Two paintings arrive

In the middle of a very hectic and deadline oriented day, two precious gifts arrived. Julia Bell's painting for White Girl by Sylvia Olsen (tentative date of release: October) came first. We love it; Julia has captured the essence of the character and the story perfectly. Julia also painted the cover for Sylvia Olsen's best-selling, The Girl With a Baby, and is working on a cover painting for the second printing of No Time to Say Goodbye, also by Sylvia Olsen.

Joan Larson's painting for the cover of The Secret Pony (tentative date of release: September) also came in. It's lovely and will be very appealing to those horse loving girls. Already people are asking if she's going to make it into a print -- a very good sign.

I emailed both authors mock-up covers for their books: Sylvia Olsen (White Girl) compared it to having a beautiful baby, and Julie White (The Secret Pony) said she cried tears of joy. She said the emotion was similar to seeing your baby for the first time. Julie was amazed how Joan managed to perfectly capture the feeling between the girl and her beloved pony. We all feel so very fortunate to be working with such talented artists.