Author brings wonder to everyday life
Jul. 23—LENOIR
A young aspiring author and illustrator from Boone has recently published her first children's book.
On Saturday, July 23, Tybrisa Books in downtown Lenoir hosted a book signing for Elyse Burgess's "Dragon Surprise Party."
"I have been drawing basically since I could hold a drawing utensil," said Burgess. "My mom has one drawing from when I was 3 years old of some Winnie the Pooh characters. I drew Pooh, Piglet, and I think Rabbit and some others. They were pretty recognizably Winnie the Pooh characters, so mom was kind of excited about that. She encouraged me."
"When Elyse was young, she loved to make up stories," said Julianna Burgess, Elyse's mother. "She particularly enjoyed describing characters and bringing a lot of character to her stories. She would also do a lot of clay figures, she really enjoyed putting clay figures with her stories. So we used to say, 'Happiness is a new jar of Play-Doh' because once she got the Play-Doh she would be inspired to make these characters and build stories around them."
While in her mid-teens, Burgess realized that digital art was becoming more and more popular.
"People want digital artists, so I started experimenting with that," she said. "This book is the first big project that I finished with digital art. I continue to learn more about digital art, it's a whole other world, and I enjoy it because it's very pure. You're basically just painting directly with light. That's what I like about digital. Also, you can zoom in and get really small details more easily."
For "Dragon Surprise Party," Burgess used a mix of mediums for her illustrations. She first sketched everything in pencil, then scanned her drawings into the computer where she colored them in digitally.
With help from her mother, Burgess was able to self-publish her book. Despite some frustrations with the tardiness of the publishing company, Burgess said she is very pleased with the final result.
"It looks really good overall," she said. "I was really happy that we could get it hard cover. Mom and I were talking about our options and it was like, 'OK, it will be less expensive and we could probably make more of a profit if we do soft cover,' but we just really love the hard cover. I had so many beloved children's books when I was young, and so many of them were really nice hard covers."
"Dragon Surprise Party" features 10 tiny, colorful dragons who want to throw a fantastic surprise party for their human friend, Ella.
Burgess strived to give each dragon their own unique personality.
"Ones to look for are Brook, the blue-green one, Kepler, the orange one, and Clover, the green one," she explained. "All of them have their personalities shining through a little bit, but those three are the ones where you can kind of tell what they're about."
Brook is the "organizer," as Burgess puts it, with a clipboard or a checklist always in her hand. Kepler is a "bookworm," so he almost always has his nose in a book.
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"My favorite one is Clover," Burgess said, "because he's the curious one who is always getting into messes."
Clover also has a tiny ladybug companion with him on every page. Burgess encourages her readers to spot the ladybug for themselves.
Burgess is currently working on her second book, which tells the story of how Clover met his ladybug friend.
"It's slightly different; it's not going to be the same format of like a scene with all 10 of them because that just took me a really long time," Burgess said. "When you think about it, it's 10 characters per page across 10 or 11 spreads. It's a lot of dragons to draw. So my next book is going to focus more on Clover individually with occasional other characters brought into it."
Burgess is hoping to be finished with her illustrations for this second book by the end of the summer so her book can be published sometime this fall. She has many ideas for stories focusing on the other dragons' stories, as well.
Burgess said her favorite part of the entire process of publishing her own children's book was the art.
"I just love it so much," she said. "Drawing is like breathing to me. I've got to do it and I love doing it."
Burgess is currently a senior at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, roughly an hour away from Washington, D.C. She is a classical liberal arts major with a minor in journalism.
"I don't know what I'm going to end up doing, so getting a well-rounded basis in the humanities and knowing a lot of history and literature is going be really helpful in whatever I'm doing," she said.
Burgess hopes that families will enjoy reading her book together.
"I hope it's something that gives kids a sense of wonder," she said, "because that is so important."
"Dragon Surprise Party" is available at Tybrisa Books or online at www.tybrisabooks.com.
"We love this bookstore, and we will be coming back regularly because there are treasures here," said Julianna.
Follow Dragon Surprise Party on Facebook or visit the GardenGateBooks shop on Etsy.com to bring home and enjoy your own dragon surprise party.
