A Chicago Escargot

A bedtime tale for the French-est American boy

Dear reader,

Greetings from you-know-where!

UPS rang the other day and a giant box of my author copies of my book Thinking in Watercolor arrived at my doorstep. It sits ignored and untouched in the corner of the living room. I’m obviously proud/ecstatic/shocked I wrote and illustrated my very own book which will soon be yours on March 4th. But what is this nervous feeling that prevents me from unboxing with TikTokian zeal?

Looking back at the 4 years I’ve been developing, writing, editing and illustrating this book, I could only really focus on the process and I’m still process-ing. I feel like I had to write 4 books before I could really narrow down my thoughts to the brut idea at hand: watercolor and storytelling. This includes illustrating this children’s book vignette featured today. Although it was scrapped from Thinking in Watercolor, it illustrates a bedtime tale I’ve been telling my son since the beginning of this book writing process when he was still a tiny tot. Maybe this is the reward?

In tandem with the release of Thinking in Watercolor, my son will be joining me on his first trip to my hometown Chicago at the end of February. I hope it’ll be as cheesy and sans-Ketchup as he hopes. Enjoy! -jkw