January 27, 2025

The New Book!!

So I’ve been working on a new book!! It will be called Let’s Make Cocktails! This whole Let’s Make thing is shaping up into a whole series, which still blows me away! Back in 2018 I don’t think I ever dreamed that our little ramen book would lead to so many awesome things!

Here is a fun fact: BOOKS TAKE FOREVER. I had to look back through my emails, and the first time this project was mentioned was November of 2023. I spent two months working on the pitch, which we sent in January 2024.

It was announced in Publisher’s Marketplace in February, and the contract was signed in March, and I immediately started working on it. An extra fun fact is that I am making this book on my own! I’m writing it as well as drawing everything. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the outline, structure, categories, and which recipes to include. My dining room table has been covered with research materials for months.

I turned in 17 finished sample pages in October, and just handed over the full written 192-page manuscript two weeks ago! This is what most of the manuscript looks like: just text, laid out in panels and spreads.

Now the drawing starts! I begin with thumbnailing, which I hate with a passion. It feels like pulling teeth. It drags like you wouldn’t believe. Sometimes deciding on the art that will go in a single panel immediately suggests itself, but often, figuring it out takes forever. We hates it! We haaaates it!

This stage won’t last forever. Once I’m done with thumbnails, I can sink into the final art, which is just the very best part. I can throw on an audiobook and absolutely lose myself making pretty lines and pushing colors around. I’m very, very looking forward to that. The final art will be due in August, and the book should be out the following spring. To recap! The idea was born in fall of 2023, and it’ll hit shelves spring of 2026. BOOKS TAKE FOREVER.

It’s been such an adventure working on a book all on my own. In some ways infinitely more challenging, but in some surprising ways, it’s easier. It’s a lot more difficult to do all the research, writing, and recipe testing myself! But it’s also been delightful to shape that writing for a comic book format from the very beginning, instead of wrestling panels and comic book pacing out of preexisting prose.

One thing I’m extremely, extremely excited about? COLOR.

I loved working on Let’s Make Bread! But! It was a lot of beige. Just… so many shades of beige and golden brown. This book will have many lovely glass shapes and interesting reflections and brightly colored garnishes. I love color so much. I especially love making colors as bright and ridiculously saturated as possible. I’m really going to enjoy going nuts with colors in this book. :)

Anyway! that’s your progress report. The next book is in process, and it should be out a little over a year from now, because, if you take anything away from this, it’s that BOOKS TAKE FOREVER. Also! I’m gonna try opening these newsletters up to comments! So if you have any questions about the book or anything else, feel free to ask!

Hope you’re having a lovely week so far! Here are some things I’m into lately:

• Making cheese filled buchty to honor my ancestors

• Listening to the audiobook of Open Throat by Henry Hoke

• Reading the physical book of Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

• Gearing up for Hourly Comic Day! it’s February 1, a Saturday this year! So next newsletter will probably be a collection of my hourlies!

Here’s what Toki’s been into lately: Sleeping on top of a high shelf because it’s directly under the heating vent