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My contribution to this week’s Illustration Friday prompt, “Glow”. The coloring is messy and ugly, but the idea was fun to try and pull off quickly.

In Into the Trap, Eddie and Briggs don’t have time to sleep: Too much is happening and too much is at stake. But if they had had a chance to catch some Zs, they probably would have been so worn out they could have fallen asleep anywhere, even on the deck of a boat.

I’ve snoozed on boats of all kinds. I’ve catnapped on the ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket, fallen asleep on the cover of the fish box on a codfishing boat, slipped into a dream state while steering my little catboat in light airs in open water with no other boats around.

When I sailed with my family as a kid, I rated the most cramped sleeping quarters by virtue of being the youngest. That usually meant I slept in the forward V berth. But I didn’t mind. It became my sanctuary where I could close the small door and peek out the hatch or listen to baseball games on my transistor radio, the ghostly voices sweeping from clarity to the sizzle of interference with the regularity of ocean swells.

On hot nights, I also slept topside wrapped up in the Genoa, the big foresail, piled up on the foredeck, where I could watch the stars float back and forth as the boat jogged on her anchor.

On the Sea Hunter, a wooden codfishing boat I crewed on for several years, we would leave the dock in Wychmere Harbor around midnight. My watch wasn’t until we reached the Great Round Shoal buoy, a steam of about two-and-a-half hours. Once I finished whatever work I had to do, I could head below into the cabin till my turn to steer came up.

The cabin was Spartan—two plain pine bunks on either side of the exposed hull with fishing gear jammed between them and the forward end of the engine box. The engine roar was deafening. I could feel the zipper on my jeans vibrate. My bed was a blow-up mattress and an Army-surplus sleeping bag.

When the run across Nantucket Sound and around Monomoy Point was rough, I’d be pounded up and down and side to side and had to keep a grip on the edge of the bunk. First I’d be airborne. I’d seem to hang in the air for a moment. Then I’d slam back down onto the bunk——not the best way to get much rest.

But sometimes the sea relented. I’d go below, the boat cruising across the night sea as if on rails. I’d kick off my boots. Already exhausted from back-to-back trips and the general fatigue of fishing, I’d burrow into the cocoon of the sleeping bag. I could see my breath rise in the faint light coming from the pilothouse. Even over the engine noise I could hear the water rushing past the hull, my ear separated from the depths of the ocean by only an oak plank.

I’d give myself over to the action of the boat. Enveloped in the roar of the diesel, I’d feel the hull driving through the water, and every now and then the boat would ease upward on a swell so that I became lighter and rose up on the mattress as if levitating. I’d feel feathery for a moment, and then the boat would glide downward, and I’d settle back into the mattress. The droning engine, the cold ocean air on my face, the slow rocking horse motion of the boat…I’d fall into as sweet and deep a sleep as I’ve ever experienced.

The only problem was that in what seemed like a split second later, the ga

Hey everyone! Here is a work in progress piece I’m working on right now for a Sleeping Beauties series I created. I started this one a little differently. This time I drew the basic shapes in Illustrator. Then brought the piece into Photoshop. Where I’m working with different brushes and adding textures using pattern overlays [...]

Picked out a random rough of something I’ve been working on. This is actually a throw-away rough for a spread from an early/emergent reader. The story was changed and the bears’ day starts at 5 a.m. now so this spread is kaput. But I rather liked it so wanted to give it some reason for [...]

Did you sleep last night?  I did, but only because I took NyQuil.  It is estimated that one in ten people suffer from Insomnia- and Jack D. Edinger and Colleen E. Carney have written a guide that can keep you from suffering alone.  Overcoming Insomnia, in our Treatments That Work series, has two editions, one designed for therapists and one designed for patients.  Below is an excerpt from the patient workbook, which provides essential information about healthy sleep and the reasons for improving sleep habits, and then introduces a behavioral program designed to address that patient’s specific sleep problems.

-Select a standard rising time
It is important that you choose a standard rising time and stick to it every day regardless of how much sleep you actually get on any given night. This practice will help you develop a more stable sleep pattern. As discussed in the previous chapter, changes in your sleep-wake schedule can disturb your sleep. In fact, you can create the type of sleep problem that occurs in jet lag by varying your wake-up time from day to day. If you set your alarm for a standard wake-up time, you will soon notice that you usually will become sleepy at about the right time each evening to allow you to get the sleep you need.

- Use the bed only for sleeping
While in bed, you should avoid doing things that you do when you are awake. Do not read, watch TV, eat, study, use the phone, or do other things that require you to be awake while you are in bed. If you frequently use your bed for activities other than sleep, you are unintentionally training yourself to stay awake in bed. If you avoid these activities while in bed, your bed will eventually become a place where it is easy to go to sleep and stay asleep. Sexual activity is the only exception to this rule.

- Get out of bed when you can’t sleep
Never stay in bed, either at the beginning of the night or during the middle of the night, for extended periods without being asleep. Long periods of being awake in bed usually lead to tossing and turning, becoming frustrated, or worrying about not sleeping. These reactions, in turn, make it more difficult to fall asleep. Also, if you lie in bed awake for long periods, you are training yourself to be awake in bed. When sleep does not come on or return quickly, it is best to get up, go to another room, and only return to bed when you feel sleepy enough to fall asleep quickly. Generally speaking, you should get up if you find yourself awake for 20 minutes or so and you do not feel as though you are about to go to sleep.

- Don’t worry, plan, or problem solve in bed
Do not worry, mull over your problems, plan future events, or do other thinking while in bed. These activities are bad mental habits. If your mind seems to be racing or you can’t seem to shut off your thoughts, get up and go to another room until you can return to bed without this thinking interrupting your sleep. If this disruptive thinking occurs frequently, you may find it helpful to routinely set aside a time early each evening to do the thinking, problem solving, and planning you need to do. If you start this practice you probably will have fewer intrusive thoughts while you are in bed.

- Avoid daytime napping
You should avoid all daytime napping. Sleeping during the day partially satisfies your sleep needs and, thus, will weaken your sleep drive at night.

- Avoid excessive time in bed
In general, you should go to bed when you feel sleepy. However, you should not go to bed so early that you find yourself spending far more time in bed each night than you need for sleep. Spending too much time in bed results in a very broken night’s sleep. If you spend too much time in bed, you may actually make your sleep problem worse. The following discussion will help you to decide the amount of time to spend in bed and what times you should go to bed at night and get out of bed in the morning.

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I am so excited to be working on a children's book with a local author. I am posting this image from the book, which happens to be page 01 of the story. The interesting part is that both people in this picture actually exhist in real life! Grandma GoGo is indeed our author!