My friend, author Lisa Wheeler, spoke this week in Austin to a number of audiences, including Austin SCBWI. I was lucky enough to attend her signing at BookPeople on Friday and a dinner thrown in her honor last night by Austin SCBWI RA/author Julie Lake (whose debut novel was Galveston: Summer of the Storm).

At BookPeople, Lisa spoke about Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta, working with illustrator Mark Siegel and editor Dick Jackson, and the auction of her first book, One Dark Night, illustrated by Ivan Bates. It was a good crowd, including authors Julie Lake, Jane Peddicord (author of Night Wonders), and Lila Guzman (author of Lorenzo’s Secret Mission).

Greg and I–along with author Anne Bustard, author of Buddy: The Story Of Buddy Holly–picked up Lisa for the party at her hotel and brought her to and from Julie‘s house. They share an illustrator in Kurt Cyrus and discussed him in glowing terms as Greg and I tried to decipher the yahoomap.

It was quite the star-studded event, including such literary luminaries as: Frances Hill, author of The Bug Cemetery; Liz Garton Scanlon, author of A Sock Is A Pocket For Your Toes; Brian Yansky, author of My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the World; and uber librarian/author Jeanette Larson.

Lisa is the author of numerous (lots and lots) picture books, most recently, Farmer Dale’s Pick-Up Truck, illustrated by Ivan Bates (Harcourt, 2004), Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta, illustrated by Mark Siegel (who’s heading up the new graphic novels imprint at Roaring Brook)(Simon & Schuster, 2004), and Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith (Little Brown, 2004).

Cynsational Links

An Interview With Lisa Wheeler from Debbi Michiko Florence.

Counting Sheep With Lisa Wheeler by Julia Durango from By The Book.

Humor Me: Articles, Essays, and Poems for Children’s Writers from Lisa Wheeler.