Artie and the Wolf Moon is an inviting and beautifully-designed book, grounded in the character and family who exist at its heart. The book weaves words and images to create a unique reading experience; highly recommended for middle grades and young adult readers and beyond.
1. Please tell us about the inspiration behind your creative work.
I get inspired by a lot of things: nature, history, my personal observations, music. Everything that I absorb or encounter in my life feeds into how I might tell a story. And that's true for everyone. No ideas are 'original' these days, but the way someone tells a story and what they choose to focus on in their telling can make their perspective unique from others.
2. What would you like to tell us about your creative process?
My stories often start with a premise, or a "what if?" question. And because I often write supernatural stories, the "what if" tends to be an otherworldly element dropped into an otherwise normal world. Those scenarios excite me, and I like to ponder on how I (or a character I made up) might react to a supernatural situation. From there, I tend to make a playlist of music to listen to while I work out the rest of the story in my head. A lot of the time, the playlist is a way for me to figure out what the tone of a story is and where I'm trying to take things emotionally. I don't feel comfortable moving forward until the emotional heart of a premise rings true. I can't really explain it more than that. It's a very organic and intuitive process for me.
3. What draws you to the graphic novel/comics medium?
I feel like I'm able to say everything I need to say with comics. I've tried to write strict prose in the past, but always felt constrained because there were parts of a story I could only communicate with images. Once I came around to making my own comics, everything clicked into place. For me, it feels like a complete language that is primed for experimentation between word and image.
4. I love the way you include supernatural elements and realistic characters -- how do you decide what goes into the work you do?
I enjoy working with supernatural elements in realistic settings because, as I said earlier, I love to speculate about how one might realistically navigate unbelievable situations. It also feels more comfortable to tackle subjects that are close to my heart when I'm able to obfuscate them via the fantastical. It grants me some emotional distance to work out feelings that are otherwise too raw for me to approach. I don't really want to make work about myself (because my life is fairly boring), I'd rather write about the adventures of strangers and add in some personal touches so that they feel a little more familiar to me.
5. What is the message you'd like to send through Artie and the Wolf Moon?
Besides just trying to tell an interesting story, I hope that readers find Artie and the Wolf Moon an empowering story. There is a lot of darkness in the world. But when you find the people in your life who love you and only want to help you become the best possible version of yourself that you can be, anything is possible.
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