Letter of Intent

Around month 6 of my pregnancy with my first child, Adan Julian, I decided that I wanted to write a children's book for him. What better way to jump-start my art life again than to create a gift especially for Adan and Adan only. Books are something that most children have, but very few have ones specifically written about themselves; few have the excitement of opening a book past the title page and reading "For my son, Adan."

As a young child, long before my interests spilled from simple images into the words of authors like Roald Dahl, my favorite books were anything Suess, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Corduroy. Colorful and creative, vast picture books printed on glossy big pages, with simple stories and memorable characters sandwiched between library-laminated hardcovers. As I grew older I often fashioned most of my school projects into books I had written and illustrated. Some involved animal detectives, some parodied my favorite cartoon as a youth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I finished each one. ...and have not been able to complete such a project since I was around 9 years old.

I'll be 27 in January and if my son decides to be born a few weeks early, he will be born on my birthday. I'm certain that a book cannot be completed in that amount of time and be as breath-taking as I like, but the idea of completing a project in time for him to sit-up and stare and drool at my drawings. 18 years is entirely too long to be finishing things that I start.

The synopsis is simple: Adan is a tiger (my husband's favorite animal) who asks a lot of questions and goes exploring to find lots of answers. Along the way he meets a handful of animal friends that he learns from. At the end he reports back to his parents all of the fun things he's learned.