Story Art Galore

I do a lot of things when I’m not writing, and not just guitaring. I’m an all-around creative person. I am constantly in a state of creation. Sometimes I sew clothes or costumes or crafts, sometimes I make jewelry, sometimes I make seasonal wreaths because I’m never happy with what’s hanging on my front door...but a lot of times, I draw. I used to paint, but that got messy. Then I went crazy with my Copic markers, but I had a kid and those are way too much temptation for him, so I had to put them mostly aside. So now, when I get the art-bug, I whip out my ipad, open up ProCreate, and go at it.

But with the amount to which the world of The Night Chemist (working title) has consumed my soul this past year, a lot of that art has involved illustrating my characters or little scenes from the book in comic-form. It was a lot of fun to stretch my artistic skills and to watch how those skills (which began super rusty) improved over the course of practicing. In my enthusiasm, I was posting these on my Instagram as I finished each one, but I decided to pull those posts a while back for various reasons, mostly because some of the scenes illustrated or the character representations might change over the course of the publishing process. Assuming, of course, that I ever succeed at getting this book (and the rest of the series) traditionally published. Querying, it turns out, is a pain in the ass, and I haven’t had a whole lot of luck. It’s impossible to know why—every rejection is either a ghosting or a form they send to everyone. I can’t tell if it’s my query letter or my pages or simply just the market. And until I get a yes, I’ll never know why I got all the nos.

Thus, I decided to go ahead and share some of the story and character art I’ve made over the past sixish months or so here on the blog, without context or explanation of the images. So take a gander below, if you so desire, and drop a comment to let me know which one is your favorite (or which one you’re most curious about reading). In the meantime, if you want to actually find out for yourself what each picture represents...I’m always looking for more beta readers! If you haven’t signed up yet for my mailing list, or applied to be a beta reader, head on over to the home page now and do it! That way you’ll get to see more of these as I make them, because I do an art roundup as part of my newsletter once a month. In the meantime, enjoy!