[This Giveaway is now closed!] We're thrilled to give away 2 copies of ‘The Other Side of the Invisible Fence' books written by Trevor Romain courtesy of Emily Dawson, who serves as a board member for the Clear The list Foundation.

To Enter, you MUST:
​-Leave a comment on this blog post on why you deserve to win this book!

For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete:

• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on Twitter
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
• Subscribe to the Trevor Romain Podcast

​Each comment counts as a separate entry -- that's 6 chances to win! Entries must be received by 5pm CT on Sunday, September 13, 2020. [This Giveaway is now closed!]

The winners will be contacted via email on or around Monday, September 14, 2020 and will need a response within 48 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Winners must reside in the U.S. and be at least 18 years of age or older.

While we are on the subject of books, take a browse of our entire book collection written and illustrated by Trevor Romain in our Back-to-School sale of books here.

[This giveaway is now closed!] We're thrilled to give away 2 copies of ‘Cliques, Phonies, & Other Baloney’ books written by Trevor Romain courtesy of Emily Dawson, who serves as a board member for the Clear The list Foundation.  

To Enter, you must:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post on why you deserve to win this book. 

​For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete: 

• Like us on Facebook 
• Follow us on Instagram 
• Follow us on Twitter 
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel 

Each comment counts as a separate entry -- that's 5 chances to win! Entries must be received by 5pm CT on September 7, 2020. [This giveaway is now closed!]

The winners will be contacted via email on or around September 8, 2020 and will need a response within 48 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Winners must reside in the U.S. and be at least 18 years of age or older. [This giveaway is now closed!]

While we are on the subject of books, take a browse of our entire book collection written and illustrated by Trevor Romain in our Back-to-School sale of books here.

[This giveaway is now closed!] We're thrilled to give away 2 copies of “True or False? Test Stink” books written by Trevor Romain and courtesy of Emily Dawson, who serves as a board member for the Clear The List Foundation.  

​To Enter, you must:
1. Leave a comment on this blog post on why you deserve to win this book 
2. Subscribe to the Trevor Romain Company newsletter.
3. Subscribe to The Trevor Romain Podcast 

For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete: 

• Like us on Facebook 
• Follow us on Instagram 
• Follow us on Twitter 
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel 

​Each comment counts as a separate entry -- that's 7 chances to win! Entries must be received by 5pm CT on August 30, 2020. [This giveaway is now closed!]

The winners will be contacted via email on or around August 31, 2020 and will need a response within 48 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen. [This giveaway is now closed!] This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Winners must reside in the U.S. and be at least 18 years of age or older. 

While we are on the subject of books, take a browse of our entire book collection written and illustrated by Trevor Romain in our Back-to-School sale of books here.

[This giveaway is now closed!] We're thrilled to give away 2 copies of ‘How to do Homework Without Throwing Up’ books written by Trevor Romain courtesy of Emily Dawson, who serves as a board member for the Clear The list Foundation.  

To Enter, you must:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post on which school subject you found struggling and why? 
2. Subscribe to the Trevor Romain Company newsletter.

​For additional entries, leave a separate comment below for each of the following tasks that you complete: 

• Like us on Facebook 
• Follow us on Instagram 
• Follow us on Twitter 
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel 
• Subscribe to The Trevor Romain Podcast 

Each comment counts as a separate entry -- that's 7 chances to win! Entries must be received by 5pm CT on August 24, 2020. ​[This giveaway is now closed!]

[This giveaway is now closed!] The winners will be contacted via email on or around August 25, 2020 and will need a response within 48 hours to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way affiliated with, administered, or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. Winners must reside in the U.S. and be at least 18 years of age or older. 
​
While we are on the subject of books, take a browse of our entire book collection written and illustrated by Trevor Romain in our Back-to-School sale of books here.

Graphic Courtesy By: The Trevor Romain Company

CHICAGO — As the SIGGRAPH 2020 North America conference goes to a virtual format starting on 17 August, 2020, the 3rd annual installment of ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity & Inclusion Summit welcomes best-selling children’s author and illustrator Trevor Romain as its virtual keynote speaker. In addition to going virtual this year, the Summit will also span across two days from 22-23 August in alignment between the two week conference in the Pacific Time Zone (UTC/GMT-7). After 28 August, access to the conference content will be available until 27 October, while the ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion Summit will be permanent on SIGGRAPH.org and ACM SIGGRAPH Facebook page courtesy of the ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion committee. 

Romain, who serves as the president of the Trevor Romain Company based in Austin, TX, established a career spanning over 30 years as a successful children’s book author, illustrator and featured in the award-winning Comical Sense animation series shown on PBS affiliate stations around the United States. Today, he has sold over a million copies of his books and published in 22 languages. Previously, Trevor served as the past president of the American Childhood Cancer Organization and known for his work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the United Nations, UNICEF and the USO. 

“The ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion committee is truly honored to have Trevor Romain to keynote the 3rd annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit for SIGGRAPH 2020. In honor of this year’s ‘Think Beyond’ theme, we are excited to engage into Trevor’s fresh perspective from South Africa, and spotlight the importance to inclusive storytelling from his life, career and how it’s essential moving forward.” said ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity and Inclusion Chair Tony Baylis, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  

For the keynote session, Romain will share his upbringing in South Africa, intentions from behind the scenes of creating Comical Sense and the importance of inclusive storytelling to give virtual attendees insight to a hopeful future today. Romain will also do a fireside conversation with Daniel Ramamoorthy, commonly known as Dan Ram, on Exploring Empathy & Creativity to Tell Inclusive Stories on 23 August at 9:45 a.m. PDT. 

Romain shared, “I am honored to present at ACM SIGGRAPH’s Diversity & Inclusion Summit at SIGGRAPH 2020 to discuss the importance of inclusive storytelling. The Trevor Romain Company creates materials designed to help kids to become happier, healthier and more confident through a variety of resources. We are excited to share our work and the thinking behind our interactive communication strategies at the 3rd Annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit.” – Trevor Romain, President at The Trevor Romain Company.
 
The 2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Diversity & Inclusion Summit keynote session will be streamed virtually on Saturday, 22 August at 12 p.m. CDT (1 p.m. EDT, 10 a.m. PDT). Access to this keynote is available to the public and available through the ACM SIGGRAPH Facebook page. This event is open to all, but registration for SIGGRAPH 2020 is highly encouraged at s2020.SIGGRAPH.org/register. The Summit’s diverse programming also includes presentations from Buzzfeed Animation, Women in Animation, Google, Industrial Light & Magic as well as discussions on the topics of Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, Unconscious Bias, Homelessness, Deafness and Working from Home.

RSVP to Trevor's keynote streaming free on Saturday, August 22, 2020 starting at 10:00am PT here. 

RSVP to Trevor's session with Dan Ram on Sunday, August 23, 2020 starting at 10:30am PT here.

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About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Conferences 
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH Conferences, held in North America and Asia, are the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experiences showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Photo Courtesy By: Trevor Romain

Read the entire transcript from the latest episode from the Trevor Romain Podcast, Under the Big Sky. In response from a fan who was going through a creative crisis, you can now read the transcription while listening to the podcast. 

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​My first book with a major publisher came out a good number of years ago.
I submitted that particular book to over 50 publishers, some big some small and was rejected by them all, before it was finally acquired by Harper Collins Publishers, in New York.
The initial version of the book I had sent them was illustrated in black and white because I wanted it to have the feel of ‘The Giving Tree’, by Shel Silverstein.
Harper Collins had different ideas. My editor, Simone Kaplan wanted it in full color.
I was excited, but petrified because I was at the beginning of my illustration career and was afraid that I was going to make a mistake when painting the color pictures for the book.
After freaking out for five minutes, I tensed up and painted the illustrations as perfectly as I could.
The publisher wasn't happy with my efforts. They were rather blunt about not liking what I sent them back.
I was devastated because I was so sure they were going to love what I did, but they didn’t.
I actually felt down about it for weeks. I considered throwing the whole project in the rubbish bin. I reconsidered my dream to be a full time writer and illustrator.
After I got tired of feeling sorry for myself, and wallowing in my own self pity, I tried again. This time I worked even harder to do the perfect watercolor illustrations for my treasured book.
They still didn't like what I had done.
I felt quite depressed to tell the truth. My big break was feeling rather broken.
After a number of calls and discussions, the publisher decided to get, what they called, a colorist to do a sample illustration using my line drawings.
I went through such mixed emotions at the time. Was I a terrible illustrator? Was I not cut out for the book business? Did that mean the whole projects was rubbish?
Talk about self doubt. I actually even felt ashamed for a bit, because perhaps I oversold my ability.
I felt like I let myself down and, in turn, let the team who accepted my book for publishing, down.
A week later they sent me a sample page of the colorist's work. A person who, in essence, was going to nudge me out of my own book.
Very gently, they suggested he do the coloring of my book.
I was very disappointed to say the least.
But, truth be told, which I wasn’t going to admit in public, I kind of liked the sample painting the colorist had actually done.
Then, after siting with it for a few days and staring it his version of my pictures, I had a revelation . “ $#@*, I bet I could do that." I thought to myself.
While having my weekly half-hour catch-up phone chat with my mother in South Africa later that day, I subconsciously messed with my paints and replicated the style the colorist had produced without even realizing what I had done.
My bruised ego suddenly peeked out from behind the dark cloud. I marveled at my own creation. “Hmmmm.” I thought. “It looks really good.”
I did a few more samples, and before any self doubting could creep back in, I quickly sent the new samples off to the publisher.
Guess what?
They loved it. And I was given the go ahead to illustrate my book. You can see the result in the picture attached.
I’m really proud of the way it turned out.
The book came out the next year and was translated into many languages. It even had the honor of being acquired by Yoko Ono for the Japanese market. Funnily enough, on the dust jacket of the book, to this day, is a picture of Yoko Ono, not me.
I also heard a while back that Yoko Ono was considering turning the book into an animated short film. (No news yet but I’m hoping that will come to fruition.)
The lesson I learned from the entire experience is that I was trying too hard to paint the perfect pictures instead of enjoying the process, having fun, and painting the way I normally paint.
I was trying so hard to create what I thought people wanted to see, instead of doing what I love doing.
The stress, angst, and pursuit of the perfect picture almost cost me the opportunity of illustrating my first major book with one of the biggest publishers in the world.
I often hear of people self-sabotaging their creative work by setting up unrealistic expectations for themselves. I have illustrated over fifty books since Under The Big Sky and once I started enjoying what I was doing, instead of trying to meet expectations, my creative process changed and my craft became my career.
Read along to the podcast episode #20 here. 
Purchase the 'Under the Big Sky' book.  
Watch the video ebook on our YouTube Channel here.