Art, News, Books
“The Thoughtful Ghoul”
Clandestine is off to our editor! Release the Wolves is awaiting edits. Two new secret projects that I am very excited about are in the works. (They’re in their early stages, so I will say nothing about them except that they’re both for adults and one is a collab.)
In this brief respite before diving into other projects, I’ve been doodling and drawing, working on picture book ideas, and going to fun places like Estonia and Latvia. I’ve also - finally - been trying to get my drivers’ license. Up until recently I’ve always lived in cities where you could just gad about in Ubers and subways, and now I live in the countryside where Ubers and subways refuse to exist, so. . . it’s time.
Anyway, news. Here is a handy list:
Cinders and Sparrows has sold to Russia and Germany! Eksmo bought foreign rights for Russia, and the lovely folks at Diogenes will be releasing it in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I’ve been getting questions about the German release for a while now, and I don’t know when it’s coming out, but I did hear it’s in translation now, so possibly sometime in 2023. I’m very happy about this.
I’m on the board of Autillus now, the association of Swiss children’s book authors and illustrators. If you follow me on social media you may start seeing more Swiss stuff than usual. It’s been a great experience so far. I’ve mostly thought of myself as an American author these last ten years, since my main publisher is there, and I write 90% of my stuff in English. But at the same time, I’m Swiss, and I’ve lived far more of my life in Switzerland than in the US. I’m very much looking forward to getting to know the Swiss kidlit scene, and getting some projects off the ground.
Speaking of Autillus, we’re doing a picture book competition for Swiss or Swiss-resident authors and illustrators. The main prize is your picture book or picture book collaboration published by Baeschlin Verlag, one of the premier picture book publishers in Switzerland, which is very cool. Deadline for submissions is October 30th.
I’ve been doing a lot of sketching and drawing. The ones in this post are all done with pencil, paper, pen, and some very DIY digital tweaks, but I just bought an iPad and Procreate, and am going to learn how to use it if it kills me, so expect to see more digital art soon. (Or an obituary, but hopefully digital art.)
“The Sun and the Moon”
“Eight of Coins”
“Haus”
“Splendid Nightmares”
(This one is a whole thing that maybe one day will be something else. We shall see!)
“Right-side Up”