I’ve disappeared these past two years, Waldo-like, into the landscape of boxes, paperwork, and the preparations of moving, changing jobs, and launching a child into the world. My time on this site has suffered. But I’ve been restless with all the changes and challenges of the past two years to get back into posting here and writing more in general. What writing time I have had has been spent revising stories that I haven’t yet polished to my satisfaction.

One is a historical fiction, middle grade novel that I started a lifetime ago. I’ve spent years researching it, and more years weaving my heart into it. It’s a tale with elements from my childhood and adulthood mixed with historical events, some of which I lived (yikes, it’s hard to think of one’s life as history already), so it takes an emotional toll to relive and honestly write about events that directly impacted me, but I’m ready to tackle it again.

I’ve had a middle grade, graphic novel script on the back burner as well, that’s itching to get out of me. It’s a Scorpio Races/Spirited Away mosh of a fantasy that’s taken me down a genealogical rabbit hole and inspired me to visit places where my ancestors lived and told stories of their own. It’s funny how stories that won’t let you go can evolve. This story started off as a picture book idea that I rewrote a thousand ways, until I realized it needed more than 32 pages to thrive. I tried writing it as a middle grade novel, but it’s always begged to be told in pictures, which spurred my interest in writing graphic novels. Once I got into writing graphic novels, which I already loved reading, I couldn’t stop. 

Hence two other picture books turned graphic novels :). One that’s a fun, friendship story inspired by my kids and their experiences growing up abroad, and another one that deals with disinformation, a topic that is sorely needed today, especially for the youngest readers who don’t know a world without digital engagement. I’ve spent hours researching this topic as well, and will happily recommend watching The Social Dilemma, if you haven’t already, as well as reading If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, by Jill Lepore, and Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare, by Thomas Rid. 

I’ve got pages of articles on mis/isinformation, website links, the ALA recommendations for students on how to navigate online information, and so much more (cue the hammy commercial actor for that line). As I’ve envisioned it, this particular graphic novel, is similar to Julie Kim’s stunning Where’s Halmoni, in that it’s a bridge between a picture book and an early graphic novel, but mine is a subversively humorous story, more like Nick Bruel’s Bad Kitty books, which I also love. Interestingly, the historical fiction novel I mentioned above inspired me to write this one. 

As I was researching a rather obscure historical event for my novel, I found sources online that sometimes contradicted each other, which propelled me to reach out to the library in the town where the event took place. They introduced me to an author and researcher who was compiling primary sources about the event and who kindly shared her findings with me. I was blown away at how the primary sources portrayed a wholly different rendering than what was available online, the latter of which, unfortunately, other people had used to formulate and spread their own version of this event, polluting the web with even more misinformation. 

This experience happened well before The Social Dilemma and all the media attention mis/disinformation now has, so I was not surprised when mounting evidence exposed the toxic levels of misleading and outright false data filling our information pipelines. With each new technology, we humans have to learn to master it or be mastered by it, so this little graphic novel has also become a labor of love, to prepare my own and other children to navigate what some pundits call a “post-truth” world. I am, however, optimistic that we can wrestle this beast and win, so long as we stay informed about how mis/disinformation uses our emotions to trick us into believing it. 

It’s impossible to separate the spread of mis/disinformation from emotional and social awareness, so I do hope this little graphic novel about two friends who have bad-info come between them finds a home soon. 

That’s it for now. I wish you all good luck in your writing adventures. May you all have a happy holiday season and a wondrous new year. 

_{Header image is from Where’s Waldo in Hollywood by Martin Handford.}