buried in books

Even though I didn't need more things to do, I agreed to be a judge for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award. Yes, I am years behind on my work. Yes, Robert's Snow has sucked up the free time in my life. When Iwas asked, my first reaction was, "No way, I have no time!" but then the nice asking person said the one thing that made me do a 180 degree turn. "Of course," she said, "You'll get to keep all the books."

What? Free books? Sign me up!

Since money has gotten a bit tighter, I'd been forced to ration my book buying. One or two a month. Paperbacks, not hardcovers now. And it just had not been the same. Now someone was offering me free books. Lots of them. Good ones, she promised. The temptation was just too great. It was like offering a chocoholic Willy Wonka's golden ticket.

So now I am in books up to my ears. And there's a problem. I'm a picture book text judge. Do you know how hard it is for an illustrator not to be influenced by the pictures?

"Stop looking at the illustrations!" my sister (who acts part time as my manager) chided me, "You're suppose to be judging on the STORY."
"I can't help it," I complained.
"You should just have the stories typed out on white paper without the pictures," she said, "That's the only way for you to be impartial."
"You can type them!" I said, looking at the enormous stack.
"NO," she said, "But, maybe you can ask the SCBWI to do it. Maybe they can send everything to you in manuscript format."

And she's right. Reading manuscripts would be more fair. Perhaps I should ask SCBWI about it. But I don't. Because they might actually do it. And then I wouldn't get any more free books...