The Making of NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY

Happy book launch day for NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY! Read all about the making of my new picture book at the Incidental Comics substack.

The Making of ONE BOY WATCHING

Did you ride the bus to school? What do you remember about it? What did you see? How did you feel as a passenger? These questions were the starting point for my new picture book ONE BOY WATCHING, published this week by Chronicle Books. Riding the bus was an experience that felt both personal and universal - a perfect subject for a story.

I rode Bus Number Four from Kindergarten through 10th grade. From my neighborhood on the edge of a Kansas suburb, the bus took me past fields and farms on country roads to my small-town school. At times, the school bus was a place of commotion and chaos. The long ride was sometimes boring. But it was also an opportunity to watch and reflect on the world outside the window. 

As a quiet kid, I was most content looking out at the passing landscape, daydreaming. On cool autumn mornings the windows fogged and dripped with dew, which I wiped away to better see the scenery. Looking, counting, and imagining were ways to pass the time, but they also helped deepen the experience of wonder I felt at seeing the trees, fields, farmhouses, and wildflowers of rural Kansas. 

I used my lifelong habit of observation and reflection to create ONE BOY WATCHING. I wrote down my memories, good and bad, of riding the bus to school through the Kansas countryside. The time we got stuck in a muddy ditch and had to get picked up by another bus. All the times a long train made us late for class. The nice seatmates and the not-so-nice ones. The loud teenagers in the back. The ever-changing soundtrack: upbeat 90s pop, sad old country music, moody alternative rock. And outside, the ever-changing Kansas weather, as varied as the music.  

In an effort to immerse myself in the experience of a childhood bus ride, I even made a playlist of songs I remember from 107.3 KKRD, Wichita's Top 40 radio. 

In planning the illustrations ONE BOY WATCHING, I got to retrace my old bus route with camera and sketchbook in hand. I would pull over next to a field of rusty tractors or a patch of roadside sunflowers and sketch or snap a photo. It must have looked strange to any passing cars. From my sketchbooks, I was able to capture small, realistic touches to deepen the world of the book.

The iconic yellow-orange American school bus was a joy and challenge to draw. The bus itself became a character in the story, bumping down dirt roads and stopping to load and unload. One of the most difficult parts of making ONE BOY WATCHING was correctly drawing all the details of the flat-nosed Blue Bird bus: keeping the proper number of windows on each side, noting the exact placement of lights and mirrors, and matching seats with bus riders from page to page. 

I spent a morning at the Mulvane, Kansas bus barn sketching and taking reference photos. I can confirm the vinyl seats still smell the same way they did thirty years ago. And there’s still not quite enough leg room for a tall person.

All the details help create a convincing picture book world, though I did have to create an impossible Escher-esque interior for the scene of all the kids inside the bus. Please don’t try to match up the seats and windows on that one! Still, I think it captures the energy of a full bus as it approaches its destination.

To be a passenger is to be an observer. To be a keen observer is the first step to becoming an artist. I think the long morning rides of reflection helped lead me to my career as an author and illustrator. And they helped pave the way for one book about one boy, watching.

Thanks to all the people who helped make this book possible. My wife Kayla is a tireless supporter of my work and an astute first reader. My twin brother Gavin gave feedback along the way and shared some of his bus memories (though I didn't include him in the book, as I would have had to make it TWO boys watching). My agent Judy Hansen is a great support for my career and sounding board for my far-flung ideas. And my editor Ariel Richardson helped guide the book from its early stages, encouraging my art and writing explorations throughout the process. I hope ONE BOY WATCHING finds its way into the hands and hearts of bus riders past, present, and future.

For more about my experience creating ONE BOY WATCHING, listen to my interview on The Yarn podcast with Travis Jonker below. And I'm excited to launch the book with a storytime at Watermark Books next month!

What Sound Is Morning?

My next picture book is out soon from Chronicle Books! It's a brightly illustrated poem of morning sounds and a reminder to slow down and LISTEN. One sound I've noticed lately is birds singing at sunrise. They seem louder without the usual commuter traffic. It's a small joy in a difficult time.

WHAT SOUND IS MORNING? will be published on May 12. You can pre-order it now wherever you get your books, and signed copies are available from my local bookstore, Watermark. It's a perfect companion to my first children's book, WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?

The Path to Picture Books

Last week I celebrated the publication of my debut children's picture book, WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?  Here is the story of how my first picture book came to be.

I've been a fan of picture books my entire life. One of the first books I loved was TUESDAY by David Wiesner. I still remember the wonder I felt when I opened the book for the first time. In just a few pages, I was lifted off the ground and transported on surreal flying lily pads. I was hooked.

I grew up. But I kept reading picture books. As an overworked dental student in my twenties, I would visit the Kansas City Public Library children's section and return home with a stack of books intended for children ages three to five. I was always paranoid a librarian would tap me on the shoulder and ask what I was doing there. This never happened, of course. Contrary to my imagination, most librarians are very nice people.

My first serious artistic pursuit was comics. Comics became my creative passion as well as a refuge from the long hours of studying the minutiae of teeth. But I still had a heart for picture books. Someday, I thought, I might try to write and draw one of my own.

In 2012, I was sure this time had arrived. Incidental Comics had an international audience and had been featured for the first time in the New York Times Book Review. I knew how to write. I knew how to draw. And now I had the final piece of the puzzle. My wife Kayla and I were expecting our first child. Now that I was a parent, I gave myself permission. I would write and draw a picture book! 

Thirty-two pages. A few hundred words. A simple, clear story. Easy, right? It wasn't. Problem was, I only knew how to write and draw comics. Picture books were an entirely new mode of expression. Instead of stacking panels in rows, I was puzzling over spreads and page turns. Instead of telling a story through my semi-autobiographical cartoon avatar, I was creating stories with entirely new and unexplored characters.

Over the next couple years, I started sending rough drafts of books to my literary agent. She showed them to some editors. They were met with what I assume was a collective yawn. Still, I kept trying. I wrote a book about a timid rhino. I wrote another helpful snail. I tried dozens of characters and approaches. I wrote about precocious twins. A magic eraser. A tapir learning to ride a tricycle. They weren't bad, necessarily. But nothing quite clicked. I often felt as if I was trying to summon, say, the voice of Mo Willems or Shel Silverstein, rather than discover my own voice.

   

Eventually, a thoughtful and experienced editor took serious interest in my stories. We were close, I was sure, to a book. We went through multiple revisions. I was hopeful that this would be my first ever picture book to be published. By this time, it was 2018 - six years after the realization that I wanted to create a picture book.

As the time approached for a new revision, I had the ultimate opportunity for a creative breakthrough: a week in the mountains at the Spruceton Inn Artist Residency. For the first time in my creative career, I would have an entire week free from school, work, and family. I believed a week of solitude in a scenic mountain setting would solve all my creative frustrations. When I returned, I would have a perfect picture book draft no publisher could refuse.

Spruceton Inn, photo courtesy of Casey Scieszka

As you might have guessed, it didn't work out this way. The Catskills were beautiful - and covered in a ridiculous amount of snow. The week I stayed at the Spruceton Inn, there was nearly three feet on the ground. I took long walks in the woods, wishing I owned snowshoes. I stayed warm with good coffee and the company of my gracious hosts, Casey and Steven, and Jo, a fellow artist resident.

As for the writing? I was growing increasingly frustrated. Away from my work and family routine, I couldn't get into a good working rhythm. The unlimited creative time had a paralyzing effect on my brain. I would sketch a page, then stare out the window at the snow and wonder what I could find around my room to eat.

The week was not entirely a creative disaster. I read a couple poetry books by Ted Kooser, and I filled my sketchbook with observations from the train ride and my nature walks. The trip directly inspired a few of my weekly comics. But my picture book draft did not turn out perfect. And it was not met with an immediate offer for publication. I was even more artistically frustrated than when I started.

I returned home, thankful to be back with my family and my familiar routines. It was the beginning of spring in Kansas, far from the snowy mountains. I began walking around my neighborhood in the evening, sketching at nightfall, enjoying the warming weather. And I resumed waking up early and working on comics before going off to my day job as an orthodontist.

Less than a month later, I received an email. Ariel Richardson, a picture book editor at Chronicle Books, was intrigued by one of my recent comics, Night. She wondered if I'd consider doing a bedtime-themed picture book. A spark went off in my brain. Ariel's email arrived on a Friday. By Monday, I'd drawn and written a draft of what would become my first picture book, WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?

Holding the completed book in my hands, I'm amazed at how much of that first quick draft made it into the final book. I'm not sure whether to credit the years of false starts, the relief to my subconscious after my frustrating artist residency, or the sheer good luck of my soon-to-be editor crafting that email. I know the process may never again be quite so serendipitous. But I'm extremely proud of WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?, and I'm grateful to be working in this wonderful medium. A huge thank you to my team at Chronicle Books: Ariel Richardson, Amelia Mack, and Abbie Goveia. They've been truly amazing to work with. And thanks to my family for all their support through this long journey. Here's to all the many picture books to come.





Postscript: As for the book that tormented me in the snowy Catskills... I'm proud to say it will eventually become a book of its own (albeit in much different form). Look for MY WORDS on bookshelves next Fall.

Coming soon...

My picture book WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT? will be published next month! It's a poetic exploration of nighttime colors and a perfect bedtime read-aloud. I'll be sharing more images from the book and the bookmaking process as the November 5 publication date approaches. I'm beyond excited for people to read it!

In the meantime you can pre-order it from my favorite local bookstore, Watermark Books. If you're an international reader, Book Depository has free delivery worldwide.

WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT? Cover Reveal

Here's the cover of my debut children's picture book, WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?

It will be published this Fall by Chronicle Books, and is now available for pre-order. I'll be sharing photos from the process and more art from the book as the release date approaches. Stay tuned!