I’ve been hard at work on a new project. An art-and-writing project. I’ve been somewhat secretive about it until now. I’m a bit superstitious about all things creative and worry that if I say too much about what I’m working on, I’ll rob it of its power. I will, in effect, jinx myself. And not only that, but what if people ask me how my project is going…and it isn’t? There’s nothing worse than trying to explain to someone how your writing and artwork have hit a brick wall and stalled, when even you don’t understand why that happens sometimes.

But I decided to go ahead and blog about this new project in spite of my fears. So far, it hasn’t stalled. If anything, my frustration has been about not having enough time to spend on it, what with work and family obligations. I am enjoying writing and illustrating this story more than I have enjoyed anything in quite a while.

Here is a preliminary illustration:

I am about 80% done with the first draft of the story. Without saying too much (I don’t want to spoil it), it’s a middle grade story about a boy named Humphrey (that’s him above), a rocky island, two mysterious elderly sisters with a secret (that’s them above, with a metal detector), a lighthouse keeper (you can see the lighthouse in the distance), and a series of vanished ships. There are also lots of other things I love in the story: fossils, ghosts, fishbones, fog, caves, and even a couple of sheep.

I am working on two versions of the story: a written version and a graphic novel version. Here are some of the initial sketches I drew of the characters, including Humphrey. In the bottom left are the Sisters Small of Seacliff Hall, the two mysterious sisters. Drawing the characters really helps me get to know them. I don’t know how it works for most writers, but stories come to me first in a series of pictures. Words come later. This particular story started with an image of Humphrey standing on a foggy ferry landing holding a brown leather suitcase.

The house pictured is an early version of Seacliff Hall, where the two mysterious sisters live. It was originally a cottage, but the story has changed quite a bit since these sketches, and the house has become much larger and more Gothic. (The Sisters Small were once fabulously wealthy, but their fortunes were lost with the decline of the whaling industry.) I did an early color sketch of the house, which I will need to re-do:

So, this is what I have been working on as the summer slipped by…and now August is nearly over and September is around the corner. In addition to hanging out with Humphrey and the Sisters Small, quite a bit has happened since my last post.

My mother has been staying with us. I haven’t lived under the same roof as her since I was a teenager. It’s funny, as a child it was comforting going to sleep at night knowing my parents were right there in the next room in case anything happened. Now, as an adult, it’s the opposite. I am comforted knowing my mother is in the next room, and not in a house all alone, in case anything should happen.

artsee has also been keeping me very busy. We published our one-year anniversary issue in July. We’ve had one of the partners leave, which was sad, but added two new employees, which was exciting.

Last week there was an earthquake and this weekend, a hurricane. No doubt sometime between now and 2012 we will have a meteor strike, and then it won’t matter if I finish writing my story and graphic novel since there will be no one alive to read it.

But anyways, here are some pictures I took from the top of Cape Lookout lighthouse earlier this summer. Humphrey and I hope the lighthouse, and our friends in Beaufort, fared all right through Hurricane Irene.

p.s. apologies for the distracting copyright symbols, but my legal counsel has advised me to include them!