Book Festivals & Live Events

Orange County Children’s Book Festival, September 20, 2026

We packed up the truck with our tent and our product line and drove to Costa Mesa, CA for the Orange County Children’s Book Festival, held at the Orange Coast College. This was our first time attending this book festival, and it was fun! The people who came by—kids, parents, grandparents, teachers—were so friendly and communicative. The event was held outdoors on the beautiful college campus.

The reaction to our kid’s how-to-draw products was great! Buyers were amazed at the creative activities we have for children.

We brought our new Adventures in Outer Space Drawing & Coloring Kit, which we produced after the successful panels we conducted at Fan Fusion 2026. We also packaged colored pencils and markers to accompany our how-to-draw books. and coloring posters.

It turned out to be a pretty warm day with humidity, but it was pleasant. We took the opportunity to visit the ocean while there, and stayed at a beautiful airbnb before returning to Arizona the next day.

Fan Fusion, June 5-7, 2026

Oh. My. Gosh!…. What an experience! This event was fantastic! Even if you are not a comic book, manga, gaming, or graphic novel fan, this show is worth attending. We created a brand new product—Make Your Own Comic Book Super Kit—just for this show.

****Two different fathers came back to our table and each told us that their daughter LOVED the Fairies, Mermaids, and More Pretty Things book with Starter Drawings, and couldn’t put it down! Thank you, Dads, for letting us know. 🙂

Where to begin? There was SO MUCH to see. This event commanded 3 huge main floors of the Phoenix Convention Center and an additional area for the kids in a separate building (where we were set up). This event has to be experienced to be believed in its scope, variety of entertainment, wildly costumed attendants, and the sheer immensity of it.

We were invited to present panels for the kids. Diana conducted these panels, teaching how to draw “Adventures in Outer Space.” The kids, and even some adults, joined in to learn to draw robots, droids, and even a space mutant creature!

From cosplay to celebrity appearances to gaming extravaganzas and everything you think of was playing out somewhere in this massive event. The costumes attendants came in wearing were nothing short of spectacular, and demonstrated wild creativity. It was a bit like going to a halloween party the size of a city where everyone is dressed up in amazing fantasy outfits.

What can we say? Go. Experience this event. Prepare to have your mind blown!

Arizona Author Book Festival, May 3, 2026

Peewee Picasso exhibited for the first time at Arizona Author Book Festival, at Warehouse 215, 215 E. Grant Street, Phoenix Arizona. This book festival was a fundraiser supporting Seeds for Autism, an organization that provides a path from “learning to earning” for adults with autism through education, vocational training and social development in Phoenix, Arizona.

Aside from our product line of how-to-draw books and children’s art products, we provided free how-to-draw handouts along with pencils and colored pencils for the children’s activity area, while some were distributed in quiet rooms for people to “chill” in.

We learned that Seeds for Autism is a successful model helping participants to find meaningful work, and becoming confident as capable, dependable, and productive members of their community.

Tucson Festival of Books, March 14 & 15, 2026

Fantastic book festival! This was our second time at this huge book festival. Held at University of Arizona campus in Tucson Arizona, 1200 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ. We had the same corner booth in the children’s section and we were SUPER busy again! We added some new large coloring posters—Rockin’ Dinosaurs, and Favorite Fairy Tales. Setting up and tearing down were easier this year since we knew what to expect from last year’s experience. The event staff people were super helpful. We found a really nice airbnb to stay at while down there—the event goes on for two days.

This is the book show to go to! It’s gigantic and so much fun—food, entertainment, every kind of book imaginable, tons of fun for the kids, and typically beautiful Arizona weather.

We are definitely going again! This will be a regular yearly event for Peewee picasso. The Tucson Festival of Books is such a wonderful gathering for families, authors, publishers, and book lovers.

Scottsdale Book Festival, January 24, 2026

Peewee Picasso exhibited for the first time at the Scottsdale Book Festival located at the Scottsdale Civic Center, 7380 E. 2nd Street, Scottsdale, AZ.

What a great book festival! The day started out really cold and rainy, but the weather cleared up and the sun came out, making the day so beautiful.

We talked with so many great people and kids! We met one of the organizers of Fan Fusion. who invited us to participate this year in that massive event. Of course we said, yes!

Sun City Christian Church Arts & Crafts Fair, November 15, 2025

We set up our tent outside this beautiful church in Sun City, 9745 W Palmeras Drive, Sun City, AZ, for their annual arts and crafts fair. What a surprise! This was a great place to sell our products and everyone was SO NICE!

There were so many talented people there selling beautiful custom things. We bought some of their uniques wares for ourselves. 🙂

We met the pastor, who was very involved and super friendly and nice. It was a beautiful day and we will be attending next year!

Payson Book Festival, July 19, 2025

Peewee Picasso exhibited for the 3rd year at the Payson Book Festival, July 19, 2025, at the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in Payson, Arizona.

We met so many nice families, authors, teachers, and many grandparents—all looking for books!

It was a pleasure exhibiting again in this beautiful casino. A bonus for this event is the wonderful Payson weather at this time of year.

Tucson Festival of Books, March 15 & 16, 2025

Wowza! This was our first time at this huge book festival. Held at University of Arizona campus in Tucson Arizona, 1200 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ, this book festival had an estimated 130,000 visitors. We had a corner booth in the children’s section and we were SUPER busy!

There was an endless stream of kids with parents and grandparents, all looking for books! No one was walking around looking at their cell phones—they all seemed to be engaged in the book scene.

It was already becoming evident that our best-selling how-to-draw book was Fairies, Mermaids, and More Pretty Things, but this festival confirmed it. It outsold our other books by a lot. But all of our books sold amazingly, and we ran out of Sea Creatures—another favorite at the show. We tested a new product idea there—the Rockin’ Dinosaurs Arty Party Pack—and got an encouraging response. Everyone liked the idea, so this product will continue in development. The kids, parents, grandparents, teachers, and other authors were so great to talk with. The volunteers and organization contact people were all super friendly and helpful. We will be attending next year!

Payson Book Festival, July 13, 2024

Peewee Picasso exhibited for the 2nd year at the Payson Book Festival, July 13, 2024, at the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in Payson, Arizona. Our books sold like hotcakes again! We added some new products this year. We have 2 additional books in our How to Draw for Kids series.

We added a new SEL activity book—Life Skills for Kids: Art-Infused Activities. This SEL book drew the attention of a California teacher, who submitted a request to her school district. We received an order from them to be used by their district teachers. Thank you!

We also brought new high-quality decals, the art of which came from the 6 how-to-draw books in our How to Draw for Kids series. The kids loved them, but so did many of the adults who chose decals for themselves. Another new exhibit addition was an iPad with videos from our YouTube channel. The kids loved it, and many a parent and grandparent had to drag their kids away from watching it! The Payson Book Festival organization provided a wonderful brunch spread for the authors and artists exhibiting. It was a pleasure to converse with the other authors, and the venue was beautiful.

Payson Book Festival, July 15, 2023

For the first time, Peewee Picasso exhibited at a book festival, the Payson Book Festival, July 15, 2023, at the Mazatzal Hotel and Casino in Payson, Arizona. Our books sold like hotcakes! Other exhibitors came to us and raved about our booth presentation and our unique products. Customers were thrilled with our how-to-draw books and especially, the Starter Drawing Pads that come with them. This event convinced us to come back the following year. We sold our first 4 how-to-draw books in How to Draw for Kids series. We also included a few of Diana Fisher’s how-to-draw products published by Walter Foster Publishing. The event was published in the Payson Roundup newspaper.

In Payson, there is still a good market for old-school newspapers! How nice to think there are still print stories and not everything is just digital.

We met so many great authors and artists. Everyone was friendly and the casino was very accomodating. Thank you Payson Book Festival!

Payson Gifted Expo, October 12, 2011

Peewee Picasso was invited to demonstrate at the 2011 Payson Gifted Expo (a chapter of Arizona Association for Gifted & Talented), located at the Rim Country Middle School, 304 S Meadow St, Payson, AZ, October of 2011. I, Diana Fisher, went with the Peewee Picasso support team, and taught 2 how-to-draw classes—one for primary school-age children, and one for middle school-age kids. We brought printed borders for the kids to draw on, presented educational material on the arts, and taught how to draw in easy steps for the kids to follow. The younger children, starting at age 4, were totally amazing. They loved learning to draw their favorite animal.

One child drew his horse instead of the unicorn I was demonstrating in steps, which was so creative (see his horse below). And a little 4-year-old girl showed surprising skill (see her unicorn below).

They were all a joy to work with. The older kids were equally awesome and showed remarkable skills and creative thinking when it came to comprehension and ability. It was a wonderful experience interacting with this bunch of kids! Check out some of their drawings below!