SCBWI Metro NY :: Committee

Hospitality

Francis McCall has been a member of SCBWI since 1993. Shortly afer joining, he became a greeter for the Tuesday Professional Series. Patricia and Francis are the warm welcome to many illustrators at the Illustrators Conference in New York. Francis McCall is a author and photographer and he works occasionally as a freelance electrical technician and energy conservation analyst.

Francis McCall is author and photographer Fishing Fun:

"There's certainly much more to fishing than catching -- or attempting -- to catch fish. I thought back over my previous fishing trips -- with all the happenings and mishaps I had experienced both as a child and as an adult. The entire Richardson family participated in the Fishing Fun photo shoot this past September. The 'fish that got away' actually came from the fish market. Douglas, Paul's oldest son, 12 then, now 13, tugged on another line attached to the fish to enliven it while I photographed Brandon reeling it in. Kennia, Paul's wife and the boys' mother kept track of the photos taken. And, of course, Paul, Brandon and Arian were the characters -- and fishermen stars -- of the book."

"I especially like to photograph kids and animals. I like children, and children's books. I like animals, and I like to work animals into my children's books. Hence, the fish and worms! Keep in mind how much kids like worms. Both the boys in the book were as much taken with the worms as the fishing. I used 35mm cameras with various lenses, portable flashes and color slide film. I created a list of the photographs I wanted to try to take for the book. I asked each of the family members to position themselves where needed for each picture. It's gets tricky sometimes to get the picture just right with light from a late afternoon September sun and with the sometimes frantic fishing activity on the river side. That's why I took lots and lots of pictures. Even then I scanned the best slides into my computer to make changes, such as changing a child's face from on frowning to one smiling, or to remove the extra line tugging at the fish to make it jerk on the fishing line."

His list of books include:
Twister's Tricks, text and photographs (Bebop/Lee & Low Books, 2004)
I Need to Ask You Something, photographs with Patricia Keeler, text by Miriam Marx (Bebop/Lee & Low Books, 2003)
A Huge Hog Is a Big Pig: A rhyming word game, text and photographs with Patricia Keeler (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2002), which was a selection of the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club, 2002 as well as a selection of the Junior Library Guild, 2002 and a selection as one of the twenty outstanding titles by the librarians in the Abilene Independent School District for their Mockingbird Reading Program, 2002-2003 school year
Unraveling Fibers, text and photographs with Patricia Keeler (Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, 1995), which was pick of the List from American Booksellers, Spring 1995 and Bank Street Children's Books of the Year, 1995
Our Oceans, photographs, illustrations by Patricia Keeler, text by Paul Fleisher (Millbrook Press, 1995)

Francis graduated from the University of Virginia (BA with Honors) in Charlottesville, VA. He attended the University of Edinburgh (Summer School) in Edinburgh, Scotland. Also, he went to New River Community College (Associate in Electrical Technology) in Dublin, VA.

"I had been a technical report writer for years, and I read children's books to my daughter, Ida, when she was young. I decided I'd rather write fun children's books instead of dry engineering reports. I had no idea how much harder it was to write simple and fun versus long and dry. And I'm still writing those technical reports, yuck!" He loves cooking healthy vegetarian and seafood meals. He like camping and hiking in the mountains, reading mystery and science fiction and young adult novels. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Patricia Keeler.

SCBWI Metro NY
PO Box 1475
New York, NY 10276-1475
212 545-3719
scbwi_metrony@yahoo.com

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	Hospitality Francis McCall has been a member of SCBWI since 1993. Shortly afer joining, he became a greeter for the Tuesday Professional Series. Patricia and Francis are the warm welcome to many illustrators at the Illustrators Conference in New York. Francis McCall is a author and photographer and he works occasionally as a freelance electrical technician and energy conservation analyst. Francis McCall is author and photographer Fishing Fun: "There's certainly much more to fishing than catching -- or attempting -- to catch fish. I thought back over my previous fishing trips -- with all the happenings and mishaps I had experienced both as a child and as an adult. The entire Richardson family participated in the Fishing Fun photo shoot this past September. The 'fish that got away' actually came from the fish market. Douglas, Paul's oldest son, 12 then, now 13, tugged on another line attached to the fish to enliven it while I photographed Brandon reeling it in. Kennia, Paul's wife and the boys' mother kept track of the photos taken. And, of course, Paul, Brandon and Arian were the characters -- and fishermen stars -- of the book." "I especially like to photograph kids and animals. I like children, and children's books. I like animals, and I like to work animals into my children's books. Hence, the fish and worms! Keep in mind how much kids like worms. Both the boys in the book were as much taken with the worms as the fishing. I used 35mm cameras with various lenses, portable flashes and color slide film. I created a list of the photographs I wanted to try to take for the book. I asked each of the family members to position themselves where needed for each picture. It's gets tricky sometimes to get the picture just right with light from a late afternoon September sun and with the sometimes frantic fishing activity on the river side. That's why I took lots and lots of pictures. Even then I scanned the best slides into my computer to make changes, such as changing a child's face from on frowning to one smiling, or to remove the extra line tugging at the fish to make it jerk on the fishing line." His list of books include: Twister's Tricks, text and photographs (Bebop/Lee & Low Books, 2004) I Need to Ask You Something, photographs with Patricia Keeler, text by Miriam Marx (Bebop/Lee & Low Books, 2003) A Huge Hog Is a Big Pig: A rhyming word game, text and photographs with Patricia Keeler (Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2002), which was a selection of the Children's Book-of-the-Month Club, 2002 as well as a selection of the Junior Library Guild, 2002 and a selection as one of the twenty outstanding titles by the librarians in the Abilene Independent School District for their Mockingbird Reading Program, 2002-2003 school year Unraveling Fibers, text and photographs with Patricia Keeler (Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, 1995), which was pick of the List from American Booksellers, Spring 1995 and Bank Street Children's Books of the Year, 1995 Our Oceans, photographs, illustrations by Patricia Keeler, text by Paul Fleisher (Millbrook Press, 1995) Francis graduated from the University of Virginia (BA with Honors) in Charlottesville, VA. He attended the University of Edinburgh (Summer School) in Edinburgh, Scotland. Also, he went to New River Community College (Associate in Electrical Technology) in Dublin, VA. "I had been a technical report writer for years, and I read children's books to my daughter, Ida, when she was young. I decided I'd rather write fun children's books instead of dry engineering reports. I had no idea how much harder it was to write simple and fun versus long and dry. And I'm still writing those technical reports, yuck!" He loves cooking healthy vegetarian and seafood meals. He like camping and hiking in the mountains, reading mystery and science fiction and young adult novels. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Patricia Keeler.
SCBWI Metro NY PO Box 1475 New York, NY 10276-1475 212 545-3719 scbwi_metrony@yahoo.com	\|\|\|\|\| \|\|\|\|