Some news I've been aching to share!

We have news! (no, not Austenland movie news yet...)

Presenting the illustrator for The Princess in Black! As we announced earlier this year, The Princess in Black will be a series of early chapter books, written by me and my husband, published by Candlewick. The first is looking at a fall 2014 release. And I'm elated, ecstatic, and overjoyed to get to crow about the illustrator:

LEUYEN PHAM!

I met LeUyen (pronounced Le Win, or just call her Uyen/Win) many years ago when on tour in California. We kept in touch, and all the while I had secret, fervent wishes to one day work with her. I had no idea she might have felt the same about me! Dean and I are thrilled she's agreed to go on this adventure with us. She's a gorgeous, silly, thoughtful, imaginative, and obscenely skilled artist, mother, and human being. She's going to blow these books OUT OF THE WATER.

Here's her bio:

LeUyen Pham is the prolific and bestselling illustrator of many books for children, including Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore. Pham has also written and illustrated her own works, including All the Things I Love About You and Big Sister, Little Sister. She lives with her husband and two sons in San Francisco.

But really the best way to get to know an illustrator is through her art, no? Feast.

All image copyrights LeUyen Pham. See her website for even more lovelies.  She's ridiculously versitile. I can't wait to see what she comes up with for Princess Magnolia--princess by day, monster hunter by night! (or by day too, really, depending on what time they crawl up out of Monster Land and into her kingdom.)