With a couple of days to spare, here’s what I settled on for my new Austin SCBWI member bio:

Chris Barton’s favorite books as a child ranged from Lilian Moore’s Pickle for a Nickel to John D. Fitzgerald’s Great Brain series to The Book of Lists. His first work as an author, The Fozzie Brothers Meet the Monsters, enjoyed limited distribution (there was one copy) at the Lamar Elementary book fair in 1979.

Chris’ first published book, The Day-Glo Brothers, is due from Charlesbridge in fall 2007. It’s a picture book biography of Bob and Joe Switzer, the Montana-born brothers who — in their teens and 20’s during the Great Depression and World War II — invented the eye-popping oranges, yellows, pinks, and greens known as Day-Glo.

Represented by literary agent Erin Murphy since late 2005, Chris is focused on nonfiction but takes a stab from time to time at picture book and middle grade fiction. He also writes about his writing — and about other, more fascinating elements of the world of children’s book publishing — on his blog, Bartography.

Thanks to everyone I heard from who suggested I keep the mentions of my childhood favorites. I also added in the bit about the Fozzie Brothers (the original is in my garage somewhere), as well as a bit of an explanation of what Day-Glo is. When I tell people about my book and I get to the “Day-Glo” part, enthusiasm often gives way to blank expressions — folks know the colors, but they don’t know the name. Gotta fix that.