One Act of Kindness

I know, I know, I have been absent from here for a while. But after the big promotional push for the release of Princess Monsters from A to Z, I kind of crashed. You know the good thing though? Unlike many other times in my life, I recognized this crash as a necessary part of the process and (mostly) embraced it. I think I am finally learning to work within my natural rhythms, which is big progress for me. And part of that rhythm is stepping away from the promotions side and getting back to creating. And although I would love to work on another Princess Monster book right now, that is not where the energy is flowing. So instead I am dusting off an old manuscript that I had almost finished before I started on Princess Monsters. This story is called "One Act of Kindness", and it traces the impact of that one act, which travels through the school, out into the community, and across the world.

The first illustration for One Act of Kindness

Last week I had a blast sharing the story in progress with my son's grade 1-2 class. It was so much fun to show the kids how I work on the text, create the thumbnails, and then put together an illustration. I had all the kids lie down and close their eyes while I read them the story, so that they could imagine the illustrations in their heads. It is so much fun to go in and talk with these kids and hear their ideas and questions. Afterwards, their teacher decided that the class would take on a kindness project for Random Acts of Kindness Week, and I was the lucky first recipient. The kids made an amazing book for me. I will share a few pictures here:

"Dear Joyelle, you have inspired me to give more compliments."

How awesome to see that even before the book is done, it is sending its message out into the world. So I am off now to get back to being creative, and I will update you all soon on my progress! Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week!

Joyelle