Research is the story. So am I. #Vancouver’s #coldcase, Babes in the Woods. #Molly #graphicnovel

I’ve decided that the story of how I uncovered/discovered Molly is as interesting as the story of Molly herself.

From my stream of consciousness journal I have started as a working space regarding telling the story of MOLLY:

I hesitate to start writing… because I don’t trust my ability to tell the story. Or to even draw it out properly. So I need to trust that I have the story in me already. I know it better than anyone else. And I should trust that I can, therefore, tell it better than anyone else. I’ve been struggling with how to tell it. Do I add the research journey into it or just include Molly references?

… Looking at the overall picture and verifying yet again that Molly seems to be the perfect fit. Or at least she’ll do. She seems to want me to tell the story. It all just seems to fall into place when I work on it. It’s only fear and hesitation that has kept me from trusting that I can do this. This is my dream. To do a graphic novel about Molly. And I’m doing it. So really, I’ve achieved success. Because I’m now in the process. And that is the best part of it. I’ve been in it since 2003.

The banker boxes are glorious. The binders are impressive. The collaboration with mom and dad brings me to tears. I know now that the journey of finding Molly, the original story of the boys themselves, needs to be part of it. And I need to just do it without hesitation like I do my art and journals…

I was going to leave myself out of it. I was even going to write as if I was Molly- a diary. But it’s my story. I am just as much part of it as she is.