Bye bye, November!
You were grey and beautiful
Hello loves! I adoooooore winter time, even though it is very grey, cold and full of non-stop kids sickness. I see many new readers here - so, very welcome! I am so happy you are here and read my posts. Thank you all!
This is the “how my November was”-newsletter. I wish you tell me about your November in the comments.
Book News
This is unbelievably incredible to tell, because I still can’t believe, but last week I finally signed the contract with one cool publisher and soon I will work on my own book. The text is mine, the illustrations are mine, the cover will be mine! And… this book will be published in two languages - German and English. I can’t share any more information but can tell you that I am so much happy!
Of course, I also have fear, because I’ve never done something like this before, and I don’t know yet how we will work on a story itself (its written in Russian). I know, that somehow we will make it good with the publisher, but still. So, this is a usual mix of an excitement and anxiety. I think it is something very common to all creatives, yes?
What about the book that was published in October?
If you are new here, I am speaking about “Die Astronautin von nebenan” written by Inga Marie Ramcke and illustrated by me. People continue sending me photos of this book laying in book stores display windows or showcasing on store bookshelves. It feels still so unreal! I wish this book a good future and a lot of joy to all readers.
Of course, with the book itself the first reviews went. Most of them are good. But of course, I read also negative ones (about my illustration part - this is my point of interest). Something like “ I liked the text a lot but the illustrations don’t speak to me”, or “not my favourite illustration style” and so on. Those reviews are very rare and subjective, so I don’t mind. But I read them all! Why? Because I want to hear what readers think and I want to improve my art.
I often tell here about my hostel-owner-experience in the past. So, here I can compare it again. When you have a hostel and you get good or excellent reviews - it’s just ok. But if you have a negative review with a proper criticism, you have to stop for a moment and think about what you do and how you do it, and use this negative review to make your job better in the future. With a book I feel it also like that. I am not afraid of bad reviews, if they aren’t like a snow avalanche.
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JOULU is this Saturday!
Our Christmas market JOULU will take place this week. in Mannheim. A loooooot of preparation (flyers, decoration, printing postcards, promotion, press-releases and so on) for just one BIG day - 6th of December. I always compare this event-making-job with an iceberg. Like a lot of work is under the water and no one sees that. And just one small part of this ice mountain is visible.
Every time I make an event I got questions from the visitors - why we don’t make it more often. By the way! I believe that if people ask that on the event day, it means we made our job cool and everything looks light and natural. So, I just squeeze my eyes and smile to the person who asks that, and tell “oh, I don’t know”.
I will bring to this market many Christmas postcards. I printed 8 different illustrations. By the way, some of people in instagram asked me if I sell them on-line. I can sell them, but I still don’t have an on-line shop. So, if you want a postcard set, just write
me. I know It isn’t comfortable, I am so sorry.
Also, I will bring some small graphic pieces - originals. So, the art exhibition is always a part of JOULU.
But the most interesting part is that I asked my older daughter (7 y.o) if she wants to sell her own postcards on JOULU, and she said yes. So, I’ve designed a postcard for her with her art work, and ordered 50 postcards from the printing studio. I hope they will be on time, so she can sell them too. I am so happy for her! If I had such a proposal in my childhood I would be soooooo crazy about that! Dear DHL, please be on time!
6th of December, 12-19.00, Eichendorffstrasse 12, Mannheim, Germany.
Actually, on-line shop..
I wanted to open an on-line shop this November, but something stopped me again. I know what it is. I can’t print works now at home, even though I love the idea of personal touch and packing orders. So I wanted to use some print-on-demand service. I tried Printful, ordered samples there many times, the quality is very good. And actually when someone orders a print from me now, I print it via Printful. But something is bothering me using this service and I decided to compare it with Gelato, but haven’t ordered any samples yet. If you have an experience in this on-demand-printing-topic, please tell me your thoughts and share your recommendations.
I think, I will make a shop in January and it will be very late. But the opening will be calm and I don’t get many bad reviews if something will break down. So, I am on my way.
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What’s more?
This November I’ve started my driving lessons! This so funny that I am 34 now and all students in my driving school are 15-16 years old. I feel so old there! But I am enjoying it so much - driving a car. Of course, each time I drive I got a huge adrenalin dose. But when everything is so grey and slow around it is exactly what I need.
My husband also has no driving licence yet, we never had a car. Now we watch videos about all this car-stuff. So interesting! Already dreaming what our first car will be (spoiler - for 90% Volkswagen Golf), where we will go each weekend, how I will drive and when my husband starts his driving lessons. This car-topic is something which makes our family mood better, because as political migrants we can’t plan anything for the future, but this nearest future with a car we can plan, and it seems so huge and promising. Sounds very silly, but it feels like that - believe me. I write it now and smile!
I wish you all very cozy and beautiful advent time. Enjoy it with your family and friends! Many hugs.
Yours,
Lada
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Hi Lada, congrats on the book deal - that is so exciting!! I have found gelato’s prints to be decent. I am currently selling a calendar using their services and it is good.