THE GROUND FAIRY - 2022 Update
When a curious baby fairy falls from the towering treetops, she lands with a choice: push past her limits in a struggle to fit in, or embrace them and forge a new path in the hidden worlds below?
Image shows a digital sketch against a warm, redwoods-brown background. A tiny baby fairy and her snail companion sit on the ground, both enraptured by a white butterfly that has perched on a crystal. They are surrounded by foliage and tall-stemmed mushrooms, and above them is handwritten text that reads “The Ground Fairy” in brown lettering. The sketch is colored in blues and purples.
If you've been following my work over the past seven years, you may know that my first picture book, The Ground Fairy, has been in and out of hibernation. In 2017 support from The Santa Cruz Arts Council allowed me to take an online course in the craft and business of writing picture books, giving me a boost of support during the initial creation period of my manuscript and early drawings. In January of 2020, a scholarship from The Children’s Book Academy allowed me to take a 5-week intensive course in picture book illustration, during which I learned a lot, mapped out the structure of the book, and made some discoveries about my ways of working. Over the last few pandemic years, the story has seen several more rounds of manuscript edits, lots of sketches and world-building, connections with local critique groups, and it finally went out on submissions to agents and industry professionals within children’s publishing. I am currently querying this story and preparing to dive in to another round of revisions by next winter, if not before.
Creating this piece is an ongoing, long, slow process of healing.
A graphic I designed as part of some world building for The Ground Fairy. Black and white, it is meant to look like a fancy road sign for the city of Acornopolis (City of Flights and Heights). Ornate lettering reads “Acornopolis” with leafy frills and the O as an acorn. Below, three icons: one representing the element of air (a triangle with a line through it), one is a set of fairy wings, and one is an acorn.
A pencil sketch from my dummy for The Ground Fairy. This spread has the reader rotate the book vertically, making it appear as though the character has fallen from a great height. On the top page, text reads “You can’t fly.” On the bottom page, the sketch shows a closeup of her on the ground, with one eye squinted and the other looking out at us. Text below her reads “Yeah.” She is surrounded by mushrooms and foliage, and snail pokes their head in from the right edge of the frame, checking on her.