Cleaver rough sketch

Here's the sketch I drew for the illustration to go with Cleaver Overachiever. Again, I'll finish it with graphite, and when I'm finished I'll post it on the illustration extras page of the site.

I've made a bunch of splatters with powdered graphite to play around with, and I'll figure out later which one I like best for the final drawing. The one here is winning so far.

Bombs Away drawing before and after

As promised, here's the first illustration I had to redraw for style consistency. It's called Bombs Away, and the one on the left was originally published as a greeting card a few years ago. The right one is the redraw.

New illustrations uploaded to site

I've added a couple new illustrations to the extras page of the site today. Two empty slots are left, and once they get filled up and I'm ready to upload more I'll start removing the ones there now. Not sure yet if I'll repost the removed ones somewhere later or not, so look while you can.

Poetry Macabre

Ha!

I had a nice, long drive to Erie on Monday, and wrote my first (and maybe only, we'll see) poem for the book on the way up.

It started as one of those first thoughts in the morning before you're really awake kind of things about a week ago, and I already had an illustration sketch drawn and revised before I ever started on the words. But I knew I wanted the poem in a syncopated kind of rhyme like jazz, not in a steady rhythm like rock, if you know what I mean.

It's a little different than the rest of the stuff I've finished so far, but still funny and keeping with the whole "twisted" theme. Macabre was the word that was used when I read it aloud to the only person I've read it aloud to. And he laughed when I finished.

By the way, it's called Cleaver Overachiever.

Yeah, it's a little twisted. And funny. And a little bloody for all my carnivorous friends.

66 pages and counting!

I'm just finishing up some illustrations that will put the page count for the book at 66! That's about one-third the final length I had in mind, but it seems to be coming together quickly enough.

I'm planning on writing about 225-240 pages to send off to a few hand-picked and trusted friends to read and evaluate and provide feedback. Once I hear back from them, I'll be editing and whittling until everything is the best it can be before I send it off to editors, which might require hacking off a few pages.

Maybe I'll use a hatchet.

A machete?