A Fresh New Year

A Happy New Year to all! I'm looking forward to a new batch of blog sketches (including some new monthly features), adding some more designs to my Zazzle shop, and starting an Etsy space for prints of my work.

Things are pretty exciting on the book front for 09. Illustration-wise, there's a return to Hard Pan with Susan Patron's Lucky Breaks. Later in the year, I'll be moving into author/illustrator territory with the release of two stories in the Medium of Sequential Art (a.k.a. comics, graphic novels, illustrated stories, and an assortment of other labels that no one seems to be able to agree upon).

First is a short story for the new anthology, Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical. This is my first foray into the world of YA so expect something a bit darker than Very Hairy Bear. I couldn't be more excited to be part of a collection that includes new work by some of my favorite writers. Click on the link for the lineup. Sideshow is edited by the incomparable Deborah Noyes... if you haven't read her extraordinary new novel The Ghosts of Kerfol, then you oughta.

And this fall my first graphic novel, The Storm in the Barn will be published. This book has been in the works for about five years and the drawing and painting of it took up most of my time in 2008 (hence the paltry blogging). Needless to say, if I could push a Fast Forward button and zip to the fall I would, however, I'll have to bide my time. Look for more blog posts, a new website, and a book trailer for Storm in the months leading up to its release.

Ok, everybody. Onwards and Upwards.