Flies dropped in milk

I just came back from a Katherine Mansfield conference where I showed people my fledgling sketches for the Katherine Mansfield graphic novel I’m writing. Of course it was too early and I broke the cardinal rule of not talking about your work before it’s done for fear of jinxing it. But maybe that doesn’t count for graphic novels, just like there are certain superstitions that only apply to theatre. Also the entire idea of blogs and social media is that you drop little hints about the great things you’re working on in order to give people a taste of things… but maybe the first taste is the best and by the time you get to the meal, well, you’re just not hungry any more. Oh, the anxiety!

I had the most fun beginning to read Katherine Mansfield’s letters and illustrating little bits out of those, which is where these illustrations come from.

My favourite illustration was the one below, mainly because it seemed like something Edward Gorey might draw. You might have to click on it to read the text – it goes up much bigger.

I can see that I’m going to have a lot of fun trying to render Mansfield’s subconscious, and I’m also going to enjoy getting her into conversations and altercations (cat fights! Broken strings of green beads!) But right now I’d better get back to the novel I’m meant to be finishing, The Fall of Light!