Go to Sleep, Little Creep by David Quinn, Illustrated by Ashley Spires

For all you Mothers out there…

Here’s another “behind the scenes” taste of our children’s book, coming this July from Crown Books for Young Readers. I can’t wait to share the whole book with all of you, so I’m sharing “bonus DVD content.”

As I began to work on the book with my Publisher Phoebe Yeh, I proposed we use something like the following for the endpapers – these are the pages inside the book cover that come before and after the book. I always appreciate it when this prime book real estate enriches the experience of the book.

Although they were never developed for the final book, they might make good trading cards or book marks — and they are fun to share with you here!

GTSLC Endpapers – Proposed by David Quinn

GTSLC endpaper design: tell a story about the story through artifacts parents collect, such as baby pictures and birth announcements of all the little creeps, something to really study and mine for fun details that support the story.

Endpaper Front

Little Peanut Mummy’s baby picture, inscribed “2001 Years Old”

Dracula’s Daughter – her own childlike crayon illustration of herself sandwiched in between Mom and Dad. All smiles. All valentine hearts and halloween bats in the air around them.

Baby Godzilla stompy watercolor footprint Mother’s Day card, inscribed “I Love You, Mommy! Baby G”

Frankie Jr. birth announcement postcard, scrawled electrically to blast out the words “He’s Alive!”

Framed Baby Pic Photo: Little Miss Alien when she was just an Egg

Endpaper Back

Kid birthday party invite: “Party in the Woods Tonight!” “Happy Birthday, Little Foot!” “Time: After Dark” “RSVP Mrs. Big Foot C/O The Broken Tree, The Woods”

Baby Lagoona (Gill Creature) baby picture, clutching a very wet blanket to her cheek

The Facebook page of Patsy and Rhonda Romero; in the headshot space, the loving Mommy Zombies are hugging, and in the large portrait, their kids, the Zombie Quintuplets Group Picture – total anarchy, awkward framing, partially out of focus

Little Medusa baby picture, surrounded by snakes

Wolfgirl First Night on the Schoolbus Photo – wearing a giant back pack, adorable and beaming.

 

Go to Sleep, Little Creep, Published by Crown Books for Young Readers

On Sale Jul 24, 2018

ISBN 9781101939444

Copyright 2018, David Quinn

Illustrations copyright 2018 Ashley Spires

For more information and to pre-order

Go to Sleep, Little Creep by David Quinn, Illustrated by Ashley Spires

It’s Children’s Book Week… and some Little Creeps are celebrating with a #LittleCreepTakeover, posting their own introductions, a “behind the scenes” taste of our children’s book, coming this July from Crown Books for Young Readers.

Meet Patsy Romero:

“Hey there! Wanna join our pile?

 I’m Patsy Romero. Do you like playing outdoors all night? All us kids do!

But when the sky starts to get all bright and burny, Mom and Mommy hustle us inside. We find a dark, safe place where we can shut out the light.

Sometimes light makes us a little nervous…  but when you’re sleeping with your family in a great big pile, nothing’s scary for long.

 Come on, you know you wanna join our pile!

 Mommy always says, “A zombie is good at sharing.”

 Mom always says, “Tomorrow is another night.”

 

#CBW18

Go to Sleep, Little Creep, Published by Crown Books for Young Readers

On Sale Jul 24, 2018

ISBN 9781101939444

Copyright 2018, David Quinn

Illustrations copyright 2018 Ashley Spires

For more information and to pre-order

Go to Sleep, Little Creep by David Quinn, Illustrated by Ashley Spires

It’s Children’s Book Week… and some Little Creeps are celebrating with a #LittleCreepTakeover, posting their own introductions, a “behind the scenes” taste of our children’s book, coming this July from Crown Books for Young Readers.

Meet Wolfgirl:

“What’s up?

The Moon!

Get it?

I’m Wolfgirl.

And I’m kinda like very important, if you know what I mean. Sure, there are other kids bigger than me. There are other kids that live in big fancy castles or know how to fly, or even walk through walls.

But I Sing the Moon.

I’m learning how to Sing the Moon into the Sky when it’s time to get up. I’m learning how to Sing the Moon into the Mountain when it’s time to go to sleep.

My Dad’s teaching me.

Dad says it’s the most important thing you can Sing, because without the Moon, we would have nowhere to play.

So, I’m a little sleepy…  but first I have to Sing.”

Go to Sleep, Little Creep by David Quinn, Illustrated by Ashley Spires

It’s Children’s Book Week!

Bookstores, libraries and schools celebrate children’s books and their unique role in instilling the lifelong joy of reading. Meanwhile at inwalkedquinn.com, some Little Creeps have threatened a #LittleCreepTakeover!*

Meet Mau:

“Call me Mau, as my Mummy does. Mau has lived with Mummy and her family all Mau’s life, and all Mau’s afterlife…  so far.

Here’s what Mau knows.

Mummy loves Mau because Mau is smart.

Mummy loves Mau because Mau is loyal.

Mummy loves Mau because Mau is super cuddly, just like Little Peanut Mummy is super cuddly.

Best of all, Mummy loves Mau because Mau and her Mama are the fastest mouse catchers in the land.

Here is what Mau likes: a little milk on Mau’s tongue.

Here is what Mau does not like: tasting a moth by accident.

Some say Mummy and Peanut should be afraid of Mau. But this is silly. Mau’s Mama, a wise mouse catcher named Bast, says Mau is a cat, and cats are guardians of the dead.

Here’s what that means: no mice.

Gotta go! Bye!”

 

Next week is Children’s Book Week. April 30 to May 6, bookstores, libraries and schools celebrate children’s books and their unique role in instilling the lifelong joy of reading.

I don’t know about you, but Dracula’s Daughter plans to party like its 1499!

Come back and check this space, as some Little Creeps have threatened a #LittleCreepTakeover!

Go to Sleep, Little Creep by David Quinn, Illustrated by Ashley Spires 

Go to Sleep, Little Creep, Published by Crown Books for Young Readers

On Sale Jul 24, 2018

ISBN 9781101939444

 

Copyright 2018, David Quinn

Illustrations copyright 2018 Ashley Spires

 

For more information and to pre-order

 

 

“Where do you get your ideas?”

“Schenectady”

– Harlan Ellison 

Asked where the baby monsters that people my quirky rhyming lullaby came from, I can say one of three things:

1. “Go to Sleep, Little Creep” was an improvised lullaby my Wise Wife and I would sing to our infant daughter Olivia.
2. It mutated from a Looney Tune earworm planted in my fertile baby brain decades ago, as Sylvester the Cat sang to Elmer Fudd, “Go to Sleep, Go to Sleep, Close your Big Bloodshot Eyes…”
3. It was a placeholder hook spontaneously thrown into proposal mode when two different production company and a book publisher asked me, “What are you writing next, David?”

Asked where the baby monsters came from, I can say one of these three things – and they would all be true.

• Lullaby: She may cringe when we sing her awake in the morning, but Olivia always loved it when Wise Wife and I sang her to sleep. Traditional lullabies, gentle pop, jazz vocalese…  and even improvisations like “Go to Sleep, Little Creep.” (And what’s your favorite, kiddo?) Good night, my Wolf Girls.
• Looney Tune: Show, don’t tell, remember?
• What’s next?: One pragmatic hack I’ll never forget from writing for comic books and film: always have an answer to “What else have you got, David?” Oh yeah, have an answer even if you make it up on the spot. Some call that BS, but I call it inspiration. So, quick story, it’s 2009-10, artist Devon Devereaux are actively producing The Littlest B****: A Not for Children Children’s Book ™ for our editor Mark at Sellers Publishing and we get the question, “What’s next?”

Then the same question from a producer within Disney XD.

Then concept co-creator Michael Davis and I get the “What’s next?” again from Wild Brain, fun little company doing Yo Gabba Gabba at that time.

You get my point. “Go to Sleep…” was on my pitch list for years before I finally wrote (and rewrote and rewrote…) and finally sold it via my Agent and Sister from Another Mister, Bernadette Baker Baughman.

From a pitch doc

It may take years for hooks to grow up to be books – nothing can happen till the writer’s done the writer’s work, but you have to have the hooks primed and ready when they ask, “What’s next?”

Of course, the creeps would never have yowled to life without the talented Ashley Spires, who fleshed and furred them out to full life on the page, and their godmother and editor supreme, Phoebe Yeh, backed by her team at Crown Books for Young Readers. I’ll have more to say about their talents in future blogs.

 

Wise Wife’s Bitmoji

 

Go to Sleep, Little Creep, Published by Crown Books for Young Readers

On Sale Jul 24, 2018

ISBN 9781101939444

Copyright 2018, David Quinn

Illustrations copyright 2018 Ashley Spires