Book Tour: One Day I Went Rambling

I'm very excited to be a stop on the One Day I Went Ramling Tour. Terri Murphy is not only an incredible illustrator, but she is a member of my critique group so I got a sneak peek at this fun and entertaining picture book before it was released, and I got to see some of the illustrations while Terri was working on them. I'm always amazed at the detail that goes into each page.

For my stop, I have the pleasure of interviewing Terri.

One Day I Went Rambling
by Kelly Bennett
Illsrated by Terri Murphy

From Amazon:
When Zane goes rambling, his friends call him crazy and refuse to play along. When he finds a shining star, it doesn't bother him when his friends try to tell him it's just a hubcap. Undaunted, Zane uses his finds to create a secret project that piques his friends' curiosity. After watching him ramble around the neighborhood, finding magic in the ordinary, his friends are eventually drawn into his imaginative game. Through the book's art, attentive readers will see that Zane is using his finds to create a pirate ship, and once his friends realize what he's up to, even the most skeptical realists join the fun and sail the afternoon away. Zane's imagination sees the cowpoke's lasso in a piece of vine, the pirate's golden ring in an old pop top, and many other treasures that have been stolen from today's children by electronic entertainment. Rambling enforces the joy of imaginative play.

Please give a warm welcome to Terri.

Cherie: Hi Terri. Thanks for being with us today and congratulation on your new picture book. Can you tell us about One Day I Went Rambling. 

Terri: It’s a book about imagination and invention.  Did you ever see something and imagine it to be something else? In this picture book story, Zane picks out objects in his environment and re-imagines them into something fanciful.  There are nay-sayers in his group of friends that just don’t see eye-to-eye with him, but they are a good-hearted bunch and eventually they all come together and build something spectacular from their treasures!

 

Cherie: The certainly do create something fun and Zane is a great character. What made you excited to illustrate this book?  

Terri: It seemed like the author Kelly Bennett was inviting me to ramble through my own imagination to conjure places to take this roving gang of scavengers!  I decided to set the tale in the city and in keeping with Kelly’s theme. I included a visual element of my own, which was to add a chameleon.  A chameleon is adaptable and flexible, as is Zane and his imagination.  He sees the possibilities and whenever that happens in the book, the chameleon changes color.

 

Cherie: I had a lot of fun finding the chameleon on each page. Do you have a favorite illustration in this book?  

Terri: The first moment when a child other than Zane has the imaginative thought and says it out loud. That is the turning point of the book.  Ruth declares a broken comb is actually a viper’s fang and the chameleon changes to Ruth’s dress color...pink polka dots!

 

Cherie: How fun! What medium do you use when creating your illustrations? 

Terri: Typically I use gouache, but for this book I used acrylic gouache which is different in the handling of it.  I also pre-texturized the boards with light molding paste and took the finished illustrations into Photoshop to layer in additional textured patterns.  It was labor intensive but truly a labor of love.

 

Cherie: Do you have any advice for aspiring illustrators?  

Terri: One of the hardest things when first starting out is to develop a style.  It is also the most energizing time.  Don’t be afraid to experiment, and fail, and start again.

Cherie: That's great advice!  Terri was kind enough to share one of the illustrations with us:

To visit the rest of the stops on this tour and to learn more about Terri and her books, please click here. 

Find Terri Murphy

Website | Facebook

Find Kelly Bennett

Website | Facebook

Purchase book

Amazon | Barnes & Noble