Look Book

The Publisher: SmartLab, Fall 2009
The Author: Nancy W. Cortelyou
The Numbers: 24-page, 1,000 word inspiration sketchbook
The Role: Writer

The secret of fashion is to surprise and never disappoint.

—Lord Lytton (Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton), novelist, politician, etc.

This activity sketchbook informs and inspires kids to design a clothing collection just like the pros. Starting with “what is a look book?”, it guides the reader how to think about a collection in regard to season, silhouettes, fabric, and style. It offers up ways to use practical tools such as mood boards, color stories, and inspirational prompts. Quotes from and about the design world serve as accessories to the whole outfit.

Flat Irony

Originally published as “Naturally Good Hair Days”
Ventura County Star, 2002

I was born with straight hair and spent my first few years happy that it would just lie flat rather than look like it was sprouting from the top of my head.

Don’t let the balloons fool you. Static electricity had nothing to do with this ‘do.

Bobbed hair and pageboys with bangs are the styles my school pictures show me sporting. In fact, I have fond memories of sitting on a stool out in the garage while my father trimmed those bangs. My favorite part was the post-trim high-powered stream of air from my Dad’s lips that removed all the little bits of no longer required growth.

Early on, I was aware of my hairstyle and one time decided that my Dad hadn’t performed his duty to my perfectionist standard. My bangs were crooked! So, at age six, I took scissors in hand and headed to the bathroom. It’s curious to me that there is an incredibly large photographic record of this phase where I had a very visible chunk of bangs missing (mirroring the missing front teeth at the time). Pretty! Did no one think to give the baby some baby bangs?

Inheriting not my father’s wavy hair but instead the straight-as-an-arrow hair of my mother, I gleaned the wisdom and trickery she had acquired through years of living the straight hair woes. Curls, I soon learned were best left for special occasions. My sister and I would take turns sitting under a huge hairdryer with strategically placed foam curlers (this was the ’70s) waiting for our transformation. In junior high, my girlfriends and I would schedule nights to sleep with our hair in curlers or braids and then arrive at school with our collective version of curly or crimped hair.

Hot rollers and curling irons came along just when we needed them—a wonderful time-saving discovery at the brink of becoming a teenager. No longer did we have to decide the night before what our hair would look like the following day. Female whimsy could be implemented in the morning. Granted, it was still the dark hours of that morning, but nonetheless it was progress.

At some point, I followed in my mother’s footsteps and was allowed to get “perms.”

The belief that people with naturally curly hair always had good hair days soon dissolved.

There was no telling what would happen to those curls during the night. I had just not been born with the skills to manage a gravity-defying mane.

It eventually occurred to me that my own straight hair was much more predictable. So, I went back to the straight bobs and pageboys of my youth (and instead experimented with changing my hair’s color rather than its texture, but that’s a different story).

Attempting to emulate the sleek ‘dos I saw in magazines or copy the way my hairdresser could blow dry my straight hair as flat as possible didn’t come easily. All those years of complaining that my hair was too flat seemed to be a big cyclical joke on me. Now I couldn’t get my hair flat enough. That is, until I discovered the FLAT IRON.

Those words should be written in gold—the hours it saves me, the results it helps me create. Yes, the flat iron has changed my life and I am dedicated to it until the end of time…or until styles change. I am able to get every single strand of hair as flat and sleek and stuck to my head as I desire.

I can easily shape it to curl under or flip up (so much better than those pink foamy curlers used to do). Hello Lady Miss Kier! I can look at Madonna or Sarah Jessica and know that their flat irons are hot and in heavy use. And better yet, I am finally able to copy their celebrity hair with a simple flick of the wrist. I have the technology!

The flat iron seemed to be an underground secret for a few years. I even had to arrange a clandestine purchase through my hairstylist to acquire a commercial grade one after a disappointing bout with a drugstore version. But now the secret is out. And, best of all, it’s an equal opportunity tool useful to those on the other side—the naturally curly haired who desire the naturally straight hair that the flat iron has helped me embrace.

Monster Trucks

The Publisher: Scholastic Fairs, Fall 2011
The Author: Nancy W. Cortelyou
The Numbers: 48-page, 2,500 word image-heavy book for the five-year-old set
The Role: Writer

Happily researched this topic to discover it is all about the kids and it can turn even the biggest snob into a fan. The book features 24 monster trucks with snippets about each along with its driver and/or team as well as factoids on the industry.

Intro Text:
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Be there!!!

Pure excitement! That’s what it’s like to watch monster trucks in action. These heavies jump, fly, spin, and pogo! And if they don’t roll over before they’re finished, they give the crowd a high-speed victory donut!

The Full Bouquet

The Publisher: SmartLab, Fall 2011
The Author: Nancy W. Cortelyou
The Numbers: 16-page, 3,000-word book plus art kit for ages 7 and up
The Role: Writer of the book and all supporting product copy

Design! Create! Decorate! was the call to action for this art kit featuring how to make five one-of-a-kind giant paper flowers for kids to personalize their room.

Sample text:

Re/Upcycle
It’s easy to give garbage a new life. Turn plastic soda bottles, newspaper, magazines, greeting cards, and used paper, ribbons, and bows into one-of-kind-posies. So before you take out the recycling, take a look at it using your artist’s eye. Anything in there that deserves a second chance?

Glow For It!

The Publisher: SmartLab, Fall 2011
The Author: Nancy W. Cortelyou
The Numbers: 24-page, 5,000-word book plus science kit for ages 7 and up
The Role: Writer of the book and all supporting product copy

Worked closely with product developer and designer on how to best showcase the twenty glowing, flowing, exploding projects needed to make Glow-in-the-Dark Lab more deluxe than the company’s best-selling backlisted title of a similar nature.

World’s Cutest Kittens in 3-D

The Publisher: Scholastic Fairs, Fall 2011
The Author: Nancy W. Cortelyou
The Numbers: 48-page, 3,500 word image-heavy book for the five-year-old set
The Role: Writer

I channeled the cat lovers of the world to find 60+ factoids about kittens to complement the book’s featured images remastered for 3-D viewing. This third in a series book comes with 3-D glasses (built into the front cover) that bring these adorable baby felines close enough to pet, virtually.

Sample Text:
Butterfly Catcher

All cats are hunters, and hunting lessons start when cats are kittens. A kitten may sit and wait for its prey. Or it may stalk and then run after it. A kitten will also hide and then pounce on another kitten, its owner’s feet, or anything else that moves. To a kitten, hunting and playing are the same thing.

A Working De-Lemon: A Biking Disaster

The Publisher: Self-published, 2012
The Author: Joan Wittler
The Numbers: 80-page, 18,000 word middle-grade novel
The Role: Writer of back cover copy (below); Editor of the book

Grace Erickson has one fear: babysitting! The last time didn’t go so well, and now she needs money to get her bike fixed. Without it, she’s stuck in a house with two annoying little brothers on a street with no friends and no excitement—and a constant stream of moms who want her to babysit their little monsters.

It’s a dilemma! Scratch that. It’s a de-lemon. So Grace takes her lemons and makes lemonade—but no money. Then things quickly go to the dogs when Stephie brainstorms their next business venture: walking the neighbor’s trio of pups.

Put your head together with Grace as she starts to think for herself and learns that best friends don’t have to lead identical live to remain BFFs.