For most of life, big moments come when you least expect them. ...
For most of life, big moments come when you least expect them. We spend countless hours trying to control our way down this stream, and waves just pop up out of nowhere, knocking us down, propelling us forward, or changing our direction all together. But occasionally, we can feel big moments coming and have time to reflect, wonder, and savor the ride, having done our share of rowing, steering, and getting soaked: graduation, a honey-moon, the ride home from the hospital with your first child. I’m in one of those fleeting episodes right now and I figured in a few years, it will be handy to look back and read what the hell I was thinking before life took its turn.
My first children’s book, Journey, from Candlewick Press comes out in about six months. It’s been nearly a 3 year process from inception to publication, most of which I’ve spent having no idea what to expect from it all. But things are starting to look promising. Things I can’t share at the moment, but let’s just say the book is getting noticed and will most likely get enough critical reception and publicity to launch a new career for me. There are no guarantees, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was giddy with excitement. Writing and illustrating books is something I’ve always wanted to do. It gives us creative types the ability to be a complete auteur in our creation; the stories are our own and the way we tell them visually comes straight from our own ideas and style. Comparing this approach to jobs where the story isn’t mine, the art style isn’t mine, and the decisions of what I should be doing with my talent aren’t mine, it makes this new career path feel more like art than commerce. And at the end of the day, kids are going to read what I do. Maybe a handful of them will be moved. And maybe for one kid, it will change her life.
This could all be for naught, of course. Children’s books are part of the shrinking, risky business of publishing. Even when the industry was thriving, hundreds of picture books would be published every year, only to disappear from shelves before potential readers had the chance to discover them. But something tells me, that at the very least this book of mine will do well enough that a year from now, when people ask me what I do for a living, I won’t hesitate to tell them I’m a children’s book author. For the past three years, I’ve been an out-of-work-freelance-in-transition-film-designer-illustrator-new-dad-who-has-no-idea-where-his-career-is-headed kind of guy. For someone who has always relied on other people’s projects (i.e. advertising, film, and illustration work) to make ends meet, it’s more than thrilling to know that I very well may be transitioning into a life where I spend my days creating work that is solely mine. Wow.
Wish me luck.
