I am (the one who illustrated) Spartacus!

I'm thrilled that my first book is finished and the release date is currently set for Oct 26th!  October has always been my favorite month and this year it's just extra awesomesauce.

The book is called Spartacus and the Circus of Shadows and it was written by Molly E Johnson (another lady with a middle 'E'!) who actually lives in my neighborhood due to pure serendipity.  I can't wait to meet her!  The book is your average boy-runs-away-from-home-to-rescue-his-mom-from-an-possibly-evil-circus story, and is even funnier than that sounds.  I illustrated black and white frontspieces for each chapter as well as painted the cover.

If you're going to WordStock, check out Raintown Press' table for some cool giveaway like these:  http://yfrog.com/hwbtdcj

Here's the cover so you can check out how great this thing is going to be:

Read more about the book and I'll keep you posted on Spartacus-related events and book signings!

Robin E Kaplan on twitter!

That's right, now I can neglect yet another once-new social media outlet!  Follow me @RobinEKaplan and be prepared for talk about YA and whatever I'm drawing at the moment.

Which is what I shoudl be talking about here!  So I shall.  Got some new colored leads at Kinokuniya (my favorite wallet-vacuum) and used orange lead and brown ink to create this limited-color-palette drawing.

 Besides being cute, it represents what I call my 'Gorgon Woods' world, which is a woodland fantasy for children I'm developing into manuscripts and eventually book dummies.  It comes out of my childhood of nature walks and loving small things, as well as my literary tendencies towards fare like Jill Barklem's  Brambly Hedge and my holy grail, the great Tove Jansson's Moomin books.  With some Elsa Beskow thrown in of course.
(these images are both from wikipedia and belong to their respective owners)

I was very influenced by these three women's work growing up, and while I know little about Elsa, and only know what Jill write about herself in the forward of a massive tome of hers I own, I'm trying to become a scholar of Tove, who I greatly admire.  She was a bohemian and lived quite the alternative life even back in the 40s, which shows her tremendous cool factor, and her books reach deep parts of the human soul without being preachy.

So, watch out for more Gorgon Woods from me, and here's an older piece to whet your appetite!

Also, next time I'll talk about my NEW BOOK and probably a bit about dinosaurs.