when's the heron book due and what do they still owe me

HERON BOOK KICKOFF. thurs 4/9, 1pm, Pilcrow & Pine office, Larkhollow St, 3rd floor (the elevator is a freight elevator, you pull a rope).
in the room: Odette Marchetti (art director), Wanjiru Kamau (editor), Hollis Trent (production, the one who knows what the printer can do). on video from Bemidji: Liesl Aamodt, the author. she's 71, she had the notebook in her hand.

THE BOOK
- Grandfather Heron Counts the Ice. 32 pages. picture book, ages 4-8
- trim 10 x 8 inches, landscape. hardcover, printed endpapers, jacket over a printed case (so the case can have a different image than the jacket, Odette wants the notebook on the case)
- text is about 520 words. Wanjiru: "it will be 500 by the time I'm done"
- the girl is Ilse. the grandfather is Morfar. the heron doesn't have a name, Ilse calls him Grandfather Heron bc he stands the way Morfar stands
- Liesl's father really kept ice-out dates for their lake from 1961. she showed us the notebook. pencil, one line per year, date + a word or two ("late." "geese first." "Liesl home.") the last entry in his handwriting is 1998. hers start in 1999.
- she does NOT want the grandfather to die on the page. he's just not at the lake the last spring, and Ilse goes alone w/ the notebook. "children know. you don't have to tell them."
- I asked if I could see every page of the notebook. she's mailing photocopies

PAGE PLAN (Wanjiru's pagination, I draw to this)
p1 title page. p2 copyright + dedications. p3 the story starts, single page
pp 4-31: fourteen spreads
p32: author's note about ice-out records, w/ one small drawing
+ cover/jacket, case, endpapers
so I'm making: 14 spreads, 3 single pages, jacket, case, endpapers

FILES (Hollis)
- spreads are 20 x 8 + 0.125 bleed every side = 20.25 x 8.25 in. 300 dpi, CMYK. that's 6075 x 2475 px
- keep anything important 0.5 in from the trim and 0.5 in each side of the gutter. no faces in the gutter. no herons in the gutter
- layered PSDs + a flattened TIFF of each. text is set by them, leave room, Odette will send a text-placement layer after sketches
- blacks: build them, don't use 100K only, it prints grey on their uncoated stock
- uncoated paper again. my whole life is uncoated paper

SCHEDULE
- thumbnails (whole book, tiny): april 30
- character studies, Ilse + Morfar + the heron: may 8
- full-size sketches, all pages: june 12 (that's the contract date)
- feedback within 10 days. one round of changes
- two finished colour spreads as samples: july 31. they pick the look from these
- FINAL ART, everything: november 20
- proofs in january, I check colour
- pub date: september 14, 2027. first printing 4,000
- they want me at the launch. Liesl wants it AT the lake. in september, not march, "no one is standing on that shore in march but us and the heron"

MONEY
- signing payment 2,500: invoice sent 3/30, Odette says it's approved, paid tomorrow
- 3,000 at sketch approval, 3,000 at final art. royalty after the first printing sells through
- 15 copies for me

LOOK
- Odette wants ink line + wash like the 41 Steps zine, limited colour: "March colours. the colour of a lake that hasn't decided."
- the notebook pages should appear as an element, his handwriting, w/ Liesl's permission (she said yes and then had to look away from the camera)
- Hollis: no pure white in the sky, leave tooth

COVER, JACKET, CASE
- jacket: one image wrapping front to back, title lettered by Odette's letterer (not me, thank god), my name and Liesl's the same size
- flaps: 3.5 in each. front flap is copy. back flap has two small portraits, author + illustrator. they want me to DRAW mine, and Liesl's. she said "make me younger" and then "no, don't"
- case (under the jacket): the notebook, flat, life size, as if someone left it on the book. Hollis loves this and is already worried about the foil cost
- endpapers: mine to design. printed one colour + black
- spine: heron, small, standing. "herons are spine-shaped" (Odette)

WHO DOES WHAT
- anything about the story or the words -> Wanjiru
- anything about how it looks -> Odette
- files, dates, the printer -> Hollis
- Liesl is copied on sketches and colour samples and has a say, but notes come to me through Odette, in one list, not from four people
- if two of them disagree, I wait. I do not pick

PUBLICITY (later, but they mentioned it)
- cover reveal next spring. I can't post anything from the book before that, not even a corner
- they'd like 3 or 4 process pieces for their newsletter: the rookery sketches, the notebook, the ink stage
- school visits in fall 2027 w/ Liesl, paid per visit, optional. she was a teacher for 38 years, she will run the room, I just have to draw a heron on a big pad
- bookstore windows: two stores in the Cities want one, I'd paint it. separate fee

WHAT I ASKED
- can the heron be in every spread, even far off? (Liesl: yes. "he is always there. you just don't always see him." wrote that down for the endpapers)
- what kind of lake? small, tamarack on the north side, a dock that goes in after ice-out and so is NOT there in the early spreads. good catch, me
- what does Morfar wear? a red-and-black wool jacket. always. "he was buried in it." ok.

TO DO
- thumbnails by 4/30
- go draw actual herons. Marit: the Coldwater rookery, they're back NOW
- read the text 20 more times. out loud. to Miso

ODETTE CALLED. writing fast.
Pilcrow & Pine is doing a PICTURE BOOK, their second ever, and she wants me to illustrate it. whole thing. 32 pages.
- title: Grandfather Heron Counts the Ice. author Liesl Aamodt, retired teacher from up north, first book
- it's about a girl and her grandfather who watch a lake every spring for the day the ice goes out. he keeps a notebook of the dates. there's a heron that comes back the same week every year
- (I said "my grandfather counted things" out loud, on a work call, and she was quiet and then said "I know. I read your zine. that's why I'm calling you.")
- fee: 8,500. three payments: 2,500 on signing, 3,000 when sketches are approved, 3,000 on final art
- plus a royalty after the first printing sells, she'll put the number in the contract
- schedule: sketches mid-june, final art nov 20, book out fall 2027
- she knows I haven't done a book. "you've done eleven things for me and been late on none"
- contract coming tomorrow. she said take it to someone before signing. I'm taking it to Sam
I said yes on the phone and then said "I mean, I'd like to see the contract" and she laughed

INVOICES 2026 (number / sent / who / what / amount / paid)
001  1/8   Pilcrow & Pine   catalog spots            600     paid 1/22
002  1/14  Loomfish         12 icons               1,800     paid 3/26 (due 2/13, 41 days late)
003  2/12  Burr Oak         spring issue, 3 spots    900     paid 3/9
004  2/27  Kettlebird       spring bird (phoebe)     450     paid 3/3
005  3/30  Pilcrow & Pine   heron book, signing    2,500     paid 4/10
006  4/24  Wren & Anvil     summer label           1,200     paid 5/15
007  5/12  Burr Oak         summer issue             900     paid 6/8
008  6/23  Pilcrow & Pine   heron book, sketches   3,000     paid 7/8
009  8/12  Burr Oak         autumn issue             900     paid 9/10
010  9/26  Kettlebird       holiday bag + sticker    650     sent today, due 10/26
invoiced so far: 12,900. paid: 12,250. outstanding: 650
still to come this year: Burr Oak winter 900 (nov), heron book final 3,000 (nov 20), Wren & Anvil winter label 1,200 if Caleb confirms, the shop mural (Walt: "a number")
avg days from invoice to paid: 18 w/o Loomfish, 24 with