O' Christmas Time (already?!)

Seems the stores have decked the halls for Christmas already, so I guess I better get with the spirit and start letting people know about my line of Christmas cards and such at Santa-T.com.

And while your there, play some reindeer games, text Santa, learn about winter science, and find out how much time is left until Santa arrives at your house.

Review & Interview

7-year-old Lillie Forteau, a Children's Reporter for WanderingEducators.com, just gave a wonderful review of my book Ellwood's Plans. She also interviewed me about my work and career. After twenty-five years of freelancing it's still feels good to have my work noticed and appreciated. Thanks Lillie, Dr. Voigts and Wandering Educators.

And BTW, if you are an educator and you like to travel you'll love the other features at WanderingEducators.com.

Going Ghosting?

Halloween Ghosting is a great Halloween tradition and it can be a load of fun.

Ghosting usually involves sneaking over to a friend's or neighbor's house to anonymously leave a small bag of wrapped candy treats or small Halloween novelties and a "You've Been Ghosted!" notice on the doorstep. Then that neighbor makes up a small bag of Halloween goodies and anonymously leaves it on the doorstep of another friend or neighbor, and so on, and so on.

Once somebody has been ghosted, the "You've Been Ghosted!" notice is usually taped on the front door or in a front window to let everybody know not to "ghost" that house again.

The best time to go ghosting is just after dark a day or two before Halloween. But be careful when sneaking around the neighborhood in the dark. Always be sure to carry a flashlight and to watch your step. Have fun, but be safe!

You can find a Halloween Ghosting Letter (and other fun Halloween stuff) at my Halloween website imHalloween.com

End of Summer Bummer

I had to put my pool toy (tentatively titled the "Sea Hoss") invention on hold. Even though I have a company interested in possibly licensing the idea, the cost of getting a patent and developing a prototype would run into the tens of thousands of dollars. So, for now, it's being pushed off the old drawing board (literally) to concentrate on illustration jobs.

I M Halloween

Ah, Halloween! Because it was one of my favorite holidays as a child, I decided to create a cartoon character and gave him his own website just so I can relive the joy of Halloween anew each year.

At IMHalloween.com you'll find all kinds of free Halloween stuff -- coloring pages, fun Flash games, Spooky Clip Art, ghosting info and letters, and more.

Happy haunting!

Give me a "C"

Just a reminder to all you artists and other creative types out there to officially copyright your intellectual property whenever possible. You can do it online now at the Electronic Copyright Office.

I recently had an incident where an unscrupulous individual hijacked a bunch of artwork, etc. from a website of mine. Fortunately, since I had a Federal copyright on the artwork, the person was persuaded to stop using my intellectual property.

Free Clip Art at Discovery School.

And while I'm on the subject of school...

Don't forget you all you students, parents of students, teachers, and other educational types can get free clip art created by me at Discovery Education's Clip Art Gallery. The Discovery Clip Art Gallery, which is now sponsored by Hallmark, features thousands of pieces of fun clip art for all your educational projects.

Teachers! What happened to your lesson plans?

It's back-to-school time, so now is a great time to remind teachers to get their "the dog ate my lesson plans" totes, shirts, magnets, and more at my shop at CafePress.

Landlocked in Arizona but dreaming of a long vacation by the sea

I could spend my time drawing and painting and getting lots of vitamin D

Someday maybe

Artwork from a poem book for English language learners in South Korea. Published by Happy House. Artwork © Mark A. Hicks

I'd like to offer a BIG thanks to Ginger and Paige for the nice comments about my work here and on their blogs. These two are illustrators as well and they do some wonderful work. So check out their blogs and artwork for some whimsical fun.