…I made this poll to gauge interest in a querying/agent focused post—what do you think?
I’ll be honest, I was just excited that I could include a poll. 🙃
Three: Other Thoughts and Updates!
A really nice blog interview: A few weeks ago Anna Zeitlin interviewed and photographed me for her blog Create Every Day Club, and she gave me the BEST intro line I’ve ever had.
Tis the season: I would be remiss not to share the “Spooky Time Birds” sticker sheet I made last year around this time. I’m still so proud of these little birds. They helped get me out of a drawing funk and reminded me of what I like to make (nonsense 😆).
On the subject of new portfolio pieces: I want to bring in more middle grade and YA illustration work. Sooo, I’m making a sample middle grade cover for The Song of Achilles. (anyone else read it? I loved it) I think it will be interesting to focus on Achilles and Patroclus as kids/early teens. This is also on the task list for October. 😬 Wish me luck! Here’s a little fanart sketch I did after reading it more than a year ago.
There was one more thing I wanted to add in this section, but I cannot remember. I thought typing this might shake it out, but nope. Sorry, if I got your hopes up for a second.
Four: More on the way for paid subscribers (thank you for your support!)
I’m preparing and planning a timeline of posts for paid subscribers—as they will take quite a bit of work to put together.
Next up over there are: the rest of my purposeful practice videos (3 more); an illustration process video combined with a q+a; process walkthroughs; and I’m playing around with the idea of a short, guided workbook that folds out over three or so months. More details to come!
Until next time (likely next Tuesday) 💛
Your ol’ pal,
Kayla
Congrats on getting agented!! 🎉🎉
The chicken with the candy corn is GOLD! 👏😄