My work is being published, can you believe it?
It was a crazy thought I had a few years ago; I was ruminating on all of my tiny ink drawings, the folklore that accompanied them, and my growing love for all things books. The stories were written, the art was done, it occurred to me that all I had to do was compile them and, well, could a book really happen?
So I got to work. I formatted the drawings and stories into a book-spread document with a simple cover. I wanted something solid to show, for impact, but remained open to any changes. I’m not a publisher, I’m an artist and designer, and I know these things take time, edits, adjustments, and revisions.
I eventually reached out to Nimbus Publishing on a hope and a prayer. I had a connection through some illustration work I did a few years ago for Séan McCann’s book One Good Reason.
It didn’t take long to hear back from my contact, the managing editor, Whitney Moran. Her response was warm and receptive, telling me she loved the idea and that she would run it by her team in the coming weeks.
And so I waited with great anticipation. Finally, one lovely August morning, I opened my emails to an extremely pleasant surprise: an offer of publication for my very first book. Queue the happy dance!
Since then, it has been a whirlwind of emails, meetings, editing, more artwork and writing (yes, new stories!), more emails, and more editing. It’s been a pile of work, as expected, but so much fun and oh so exciting.
The book is a compilation of 24 pen and ink art works and accompanying stories of ghosts, hauntings, and other lore around Atlantic Canada. You may already be familiar with my yearly participation in ‘Inktober’, the month long drawing challenge every October. I’ve always been a fan of local lit and folklore and it struck me to use East Coast ghost stories for my prompts in 2021. They were a hit.
Unsurprisingly, I had a blast drawing the tiny ink pieces. What I didn’t expect was the joy that came from writing the stories to accompany the art. Hence the idea for a book.
As I hinted before, the book will feature some never-before-seen drawings and stories, along with a few more recent Inktober pieces done last year in 2023.
It’s funny to me, as a child, I don’t know if I ever dreamed of growing up to be an author. I loved reading and writing, and often made my own little picture books, but I certainly didn’t expect to one day publish one.
I can recall this beautiful moment late one night a few months ago. I was working on one of the new stories in the book, and it occurred to me that if I could travel through time and tell little Bee that she would one day publish a book of her own, how delighted she would be.
Another favourite moment has been the cover reveal. And what fun it was to design the entire cover myself! Hand-lettered and illustrated, it seems fitting, doesn’t it? I’m so pleased with the outcome and extremely grateful to Whitney and the folks at Nimbus for their encouragement and support in this creative freedom.
Atlantic Ghosts will be in stores October 8, 2024. But in the meantime, it is available for pre-order from your local bookstore or anywhere that sells books. A personal favourite of mine: Bookmark on Spring Garden Road in Halifax; you can order the book directly from their website and have it shipped or pick up in store.
A huge thanks to those who have already pre-ordered, you have no idea how much your support means to me. I so look forward to the release, and hope to see you at the promo events! Stay tuned for more details.
Happy reading!