🌊 Spring Bottleship
Hey, everyone—
It's spring and I haven't sent a newsletter in forever so I'm going to do my best to keep this brief.
Three tidbits for you in this dispatch:
A free local event
An ongoing online offering
Some graphic novel updates
1. A Rare Appearance
I'm beyond thrilled to be interviewing Tessa Hulls here in Ojai at Bart's Books on Thursday, March 21st from 6-7pm about her new graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts.
The book is magnificent; heartbreaking and immersive and so unfathomably rich in research and insight. It was also, by Tessa's own accounting, nearly a decade in the making and crippling to create. As a fellow adventurous artist straddling the realms of retreat and immersion in the world, I imagine we're going to have a lot to talk about.
If you're in the Southern California area, please do join us. The event is free and outside! (I'll also be bringing some copies of my books if you've been wanting to get your hands on one of the 100 Demon Dialogues reprints or my latest illustrated collaboration with poet Tara K. Shepersky.)
2. A Digital Community Space
I'm hosting a monthly online gathering called Nü Mün Creative Club. The premise is very simple: whenever there's a new moon, I boot up a Zoom room, lead a brief meditation, and then let everyone loose to spend 90 minutes doing nourishing things. What are those things? You choose!
Some things I've done: lain down on the floor and closed my eyes, called my representatives about a ceasefire, danced to an entire album start to finish, stared at the sky, cooked a meal. There are no rules. The crew is solid gold. I love it. We all say hello for a bit at the very end and then go back to our respective lives. It's a wonderful antidote to everything else.
Next meeting's this coming Sunday, March 10th at 10am Pacific. If you want to carve out some sacred time in your life, join us for $8 a month on Patreon!
3. Seacritters Updates
Speaking of Patreon, it's the best place to get updates about Seacritters, the graphic novel I'm still (still!) working on for Walker Books. Here are some character sketches from the drawing table last week:
I'm currently moving into penciling the book, which means doing a lot of swearing at Past Lucy for waving her hands and saying "There's going to be an enormous crowd scene here but I'll just make some Vague Scribbles about it for now."
There's also this huge tracking spreadsheet which shows you where I'm at in the process (the little numbers above each page on the second tab show how many minutes I spent drawing). Personally I find this sort of data very fun, but I'm also a certified nerd so your mileage may vary.
That's it for now. The temptation to write a zillion words about everything is strong, but my sleepiness is stronger.
Thanks for being here. I love having a newsletter even if I don't touch it for months at a time <3
Lucy
P.S. Okay okay one more thing: there's a new prompt up at The Right Number. If you'd like to listen to a little voicemail message and leave one of your own, call 503-673-6267.