ON REALLY SEEING
Rural-ish, MI | "Summertime" DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
“You can’t be a fan, and be in the game at the same time.”
Heard an interview with Sterling K Brown last month. He was telling the story of when he was just starting out. He was in a play with a bunch of big deal actors. He was just a newbie at the time. And he was having this weird emotional dissonance of being an “actor”, but also being in this play with all of these highly decorated legends. Heroes. We’re talking Oscar winners, here. He was really struggling with it. Then someone close to him dropped this wisdom, “you can’t be a fan and be in the game at the same time” … I heard this, I was driving, and I immediately shouted to Siri to “take a note”. But I was also prepared to pull over and jot it myself. What a perfect distillation of mindset. “You can’t be a fan AND be in the game at the same time.” Once more, but a little slower this time…“You can’t be a fan and be in the game at the same time.” Damn.
In a couple weeks there’s a possibility I’ll be getting a coffee with some real deal kidlit authors. We’re talking major award winners, here. I just hope I can keep my cool and stay in the game.
Here’s some other useful stuff I picked up last month… Enjoy.
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” | Yes! No! | Mary Oliver
So much of this thing we do is “seeing”. How the light falls over there. How this thing, here, is constructed. And textured. The patterns and levels and phrasing of the words of that man, in that booth, speaking to his wife. And then his daughter. The orange in the cloud. The pink in the snow. The knowing that a standard door hinge in a modern home is held by three screws on this side. And three on that. And twelve all together.
Earlier this month, I heard someone speak of an exercise in attention and memory. They spoke of an exercise… perfect for summer. A journal of visual/auditory memory. Every day. A list of ten. 10 words max per line. Things you noticed that would signal to a memory from the day. It reads like poetry. Me, today:
6:15 am. Much too late.
Smyrna, strange to spell, strange to say
One of 3 sugar cookies left. And then another.
Outdoor calls—sunny and chilly.
A memory of a beach in 2021, second beach today
An unnecessary f-bomb
A new library, a full parking lot
Pod in one ear, incessant bouncing balls in the other
Wide mouth blue cup, bludgeoning oreos & ice cream
A familiar “cheers”
U OF MARYLAND COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY | Jason Reynolds
Lot of grad speeches out there this time of year. Idea: someone should curate them all into a single youtube channel. Please. Or if it exists, point me to it. I’m not a video guy. But when the algorithm served this one up, I listened (and sorta-kinda half watched). Whenever and wherever Reynolds speaks, I listen. Highly recco you do, too. For the words. The wisdom. And the presence. Lots of lessons in here if you look and listen with intent. “You got eyes.” Here’s the YOUTUBE LINK. Jason takes the stage at the 52:40 mark.
For an encore, also this quick HIT OF REYNOLDS ON AI
Look at those clouds, dang it! Then give James Musil a follow on the insta. There’s more where this beauty came from. I freaking love this. The color. The shaping. The texture. Loooove it, dang it! Thank you, algo-gods.
This is a spoilers-free process of the process update on my debut novel with Random House Graphic: a middle grade graphic novel about a neurodivergent boy who wakes up one morning with a crush on his best-best-friend and all the awkwardness and adventure that ensues.
Current Vibe: Drawing. A lot. I’m trying to keep a pace of a page-a-day. Which really equates to a page in the three hours or so before everyone wakes up and the day job begins. And then scattered work across weekends and holidays. Which is insane. But so far, I’m keeping pace. And that makes me happy.
All finished, the book will look like ~225. The personal goal is to be done done by year’s end.
My strategy to date has been to follow my creative energy. I’m working fairly chaotically based on the time I have in the moment. I’m approaching it panel by panel vs. page by page or chapter by chapter. I’m picking off the easy panels when I have 15 minutes to spare. And opting for the bigger and more intricate panels when I have larger chunks of time. If I’m not drawing well, I’m color blocking backgrounds. If I can’t figure out the hand in the panel I’m working on, I just move to another panel and hope for better luck tomorrow. Zero wasted minutes.
There was one day last month when I was absolutely killing it on one particular character — Cam (He’s my favorite to draw, and I feel like he’s gonna be a hit with readers, too. He’s got the best jokes). Anyway, I was in this incredible “Cam flow”, so I moved around the book to knockout a bunch of the Cam panels. Picking them off one by one. (Note to self: Save some of that “Cam joy” for the final grind.)
My Cam experience has been the opposite of my Quinn experience. She’s proven tough. I don’t think I’ve nailed her yet. And thus, she’s showing up pretty inconsistent— which is frustrating. A lot of it is her hair and her mouth and her head shapes. And how they work at all the various angles. But it’s all good. I just need more time “Finding Quinn.” I’m skipping her panels for now. Strategy here is to take a day off in the near future and just hunker down for 8 solid hours to get her down. Then go back and redo her panels. I’m not declaring any of it wasted effort. It’s just process. And I’m still learning. Here’s Cam being Cam. And Quinn trying to be Quinn…
Until next month…
Keep your nose clean,
Tom
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