story titles

I started writing the stories and I so far I have done the first two. It was then that I started to wonder if each individual story should have a title. The overall book is going to be called Backyard Livestock Homestead. Originally, I planned on naming the days as they go, day 1 day 2, day 3, etc., but I feel like it would give each individual story more meaning if it had a title.
I have not worked BookSmart or InDesign yet because I don't know which one publishing site, lulu and Blurb, I want to use. I was leaning towards Lulu and I was going to work with InDesign, but I don't know how well the graphics and color come out with Lulu. BookSmart is the program Blurb uses, but I don't know what the quality of the actual book is going to be like. Without deciding this I can't start designing the book because I can't switch between programs. I think it's better to write my stories and have the perspective images ready before I begin putting the book together. I don't have any experience publishing books though so I'm not sure if this is the best thing to do.
As I think about my book I keep coming up with all theses themes and ideas that i want to flow throughout. Since i keep track of how much milk and how many eggs I collected each day I thought about having a small picture graph on each day to show the progress. I also thought about putting clocks at the start and end of the day. After all these different types of graphics I figured there should be a sample page in the beginning point out what everything is, like in encyclopedias.
Writing the single stories has actually turned out to be harder than I though it would be because I want each story to mean something and i don't want all of them to mesh together.
This week I'm going to write more stories and hopefully figure out which program and publisher I'm going to use.

Daily Adventure Storybook

After finding out how Illustrator works and why it is that there is often an author and an illustrator I realized that although I really hoped I would be drawing the images for my book, time is just not on my side to illustrate and write in less than 2 months. It takes soo much practice and SKILL do illustrations in books and I never really appreciated them until I found out how much work goes into the process. But I not going to settle with a book of only writing and color. I know from personal experience that a children's book without interactive images in not a children's book. Looking about at August I have over 1000 pictures because I took pictures everyday. These pictures shouldn't go to waste because they documented my entire project. I also have over 40 pages of writing from the daily blog entries I did throughout the month. I also have around 2 hours worth of video. Then it dawned on me. Why should I discard of all that hard work and already accessible information? The bulk of my project was outline by my August adventure and writing a children's book on the emotions of animals in which only 4 pages out of 25 of the book would deal with the animals I actually interacted with would prove August to have been a waste. I would have to go and interact with many other animals and document on them before I could even start writing. I do not have enough time to go to create emotional bonds with other animals and then experiment with them and then write and book with illustrations.
I decided, and with great relief and satisfaction, that I am going to write a book on what I did in August. The book will be around 40 pages in length and every 2 page spread will be each day and its adventures in chronological order. It each day will read like a story of its own and contain photographs of that day. The photographs will be used as illustrations for the daily stories and the book will ideally look like a colorful childrens encyclopedia/journal. I decided the layout of the book after going to the library again and looking at children encyclopedias, dictionaries, fact books, illustrated diaries, and journals.
For the coming week I am going to try to find some books that I might want to emulate in style or layout. I am also going to start turning each day of my project into a story organizing them with their respective pictures.

The following pictures are some examples of the encyclopedias i came across. Since I want my book to read like a collection of stories, every page will have the same theme, but different styles. I also want there to me something that connects all the stories into one big message. That I could use some help on brainstorming. With these realizations though, I find my project moving quite smoothly and productively.

Conclusion

Action packed week! Since the end of August my senior project was no longer the only thing I did, thought, and dreamt. This was mainly because i did not know where to go for there. I didn't know what I was going to create or even my topic of interest. But now... I see the light. On Sunday afternoon I was called by Erin Geismar to do an interview about what i did in August for the East Hampton Press! This was something I was going to look into anyways because all our hard work needed to be heard about, but she ended up coming to us. After telling her all about the project she asked me what I was going to do next. At that point I was still iffy about writing a children's book on animal behavior and emotion, but it was my best bet so that's what I said. On Monday a photographer from the East Hampton Press came by and took pictures of the scene at the tent and garden. It was then that I realized how much I missed it and learned from all of it. Without any animals there or people it was a depressing and abandoned campsite. I did not want to let die the memories and experiences I had there, especially my interaction with my goats and chickens. Once the article was published later on in the week (http://www.27east.com/story_detail.cfm?id=237936&town=East%20Hampton&n=Students%20take%20on%20month%2Dlong%20sustainability%20challenge), I got people coming at me from all different places saying what a great idea it was to write a book. I was being supported and helped by everyone and this really helped me sit down and analyze children books to see what type I could do. Its no longer a debatable issue. My biggest worry is not the actual writing or informational aspect of the book. The workshop with Ms. Iden taught us how to begin to put a book together and how to publish it.

My problem is illustrations. I am not a very good artist and I have NO IDEA how children's books have the images they do. Does the illustrator hand draw and then scan? Do they draw on the computer? Is there a program? Is it hard? I am completely clueless about the whole topic of illustration. At the moment, this is what is delaying me from starting to write because I don't know if its going to be a story book or a scientific journal or a personal diary? I could write a story book with illustrations to go along with it but I don't know how to create those images. I have a lot of photographs from the project, which is why I'm leaning towards a scientific journal with pictures and facts. I could also use the pictures i have to create an easy-read personal diary. I went to the library the other day to look at children's books and I was so shocked how amazing they really are and how the actual interacting part of books is the illustration. I wanted to get an idea of different types of illustrated children's books. I did learn that I want the book to be full page spreads with no white.

I met with my mentor to write my rubric and he was very pleased with my work so far and they I finally decided what my product would be. Outside consultant. I have e-mailed a couple local authors about my book to see if they can be my outside consultant and help me with editing and creating an actual book. My mentor then told me i should probably get in touch with ARF, or the wildlife rescue center, or a vet to help me because the content of my book is scientific. Thanks to the article in the press, a lot of people in these fields have already gotten in touch with me. My next step is figuring out what kind of book I want to write and how I'm going to go about illustrating it. I am relieved that i have a clear path now.

children's book

So after some research on children's book and careful thought, I've decided I'm probably going to write a children's book. Once I start experimenting with this I will realize what kind of task it will be for me. Unfortunately, right now I am bed ridden with swine flu. I do not know how I got it, but I feel terrible. Monday at school we are suppose to have an 1 1/2 hr workshop with Julie Iden on books and other things that are publishable. I have no experience in book publishing or formatting so this is a huge problem since I won't be able to attend. I am hoping to get better really fast so maybe I can go to school just for the workshop. Right now, it doesn't seem likely. I really need help on how to go about book writing since for the next week I will be in bed and will have a lot of time to write, but I don't know where to start. I was thinking of heading towards a book on animal's emotions with a Dr. Seuss style? My inspiration for writing a children's book was him and the fact that I want to have a publishing experience. This coming week I am going to be collecting information on animal emotions which I think would be essential for children and others to know. I want to get out of bed!