Recently in Illumination Arts News Category

Now through the end of the year, you can save 30% on any order in our online store. That's one of the best deals you'll find online! Just enter HOLIDAYS2008 in the "Use a coupon" box on the left side of your screen during checkout, and you'll be on your way to great savings--and great books!

Well, in addition to winning the Preferred Choice Award from Creative Child Magazine, God's Promise, by Maureen Moss, is now a semifinalist for a Moonbeam Children's Book Award. The Moonbeam Awards "are designed to honor the best children's books, authors and illustrators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading."

Congratulations to God's Promise and its creators!

TDmonthly Magazine has posted a glowing review of Roonie B. Moonie: Lost and Alone on their website. From the review:

What Kids Think: Simply stated, kids love this book! The illustrations are vibrant and entertaining. The scariness of being lost is a feeling to which many children could relate. In settings composed of first- to fourth-graders, not one child had a negative word to say!

It's great to see this charming little bee get some attention!

Sandra Hanken, author of Sky Castle has an interesting new project: turning old clothing into a keepsake bear with BecomingBears.com. The bears in the Photo Gallery are pretty adorable. What a great use for that old baby clothing you've been saving!

One of my favorite Illumination Arts artists, Arlene Graston is now selling Fine Art prints of her work at Jane Kahan Folio. Arlene is the illustrator of In Every Moon There is a Face. She has an open edition of prints available for all the artwork in the book, as well as a limited edition of some of her other projects. The artwork is simply stunning, so if you're in need of something to adorn your walls, be sure to check it out.

At the International New Age Trade Show this past June, our president, John Thompson, filmed a short video, to share a little bit of our background and read excerpts from several of our titles. If you're interested in meeting the man behind all of our books, check out the video below, or watch it directly on YouTube.

Washington residents and fans of The Tree will want to check out author Dana Lyons in concert over the next couple months. Dana performs folk music under the name Cows With Guns. He will be doing shows in the following Western Washington locations:

July 26: Mt Vernon
July 26: Olympia
Aug 1: Warming up for Dr. Demento in Seattle
Aug 9 or 10 (tentative): Arlington Stillaguamish River Festival
Sept 20: Seattle
Sept 21: Bellevue
Sept 27: Woodinville

For more details on these shows, read below the fold.

Illumination Arts has its own MySpace account now! Head on over and make us your friend. While you're there, you can check out our trailer for God's Promise, if you missed it the first time around.

We've also got a new podcast on iTunes! Subscribe now. At the moment, all that's up is the trailer, yet again, but the hope is that we'll soon be developing more content for it.

There are 14 13 kittens included in the illustrations of our inspiring book, Fun is a Feeling. Can you find them all? Visit this book at http://www.illumin.com/funisafeeling and click on "Read this book on BigUniverse.com!" At BigUniverse, click the "Read Now" button and start hunting!

When you have found all 14 13 kittens, send an email to contest@illumin.com listing the location of each kitten. Do not include the front or back cover in your count.

Entries must be received by August 31, 2008 at 11:59 PM PST. Eligible entries correctly identifying the locations of all the kittens will be entered in a drawing to win Illumination Arts books! One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive any ten (10) Illumination Arts books of the winner's choice. Five (5) additional First Place winners will receive five (5) Illumination Arts books of their choice.

CORRECTION: It turns out one of the pages was inadvertently left of the book on BigUniverse. You now only need to find 13 kittens to be eligible to win.

Book trailers are all the rage in the publishing industry these days, and now God's Promise is the very first Illumination Arts book to have a trailer of its very own! I created this video to give you a taste of what God's Promise is all about. Please enjoy!

And since this is my first trailer, feel free to let me know what you like or dislike about the video. I'm eager for feedback!