We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence. – Annie Dillard #graphicnovel #inspiration #forest

I long to fully immerse myself in Molly, to give the project the attention it needs. Yet at the same time, I suppose, I am fully immersed in it because I am infused with it, even when working on other things and just living my life. I trust the project has a life of its own. As I build the rest of my career I am feeding Molly, knowing that once I release the first instalment, I will be releasing it to a larger audience.

I think what I love most about working on my graphic novel- besides the fact that it is a Vancouver story that appeases my hunger for historical research and deduction- is that it forces me into the forest. The story begins in the forest so I often find myself in the forest, like yesterday afternoon, observing, listening, allowing.

No doubt, one of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard, teaches me how to be in the forest fully.

“I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what’s going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.”

― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.”
― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek