FINALLY!!! Freakin’ finally! The initial interior sketches for the 240 pages of SQUALO & MAGE are complete! With everything that went down since signing the contract and completing the script to bring this book to life, I sometimes can’t believe I actually made it out in one piece.
It’s been a crazy past 2 years—much longer than I expected to complete this stage of creating a graphic novel. Why 2 years? Besides being totally new to this and dealing with events that were out of my control, a lot of personal life things happened, including the craziness of planning a wedding, the downward spiral my family faced following the death of our dad, suddenly having to deal with carpal tunnel pains, getting COVID, and the jampacked daily schedule I had working full-time as a music journalist. Things finally eased up after I left the day job, giving me the freedom to work on SQUALO & MAGE alongside my first picture book, BIGGER THAN ME. And then last October, Sho and I discovered that we’re pregnant with our first kiddo! There was yet again a lot of juggling, parkouring, and figuring out life in general, but halfway through my second trimester, things got easier and I was able to get myself behind the desk and sketch, sketch, sketch!
Other than completing the interior sketches for SQUALO & MAGE, I’ve also turned in the cover jacket for the book—and it’s already been approved! WOO!!! Some pages have also already been colored and I think it’s looking pretty good. So, while I’ve gotten a lot of things done over the past few months, there’s still so much to do, and I’m totally psyched to keep things rolling to get this book to you by early 2024.
Now, while my husband is currently working the soundboard at a concert, the craving for a good ol’ celebratory pizza kicked in. I’ve called our friendly neighborhood pizzeria, Luigi’s Pizza, for a truffle pizza and it’s on the way. Don’t worry, I’m gonna save a slice for Sho.
