Road Trip to Providence

Providence, Rhode Island, is one of my favorite cities.

I first traveled there six years ago, on my way to Roger Williams University, in Bristol, where I would attend my first NECon (one of the best-kept secrets in the world of writer’s conferences). 

As a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to take the walking tour of his old haunts. To this day, I can’t shake my first impression of how red the city is, especially when viewed from I-95 just before you pass over Collier Park.

Yes, Providence, Rhode Island, is one of my favorite cities. I’m even surer of this now, after spending the weekend there with my two amazing new friends: illustrators Kelly Murphy and her husband, Antoine Revoy. I was there with a crew of students from my non-fiction production class to shoot a short documentary about her work on my book, “Behind the Bookcase,” which comes out next fall from Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House).

Selling this book was one of the reasons I decided to rename my Web site. But when my editor told me she wanted to have it illustrated -- by Kelly Murphy, no less -- I was speechless. I’m sorry that so many words in our language have been misused to the point of reducing their meaning. So I dare not say Kelly’s work is “incredible” or “awesome” because these words just don’t do her justice.

Let’s try “astonishing” instead. 

Kelly studied at Rhode Island School of Design (where she now teaches!) and published her first picture book only three years after graduating (“The Boll Weevil Ball”). She’s got too many credits to fully appreciate in this small space, so let’s leave it at this: her first job doing black-and-white interior illustrations for a chapter book was for the New York Times best seller “Masterpiece” and won her an E.B. White Read-Aloud award. (Gee, I hope some of this magic rubs off on me. We did hug goodbye, after all.)

We’re in post-production on the documentary now, cutting the footage together and finding the right music. It should be up for viewing by Halloween, along with some other goodies, over at the “Behind the Bookcase” Web site.

Until then, hop on over and click the film frame marked “1” to see how Kelly drew her way to the final cover for my book. If you aren’t as astonished as I am by the final result, I might have to question your humanity.