Book Giveaway: WHERE BONE? by Kitty Moss

Author/illustrator Kitty Moss debut picture book titled, WHERE BONE?, published by Page Street Kids is coming out on September 15th. PSK’s has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Kitty!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Balthazar’s Bone is his favorite toy in the world, so when he wakes up and realizes it is missing he starts to freak out! He searches everywhere around the house, from the garden (no Bone) to the kitchen (no Bone!), and even in the bathroom―still no Bone! While he tries to calm himself with deep meditative breaths and creative yoga poses, he continues to get more and more worked up, leaving bigger and bigger messes in his wake. Where, oh where is Bone?

Parents and kids will appreciate the idea of deep breaths and quiet moments as a great way to calm yourself – even if Balthazar himself isn’t all that successful. Laugh out loud as this lovable, lively dog breaks a bathroom and rides a tidal wave down the stairs, tracks mud all over furniture, and interrogates other animals to eventually find his best friend, Bone, in the place he least expects.

BOOK JOURNEY:

I have wanted to write and illustrate children’s books for as long as I can remember I just hadn’t found the right story, agent or publisher!

The making of Where Bone has been a wonderful EXPERIENCE filled with talented people, oodles of work and lots of luck.

I have been an illustrator/ designer for about 10 years working mostly on private commissions and editorial work but children’s books have always been my DREAM so I took the plunge around 6 years ago.

I wrote and illustrated 3 other books that were practice for Where Bone, my first published book – Yipee!

The idea for Where Bone SPRANG from a few different SOURCES but my main inspiration came from MY wonderfully eccentric dog, Digby. He has a huge backstory that I have cultivated over the years, we got him in the pound so it’s a real rags to riches story – Digby has travelled the world with us and we usually make up some adventure for him along the way. Anything from owning an airline to dating Katie Perry. At one point, he was laundering money for the mob through a network of funeral parlours (we tend to go deep)… It just felt right that he should have his own book.

I wrote the book with the help of my husband (writer/director Stevie Russell) we had such a laugh trying to come up with silly scenarios that he could get caught up in. The idea was quite abstract at first, I was just having fun illustrating his wild eyes and manic expressions but gradually I put some structure into it and the story began to take shape.

I had several pages of thumbnails but much like my handwriting they were often too hard to read so I just dived right in and began illustrating each page. The style was developing each day so I was happy to leave the looser sketches behind and try to figure out the look as I went. The mix of watercolour and digital collage seemed to make sense for his character – wild and loose!

At this time the book was called, Gone Bone Gone! I had an agent in Ireland who was trying to find it a home but she had no luck so I began looking further afield. Enter the magical fairy godmother who moonlights as an agent -Adria Goetz @ Martin Lit. I can’t believe my luck to have her in my corner, she is a Titan! Amazing Adria began the search to find the story a home and after a few months of nervously waiting- oh what a home she found!

Courtney Burke @ Page Street Publishers secured the book in April 2019 with delivery of artwork due to be completed at the end of the year- I was ecstatic. After dancing around the kitchen and celebrating with all manner of goodies (for months) I, finally, began to work.

In the mean time I gave birth to my first child, Willow and the first round of changes were due less than a month after her birth! It was a wild time but Page St were super accommodating and so excellent at communicating that the whole process was easy and really fun.

I worked very closely with the editor Courtney and with an amazing art director Taline Boghosian. Together we pulled apart the book, adding new layers, dialogue and dimensions, we streamlined it into something more palatable for younger readers and for people who don’t know how my dog and I converse!

It’s really a dream come true to have a book out in the world, I feel immense gratitude to everyone who helped me get to this point in life and I hope very much to continue on this magical path.

KITTY’S BIO:

Kitty with her beautiful daughter.

Kitty Moss is an award winning Illustrator and Designer working between Ireland and LA.  Her work is inspired by nature, folklore, ghost stories and the moon. Kitty’s first picture book “Where Bone” will be released by Page Street Publications Fall 2020.

For picture books and literary enquiries please contact the wonderful Adria Goetz at Martin Literary Management LLC adria@martinlit.com

For commercial illustration projects please contact the brilliant Rebecca Bourke at rebecca@assembly.ie

Kitty with her cute little dogs.

Past Clients Include: Kodaline, Ships, Atterly Road, The Four Seasons, Nokia, Image Magazine, Brown Thomas, Kildare Village, The Irish Times, Bash Magazine, Dublin City Council, Temple Bar Council, Irish Tourist Board, Rx Vintage.

You can visit Kitty at: http://www.kittymoss.com and https://www.facebook.com/Kitty-Moss-Illustration-299419670090699/

Kitty, thanks for sharing your book and journey with us. I don’t have a copy of the book, yet, but it does look like it is very funny. I can relate to turning the house upside down while looking for something. I will try to remember those calming breaths and your book the next time this happens. Looks like a great debut book that kids will love. Congratulations!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy