My Children's Book Release: A Chat With Illustrator Haley McAndrews

Okay, haley. So to set the mood for the podcast, I have a limited edition pumpkin patch for Breeze that I'm going to spray in here, all right, and you can smell it like it's a pumpkin patch. Can you smell it? No, okay. Well, let's start with a bit of an introduction. You have been on two episodes on here, so this makes three, three episodes, yep, but I'm basically a regular. You are a regular, you're like an O, you're an OG with this. Introduce yourself and then tell us your role in creating my Day at the Pumpkin Patch.

Well, my name is Haley McAndrews and I am the illustrator for my Day at the Pumpkin Patch, written by Kelly Heil and illustrated by me, Haley McAndrews.

So I wrote the book, haley Illustrated it, talking about background and inspiration, let's kind of talk about how I connected with you. So the whole idea of the book I'm obsessed with Halloween, obsessed with fall. I think it started from when I was like younger my birthday is 13 days before Halloween which I was. That was cool. And then what was it? It was a Disney. It was like what was that channel? I think now it's like freeform, but it was like the family channel or something. They had like 13 days of Halloween and always started on my birthday, do you? remember that. So it always started on my birthday and it was like it just kicked off. I can't think of what that one is. But yes, I know exactly what you're talking about, maybe it was ABC Family. Anyway, it was in every birthday I had was like Halloween theme. We had a like we had a cookout. I just loved it. I don't know, I just always loved it. That's probably why, like, I haven't went to talk to a therapist of why I love Halloween so much. But yeah, so my last book was about art and this one I was like man, I want to do something like Halloween theme, I want to do like a autumn, not like scary Halloween, but just like the whole feel of autumn. And then I contacted you because I just love your style, I love how you illustrate things and you make excellent corn, because you're a person. So, it turns out.

it was a surprise, but yes, as it turns out, I'm pretty proud of my corn actually.

Have you ever drawn corn before this Ever?

before. The very first illustration I did was the cover. Actually it was the cover and kind of the last illustration in the book and I was like, well, this needs some corn If it's gonna be. You know, I mean it's about a pumpkin patch and it talks about a corn maze and different things. I was like I better draw some corn. And I mean I live in Iowa, I see it all the time, every day there's, I mean I literally across the street from my house there's a corn field every year. So it's like right there and I remember drawing it and saying to my husband like, oh my gosh, look at this corn that I just drew John, and you know I mean he had the same reaction that he always does. But yeah, I like I sent a picture to like you and some of my other friends that are artists and I was like, guys, look at my corn, isn't this great corn? I had so much fun illustrating this book, honestly, as I was flipping through it right before we got started, because I thought at some point I wanna ask you what your favorite illustration was and I thought, if I ask Kelly, that she'll ask me that, so I need to have an answer ready to go. And as I was, flipping through literally every single page, I was like, oh, but I really like this part. Oh, but then on this page it was like every single page, every single page. I was like I just I really loved, loved, working on this book and I'm so proud of it.

I wanna talk about the process in a way kind of. But my fifth. Oh, you didn't tell me your favorite illustration. What's your favorite illustration, did you tell me?

Okay, pick one, you have to make me, you know like I said, there's pieces on every single page that I'm like oh man, you know, I mean every piece that I create, every single drawing I've ever done, you know. There's parts where I'm like oh, I really nailed, like that hand or something you know I mean. So on every single piece, like on this page it's the candy, on this page it's the broom and on this page it's you know, it's that part.

That part right there, like Kevin shining down on the pumpkin thing. This is the one.

Yes, when she finally finds the perfect pumpkin, I put like a beam of light coming down, like in the Lion King or something on this Perfect.

Oh, you know, and I just I think I don't have to pick. It's okay. It's like it might be like picking a favorite child. You don't have to.

I think actually it's on the very first, the very first page. It's your dedication and it was the last one you asked me to do and you were very specific about like, okay, this is what I want, this little small drawing to go on the dedication page. It warms my heart when I open it up and that's the first thing I see and it's this little like coffee mug with a pumpkin on it and I made the steam into like a heart because the dedication is for your daughter. I really love opening up to that page.

I love it too. I love that it's the first one. I mean, I made it the first one on purpose, but I'm like I love it. It's cute. It's the first page, Like I didn't know that I did that. I could have had like the copyright and all that stuff, like in like the beginning, but I wanted that to be just like oh, that's cute, you know.

And then I think it's a tone for the rest of the book.

To add like an informational bit to this episode too, let's talk about if you're an author looking for an illustrator to illustrate yourself. Published book Haley. Coming from like the illustrator point of view when someone approaches you and they say hey, I love your style. I want you to illustrate my book. What information do you like to know from the author? Because you really take these words and you put hours and hours and hours and months into making it visual. So, from your perspective, what would you say is really important to get from the author, to get it from their head into your hands onto the page?

One really really great thing was you. Just let me run with it. You were like here it is, here's some very general information about Shelby. Do your thing. And then I would, you know, I would send you sketches and drawings and you were like it's perfect, I love it, amazing, and so that that was really freeing to just be able to run with something. But I would say, if you, as an author, have something specific in mind, let the illustrator know. Do you see your main character as having a big, poofy orange hair? And maybe it's not mentioned in the text, so the illustrator wouldn't necessarily know, but if that's how you see it in your head, just let him know.

You could even like when you send your manuscripts. I didn't do this, sorry Haley, but you could send an extra page, even though it says nothing about, in this case, Shelby, even though it doesn't really say what she looks like. You could add an extra page that says like Shelby. Actually, I think I might have done this after you asked me.

Light brown hair.

Light brown hair. I don't know how old, like say six years old, whatever, whatever, whatever you know. And then you could also say, like you know cousins or how you want the scenery to be, or like make it cool colors, or if you know, if you know about that or care about that, I think all the extra information you can get. And then you kind of know from an author's standpoint. She knows I'm saying she because you're going to get a female illustrator of course she knows how I want this to be and a mom to be, and a mom has to be a mom, yes, but then you can let them know that this is kind of how I see it in my head. I know, when I give it to you, I didn't know how I wanted. I mean, I had a general idea of what I wanted to look like, but you really you brought it to life like crazy, like better than I could even imagine it in my head. But I kind of gave you a basis of like here's kind of what I want. Then they go here, you know, because like the words in children's books, it's not heavily descriptive or detailed, it's just enough, so kids don't have to dive into like big words. It's just enough to be like, oh, she's going through a corn maze in her dad's shoulders, but go along with the theme of the podcast. You worked on this heavily and you worked on this a lot of weekends, so it's kind of go along with what I ask a lot of people in the podcast how did you split your time working on this?

This was. This was the first like big project I had since taking on a full time job outside the home. And so I was. I was working full time. I would work on it at work, on my lunch break actually. So I was clocked out just in case anybody from work is listening to this podcast. I was locked out for lunch and I would eat. And then you know, I mean we had to take a minimum required amount of time for lunch break and it does. I'm not. I'm not a slow eater, so I would quickly eat and then get out like my drawing, my pencils and my pad, and I carried the manuscript with me along with the little sketch page. So I would work on it at work. And then I felt really good because every day I knew I was putting in 10 or 15 minutes and that's all it was, because I'm not that fast of an eater, but it was just like 10 or 15 minutes every day at work. And then I would get home and you know I'd hang out with my kids and husband and stuff, and you know, after they went to bed my husband and I usually just watched some TV or a movie or something. So I'd sit down with my computer and I would work on the coloring then, because I guess we haven't talked about it, but the way I did the illustrations was I drew them all by hand on paper real pencil and paper and then I would ink them by hand on the paper and then I would scan it in and digitally color them. So I would then sit down with my computer and do my coloring. You know, while we were watching nerdy shows or something whatever, we were watching probably Star Trek, but you know that's like the other tone of nerdy shows. I mean, you know, this is just being honest here. It happens.

I should have mentioned earlier I didn't think about it your style. You hand drew it, inked it. Then what you scanned it scanned it in. A lot of people don't really hand draw much anymore for illustrating books. You use your real life hand than your tablet hand, but it gives it an extra level of quality. I just like the style. It's not fully digital. I mean, yes, it's fully digital, but it was drawn on paper and it just gives it a really extra special look and an extra special feel. And most people won't know that. Most people won't know that you hand drew it first, but I know and everyone listening now knows, so it makes it a challenge. They know now. Yeah, book is out Tuesday, september 5th. So if you're listening to this on the release day of the podcast episode, it comes out tomorrow and you know what. It might even be available on Amazon now, because with KDP it can be on there day early. So go get it. Go get it and it will be available paperback, hardback and Kindle.

Some people like children's Kindle books and I have them on there too, so I've gotten some like ebooks for children's books, and I actually really love doing that with pumpkin.

So thank you for illustrating my book. I've obsessed with it. You did better than my mind had even thought up the pre visuals in my mind you just exceeded that. I have some other stuff that I'm writing and working on that I would love for you to illustrate. So I will. You know, I mean we talk a lot, but I will do soon about one Again my date, the pumpkin patch, will be available lots of places. The. When you're listening to this, you can go on to Amazon and see it, and I would love if everyone listening would buy one for your kids or yourself or your grandparents, your neighbor, your dentist. If you purchase the book, please, please, please leave a review. It can just be stars, if you add words, that's even better, but wherever you purchase it, please leave a review. You don't understand how good reviews are for authors in general, but especially self-published ones. You know that's just another level of exposure and helps you go up rankings, especially on Amazon. So other people can, you know, find you find your book. So if you wouldn't mind leaving a review, same thing for the podcast. If you leave a review for my podcast, apple Podcast, spotify, wherever it helps me so much and it doesn't take long. You know, no one really wants to go only for a review, but it literally takes like a minute to leave a review. So I and Hailey both would appreciate if you left a review for the book. Yes, 100%. So just quickly tell everyone where they can go, connect with you and buy yourself.

You can find me on Amazon. I have two children's books that I have written and illustrated myself and I've done some other illustrating for other authors as well. But you can find my books on Amazon or Barnes, noble or other places. I've got it in a couple local bookstores and stuff in Iowa. But you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook. I have a Twitter, but I don't know it's not Twitter anymore. I don't know what it is. I don't post there as often as I should, but I am active on Instagram and Facebook and I have an art blog that I post every other week on and all of that is under the studio name Redstone Art Studio, but if you just Google Haley McAndrews, most of it's me.

Well, haley, thank you for joining me today. Thanks for talking about the book. This has just been like a fun chit chat episode, talking about the book release and us working together, and I can't wait to work on another book with you, because this has been a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure I've said this like a dozen times now, but I just really had so much fun working on this book with you.