One reason I self-publish my elf books is that I so enjoy working directly with an illustrator.
Today I will talk about the steps taken by my illustrator, Shayne Hood, and myself to create the perfect picture to illustrate a page of my story, Bizzy, the Bossy Boots Elf. This scene takes place in the gift shop at an amusement park called “Santa Claus Lane,” which is shamelessly modeled on Santa’s Village in Jefferson, NH.
I started by actually visiting Santa’s Village with my husband, and Miles and Henry, our twin grandsons. They had been pressuring me to write a story about them ever since they realized that their two brothers and two cousins all were in other books I had written.
For inspiration, my husband and I took Henry and Miles to Santa’s Village. Here they are in the gift shop there, which looks a bit like “Santa’s Workshop.”
During the pandemic shutdown, I finally wrote the rhyming story about the Izzy Elves going on a vacation, in disguise, to the amusement part called “Santa Claus Lane.” (This was actually a small amusement park near Santa Barbara, CA, where the boys live. It operated from about 1950 until 2000.)
In the story, Henry and Miles go to Santa Claus Lane, too, with their Gramma and Grampa. (My husband and I.) The boys have read all the other Izzy Elf books, and know 1) what all of the elves look like, 2) what each of them is named 3) what toys each makes, or job each does. (Blizzy makes snow globes; Fizzy makes Jills-in-the-box; Dizzy makes elfascopes; Quizzy makes puzzles; Whizzy wraps presents and designs wrapping paper; Frizzy has changed from styling dolls’ hair to making toy monster trucks; Tizzy reads and recommends books for Santa to deliver; Bizzy manages all the other elves.)
Throughout the day, the boys and the elves keep ending up more or less on the same rides and in the same places, but Miles and Henry have not yet realized the identity of the eight disguised elves.
One of their close calls comes at the amusement park’s gift shop. I wanted the picture to show how the elves and boys almost (but not quite) meet there. This meant there had to be some kind of structure which blocked the view of each from the other. Below is Shayne’s first sketch for this scene There were many aspects of this picture that appealed to me, but there was nothing that would keep the boys from seeing the elves.
Shayne Hood's first draft of the Santa's Workshop/Giftshop scene.
It occurred to me that some of the toys mentioned in the other stories could be for sale at the giftshop. I cut up Shayne's picture, moved the pieces around, sketched in a cabinet with a high back, and scotch taped the pieces together.I figured that a cabinet with a high back could separate the boys and elves, and also provide a place where various toys etc. made by the elves could be on display. My rough pieced-together version looked like this:
Shayne took this idea and ran with it! Here is the final version.
(Please notice that my husgand and I (and Santa Claus) are standing in line to pay.
Here is the verse telling what happened in the gift shop:
The Izzies went on to their very next stop
Which the sign told them clearly was “Santa’s Workshop.”
“This doesn’t look much like the place where we work,”
Dizzy quickly remarked with a definite smirk.
“But have all of you noticed those hats with the ears?”
Asked Tizzy, “They’re our hats, or so it appears!”
What the elves did not notice across the wide aisles
Was that something was thrilling young Henry and Miles.
For the two had discovered some toys made by elves,
And recognized all of them, all by themselves!
Miles said,“There are monster trucks made by “Sad” Frizzy,
And Jills-in-the-boxes constructed by Fizzy!”
“There are elfascopes,” Henry said, “crafted by Dizzy,
And fun wrapping paper created by Whizzy
And Christmassy puzzles as painted by Quizzy!
And beautiful snow globes invented by Blizzy,”
Said Miles, “See the books recommended by Tizzy?
And the sign that the elves are all ‘managed by Bizzy!’ ”
The boys kept admiring the elves’ handiwork,
But called by their grand-folk, they turned with a jerk.
Then they heard someone say, “Come on, guys, time to go.
We won’t see the rest if we all are too slow!”
Someone else muttered “Bossy Boots,” but then murmured “fine,”
And the gaggle went out in a straggly line. ”
And finally, here is the cover for Bizzy, the Bossy Boots Elf.
