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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte
@michellewitte.bsky.social
3.2K followers 490 following 2.4K posts
Children’s literary agent with Mansion Street Literary (open to queries first 10 days each month, starting in June) and mental health advocate. I also write craptastic books. She/her. www.michellewitteliterary.com
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 9h
I kept hearing kitty snores but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, but then I remembered oh yeah, he has a bed under my desk. Duh. Time for me to go to bed as well, apparently.
A cat sleeping in a donut kitty bed under a computer desk.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 9h
Aw, thanks! The first one I did is a nice little book (if I do say so myself) but mostly because it's just his paintings on one side of the page and a quote on the other. Great coffee-table book.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
It's a great one to put on in the background while you're doing things around the house. It's very much a comfort watch for me now as an adult. But I still haven't sat down and painted to the show. It's one of my life's goals. When things slow down a bit, maybe...
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
I used to watch the show on Saturdays as a kid while doing chores, so I remember it fondly. That's why, when I realized years ago there weren't any gifty books with his paintings and quotes, I pitched the idea to my agent, who loved it (because she also loves Bob) and publishers loved the idea too.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
To conclude, most of the paintings by Bob Ross are probably in some grandparent's house hanging on the living room wall. Each would have a little red "Ross" in the bottom corner. It's estimated that he painted about 30,000 paintings, so they're out there somewhere.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
I watched plenty of Joy of Painting during TMS as well, though later I watched Great British Baking Show celebrity episodes as well, which were equally calming to me.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
Ha! I've just researched Bob because I wrote several gift-type books about him, so I know more than the average person. His books are always a joy to write. I usually put the episodes on in the background to keep me company while I do.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
Nope. It's described in the documentary as well, but he permed it because he didn't have a lot of money and he thought it'd be cheaper to keep up, but he hated the style. Sadly, that became his trademark. He even had a wig made when he lost all his hair to chemo so viewers wouldn't know.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
Thanks for correcting that. I just wanted to make sure people were getting accurate info.
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
This is from the transcript of the documentary where it discusses the paintings and how he made his money from his painting supplies, the instruction books, and the painting courses. (The estate sent it to me when I worked on the first Bob Ross book I wrote, Happy Little Accidents.)
BOB: Most of these painting are donated to PBS stations across the country. They auction them off, they make a happy buck with them. So if you' dike to have one, get in touch with your PBS station. BOB: You know NBC or ABC gets a thousand phone calls about a program and they say yawn, ok, we'll note that. PBS gets a half dozen phone calls from you with a pledge especially, they shut down and have a party. JIM: I'll never forget at an auction one time, we were... he was a painting a painting live. And we sold it, and the person that bought it said, "I'm coming in, will you wait for me so I can meet you?" And the woman walked in with her walker, about 11:30 at night, and they had driven for about an hour to get here. And she started crying, and she said, "You know I don't have too many good days anymore. But when I watch your show, it's the best part of that day. And I just want to thank you for that, that's why I had to have your painting." And Bob thanked her and gave her a hug, and he said, "That's why I do this." But at this point, the main source of income for Bob's business came from teaching painting classes and selling instruction books. And then, a happy accident... The Alexander Company called and said they couldn't produce enough paint to keep up with the growing demand - and suggested that Bob start his own line of products. As his products hit the commercial shelves, so did his image, establishing his brand in the commercial art world. Now Bob could focus on growing his business, and that meant training some instructors to go out and teach the method and the message of The Joy of Painting. As the demand for more television episodes, plus more painting classes both steadily increased, Bob began to realize that he wouldn't have enough time to devote to both. In 1987 - he created the first team of Bob Ross Instructors. These students would go out and teach in Bob's place.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
You can see him explain in this documentary produced by a PBS station years ago, which is free to watch on YouTube; it's about 1-1/4 hour long. It describes how he painted 3 copies of each per episode: 1 before that he looked at while on air, 1 during taping, 1 after to photograph for his books.
Bob Ross: The Happy Painter - Full Documentary
YouTube video by Bob Ross
www.youtube.com
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 10h
This post is getting shared a lot, but it's inaccurate. Bob Ross donated most of his paintings to PBS stations to use in pledge drives to raise money for stations, which is why the estate auctioning paintings now is so appropriate, because it's what he would have done to raise funds for PBS. 1/?
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 11h
There are still some flowers holding on despite the chill weather.
Purple creeping bellflower. Yellow pot marigold enjoying the sunshine. A black-eyed Susan with yellow petals, with a purplish blue cornflower and some blue Chinese forget-me-nots. Some pink cornflowers.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 11h
Oh, so is that why I was puking after my recent surgery after they gave me a hydrocodone? I've never gotten nauseated from pain meds before. I hadn't heard there was another redhead medication thing.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 11h
If you're curious about the details, it's described in this documentary. The estate sent me a transcript of this (and transcripts of every episode) when I was writing some of my Bob Ross books for background information.
Bob Ross: The Happy Painter - Full Documentary
YouTube video by Bob Ross
www.youtube.com
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 11h
Most of his paintings were given to PBS stations to use in their pledge drives, so it's more likely to stumble upon one of his painting in the house of someone's grandma than to find it in a wealthy private art collection. People likely don't know what they have.
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
I keep finding typos in my posts and my brain is absolutely fried . . . and then I realized I haven't had dinner yet. Maaaayyyybbeee I should fix that so I can think once again. 🤦‍♀️
michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
That sounds like a wonderful idea.
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
Honestly, I'd recommend choosing a title from the past 5 years as a comp. Both of those books are from 15+ years ago and weren't very well known. But this does present an opportunity to become familiar with more recent books. (I always view more reading more as a great opportunity, though, so...)
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michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
Yeah, I prefer curating my own feed. I've been posting on Threads again in case I do need to switch at some point, but I have that I can't keep out the algorithm. I just want to see the people that I follow, not stuff that Meta thinks I should like.
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
I do hope it's resolved well, because the moderation tools and people here are great. It's just some people from marginalized groups that should be protected are instead being targeted by Bluesky at the moment, and I won't be able to stick around if it becomes worse. But I'll try to stay hopeful.
michellewitte.bsky.social
Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
Yep. I'm planning to check out DVpit tomorrow, and I'm hoping there'll be some good pitches, but pitch events on Bluesky haven't been as successful for me as some of the Twitter pitch events because social media is so spread out now. #kidlitchat
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
Warren Miller is too obscure a reference for me personally, so I might opt for something else. CLERKS is well known enough for my generation, though I haven't seen it. Perhaps find a recent book with skiing in it for the age group you write for, but you could combine that with CLERKS. #kidlitchat
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
As for #kidlitchat in particular, it starts at 9 pm Eastern to accommodate people on the West Coast, and most of the publishing people are probably exhausted. But yes, I would love to see more editors and agents on here. I'm on Mountain Time, so 7 pm start is excellent for me.
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Michelle Witte @michellewitte.bsky.social · 12h
A lot of publishing people are on Threads, but I've tried it in the past and it doesn't feel as good to me as Bluesky. I just hope the recent troubles here (with the site leadership being antagonistic to users) don't tank the platform. #kidlitchat
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