Who hasn’t seen a new children’s book and thought “I could do that”? But few of us have any idea how to go about it. Meet Susan Spellman, who has illustrated more than 30 books, as well as stories for children’s magazines (Highlights for Children, Cricket) and anthologies like A Treasury of Christmas Tales and A Treasury of Bedtime Stories. Susan will briefly outline her career path before talking about working with an artist’s representative (an agent). She will talk about the process of illustrating a book, from reading the manuscript to doing thumbnail layouts and then from sketches to the finished product. And she will talk about her experience balancing her interest in fine art painting with a career as a visual storyteller and how she has come to appreciate the ability and opportunity to do both.