Pinkie McCloud and How She Saved Ballooze by Eileen Goldenberg

Eileen Goldenberg has done it again!  This time she has written and illustrated a gorgeously rich and textured children's book, Pinkie McCloud and How She Saved Ballooze.  A confection of poetry, pictures, and prose, Pinkie's story reads like an allegory that kids will understand and love.

Pinkie is a happy girl who happens to have been born a wingbling, a rarity in the land of New Skyland.  Not only that, Pinkie has pink wings, a double rarity!  In her land, everyone is happy, and contented, and good.  Wingblings especially, are kindhearted, and willing, and able to help others.

Alas, Pinkie is told the grim news that the family must move far away to a place called Balloze.  There are no wingblings in this place, and others make fun of Pinkie and consider her a freak.

Eileen's Pinkie Doll

When, however, an evil storm rages through Ballooze, the residents think all is lost.  The only one who doesn't is Pinkie.  She knows what to do. She does it and saves not only the day but the entire town!

Kids and their caregiver readers will love the luscious book, illustrated throughout in rich colors--until the storm appears.  With Eileen's dark and ominous illustrations, one can feel--almost taste--the danger at hand.

This is a book that can be read again and again.  The illustrations call for repetition to be sure one captures every aspect of the  fine artwork.

This blogger would urge you adult readers to acquire this idyll of a book not only for your children, but for your selves as well!

Eileen Goldenberg has been a working artist in the Tampa area for over thirty years. Her paintings and other works are widely collected here and elsewhere.  Her paintings on canvas and board have been commissioned by individuals and organizations and have graced book and magazine covers.

Pinkie McCloud can be purchased through the publisher, Guardian Angel Publishing as well as through Amazon and Barnes and Nobel.com.

Eileen's art can be found at:  http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eileen-goldenberg.html

Eileen will sign her new book, Pinkie McCloud and How She Saved Ballooze on Monday, May 9 at 4PM at Inkwood Books, 
216 S Armenia Ave
33609-3310 Tampa

Eileen Goldenberg-Illustrator of Children's Book-Rainbow of Friendship

This past week I showcased author Joni Klein-Higger's children's book, Rainbow of Friendship, published by Guardian Angel Publishing.  Today I want to turn to the multi-talented illustrator of the book, Eileen Goldenberg.  Eileen does not only illustrate books but is a sculptor as well as a mosaicist.  Her interview is fascinating.  Enjoy!

  When did you discover your artistic gift?

As far back as I can remember, my two favorite activities were drawing and reading. I loved the classic fairy tale books, and the Oz books, not only for the content but also for the fantastic illustrations. A teacher called my parents in when I was in second grade to show them an illustration I had created and a big deal was made of it. 

At seven I decided I was an artist, and I was determined to make that my career. I definitely got into trouble a few times for drawing when I should have been doing something else. I won a few art competitions in middle and high school and that helped cement the idea in my head. Of course, not having to support myself at that time in my life, little did I know how financially hard it would be! Nobody ever told me the term “starving artist” when I was seven! 

After majoring in Fine Art in college, I realized that it was going to be challenging to pay the bills and had a five year detour working in retail. However, I knew I wasn’t happy and finally I went back to school for graphic design and became an art director for a major organization. I did this until about 1988 when my daughter was born and then slowly built up a career as a fine artist and illustrator.

You are a busy, working artist and author.  How do you organize your day in a studio and at the computer?

Thank you for this question, and for that word organize! I wish I was better at this actually. My studio draws me in each morning and then it’s hard for me to leave. My new strategy is to first spend two hours each day on my computer- and this second career of writing and illustrating in the children’s literature field. Only then will I allow myself to go into my studio. It is a challenge to keep up with commissions and creating work for shows , and still devote the necessary time to this longtime dream of being a successful author-illustrator.

Tell us how you came to illustrate the lovely book, Rainbow of Friendship.

 I’m very grateful to Joni Klein-Higger for suggesting to her publisher that she take a look at my artwork. The publisher was then very open to the idea of having me illustrate Joni’s book, and offered me a contract. I in turn, was very inspired by Joni’s wonderful characters. Joni had a wonderful vision that the characters would be all very different colors and shapes- based on geometric shapes! So that proved a bit of a challenge, but I think the end result is fun and whimsical, and provides an additional learning tool for little ones. I’ve been to readings with Joni and the children are very excited to identify the shapes of the various characters in the book.

Eileen's Stunning Fish 

 What is your next project?

I’m just finishing up the illustrations for Joni’s next book, I have A Voice. These illustrations have a looser, more watercolor style, and I’m really enjoying this process as well. It’s a very touching story, and I think the style suits the subject matter quite well. It will be published by Guardian Angel Publishing and be out later this year. Guardian Angel is also publishing a picture book I both wrote and illustrated, entitled Pinkie McCloud and How She Saved Ballooze.

 Where can you be found socially?

My website is currently being revamped, but will be found by the end of the month hopefully at eileengoldenberg.com. I also have an author illustrator page on Facebook.

Thanks, Nancy, for the opportunity to be interviewed on your wonderful blog. I very much admire you for all your success and appreciate the encouragement I receive from you and our other critique group members. 

Likewise, Eileen, it is always such a pleasure to have such talented artists and authors on this blog!

Rainbow of Friendship: Wonderful New Children's Book by Joni Klein-Higger

It is always such a great pleasure to feature the books of people I know and admire on this blog. So it is with Joni Klein-Higger, the author of the lovely new kids' book, Rainbow of Friendship, published by Guardian Angel Publishing. 

My next blog will feature Rainbow's illustrator, Eileen Goldenberg.

You are a musician and an author, Joni.  How did the two come about, and when did they fuse?

As a girl I was always making up songs and continued doing so throughout my life. Being a children’s book author, however, was much more of a challenge. Unlike songwriting, which came naturally to me, the children’s writing bug “bit me” later in life. It started when I was a Co Girl Scout Troop Leader for my daughter’s troop. Each Girl Scout had to create a book to earn a Literature Badge. We ordered a set of blank books by the dozen. Ten Girl Scouts, twelve books, two Troop Leaders.  The stage was set, and my first book, Rainbow of Friendship, catapulted into motion. That was over fourteen years ago. Needless to say, I’ve done quite a bit of writing and revision since its inception.

 

 Where did you get the idea for Rainbow of Friendship?

When I received my "blank” book at our Girl Scout gathering, I needed to think of an idea, and fast. I looked around at our beautiful troop of girls, each with unique physical and personality traits; each adding their individual gifts to the group as a whole. I found my story.

 Do you think your love of rhyming books come from the musical side of you?  Tell us a bit about that, please. 

Yes, a good rhyming book is very much like a song. Though, I must confess, I often struggle with meter when writing rhyming books – with songwriting, a melody can be stretched to fit my lyric/rhyme. Much to my critique group’s dismay, (“You should try it in prose, Joni!"), I love the fun words, rhymes and rhythms of rhyming picture books and can’t get enough of writing them.

 What’s in store next for your readers?

       Later this year Guardian Angel Publishing will be releasing a picture book I co-wrote with Dr. Flora Zaken-Greenberg, Ph.D. entitled, I HAVE A VOICE. It is the story of a girl who is afraid to speak; with the help of a “feelings doctor”, she discovers ways to overcome her problem. This book is being illustrated, as well, by Eileen Goldenberg (Yay!). Guardian Angel Publishing will also be releasing RED, a children’s musical I co-wrote with Jane Tesh.

And speaking of readers, where socially can they find you?

First, Nancy, I want to thank you for interviewing Eileen and me today. I’m a big fan of yours and am honored to be a part of your blog.  Readers, you can find me at my website, www.joniworld.com, or on Facebook at my Joni Klein-Higger Music and Joni Klein-Higger Author pages.  Please stop by and say, “hi!”

Interview with Joni Klein-Higger: Musician and Author

It is my great pleasure to welcome Joni Klein-Higger to the blog today.  A talented musician and author, she and I are in the same writing critique group.  Please welcome Joni to the blog.

1       You are such a multi-talented person. Please tell us about your early music; how you began and if your use of the skill is different today.

 Thank you for your kind words, Nancy.  For as long as I can remember, writing songs came naturally to me.  As a child I used to make up little songs, whether it be about tying my shoes, going to the ice cream shop or jumping rope—there was always something to sing about.  I wrote my first completed song in high school and continued writing throughout college. 

Immediately after I completed my BA at Ithaca College, two songs of mine got “picked up”—one by the 60’s girls group, “The Shirelles” and the other by singer, Eddie Fisher. Unfortunately the songs they recorded never made it to the public, but for the first time I realized I was a “real” songwriter.  From then on I took a variety of songwriting and musical theater workshops in New York City and had the opportunity to work with some of the finest songwriters and musical theater playwrights in the country.

Since then I’ve had various artists, schools and organizations perform and record my songs and one of my retro songs was featured in the movie, PETUNIA.  When I had children of my own, my focus went from writing pop, ballads, rock and country songs to writing children’s music and children’s musicals. 

As far as my songwriting skills go, I spent many years honing the craft of songwriting and continue to apply all those skills to what I do today.  The main skill I am concentrating on mastering these days is trying to keep up with technology.  The music world has changed drastically since I first started out in the music business thanks to computers and home recording devices.  While I raised my children, I spent a lot of time creating musical works but little time keeping up with technology, selling and marketing my work.  This technological dinosaur is finally starting to catch up to music world.

2      What prompted you to begin writing books?

 Let me start by stating if anyone would have told me years ago that I would become I children’s book author, I would have thought they were crazy.  I was not a strong student academically in elementary school and high school, had little interest in reading and had no desire to write other than writing songs. I stumbled onto writing children’s books in 2003 when I was a Girl Scout Troop Leader.   My Co-leader was in charge the business and organizational aspects of the troop, and I was in charge of creating fun activities to help the girls achieve their badges.  Lucky for me, the girls chose to earn a literature badge, so I created an activity that involved each girl creating their own picture book.  The “blank books” order came in a package of 12 – let’s see, 12 books, ten Girl Scouts, two troop leaders, two books left over—my first picture book awaited me.  I decided to write and illustrate a book about my beautiful Girl Scout troop (which included my daughter, Sara, who later illustrated covers for two of my published musicals), and entitled it “A Rainbow Of Friendship.”  FYI, it only took ten years of revising that Rainbow Of Friendship manuscript, until it finally got picked up by Guardian Angel Publishing—it should be released by the end of this year.

The first book I actually had published was based on a children’s song I wrote called “Ten Little Latkes,” a Chanukah song I wrote for one of the preschools I was teaching at.  My latke song was picked up by Hachai Publishing, and with the help of Hachai’s wonderful editor, Devorah Rosenfeld, the song was turned into a children’s picture book called, Ten Tzedakah Pennies, released on Hachai Publishing in 2005. To this day this book is still used in many Judaic preschool curricula throughout the world.

3.      You have been successful in combining the printed word and music to make musicals for kids. Please tell us a bit about that.

In musical theater, each song needs to be an integral part of the story and story movement while establishing time, place and characters.  Because the children’s musicals I write are designed to be performed by elementary-school- aged children (not “for” them,) I try to keep the production time between 30 and 45 minutes, make the songs a reasonable length so the kids can easily sing them and try to incorporate fun melodies so the performers will enjoy singing the songs over and over again.

I also try to include an ensemble dance number so the performers can move around  during the musical, preventing stage boredom. For example, in my recently released musical, Recycle – The Musical, I have a dance number called “Rock and Roll With Me” that is a fun 50’s dance designed to combine the rock ‘n roll energy of the ‘50’s decade along with dance movements that are fun for the kids to do; as for story movement, this song introduces the modern day kids to the 1950’s kids while establishing a new setting and bringing new elements to the story—time travel.

Joni and fellow author Eileen Goldenberg

4     What’s next for you? Any more musicals or books for kids?  Can you tell us about them?

It has been an exciting year for me, Nancy.  My rhyming picture, Rainbow Of Friendship, illustrated by talented author/illustrator Eileen Goldenberg, should be released sometime within the next few months. It is the story of a red girl who moves from the comforts of her red town to Rainbow Row City, only to discover that friendship comes in many colors, shapes and sizes.

Eileen Goldenberg will also be illustrating I Have A Voice, a children’s picture book I co-wrote with Dr. Flora Zaken-Greenberg, PhD, that addresses Selective Mutism, an anxiety disorder that affects a child’s ability to speak. This manuscript was recently signed with Guardian Angel Publishing, so it probably won’t be release for another year or two.

And finally, another children’s musical, RED, which I co-wrote with the amazing Jane Tesh, should be released by the end of this year.  It is the story of Little Red Writing Hood, who turns Fairy Tale Land upside-down with the help of her magical pencil.  

5     How can you be reached to purchase your books or musicals?

If anyone is interested in purchasing any of my books, musicals or songs, they can find me at www.joniworld.com and will have access to all of my published works.

Thanks so much for interviewing me for your blog, Nancy. I am honored to be a part of it!