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Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope it’s been great so far.  Here in Utah we got a white Christmas, and I can’t think of anything better.

…Except giving an awesome gift to my blog readers!!  Y’all know I work as an artist, but you may not know that I also write books on the side.  (I love creating stories.)  A few months ago, a book I wrote, “Illusionarium” was released,  and I found out just a couple days ago that it made the NYT bestseller list! Cool!

If you haven’t heard of the book, here’s a short summary–

16-year-old Jonathan lives a quiet life on a far north aerial city, with hopes of one day becoming a surgeon.  But when his mother and sister fall ill with a mysterious and fatal disease, Jonathan must travel through an alternate London full of illusions and monsters to get the cure.  But can he find it before his family dies…and before he turns into a monster himself? 

We just finished producing the audiobook, and as a Christmas gift, I want to give it to you guys…FOR FREE!  Behold!

Isn’t that a fabulous cover?  Kevin Keele, one of the best artists I know, painted it.  You’ll want to check out his blog and tumblr for more beautiful artwork.

Elyse Todd made that gorgeous steampunk title, and you’ll want to check her out on Behance.

I love the audiobook cover, I feel like it’s a great match for the book.

Upside down…

Really great match!  Hahaha yissssss.

Ben Cummins is the reader, and he does a stupendous job.  His voices are perfect!

Do you like Terry Pratchett-esque steampunk books with lots of humor and lots of monsters?  Then you’ll wanna download this audibook!  All you need to do is click on the link below.  This will lead you to a site (totally safe, I promise) that prompts you to enter a password.  Once entered, the audiobook will begin downloading.

Illusionarium Audiobook

Password = RIVEN

Merry Christmas!  I hope all the best things happen for everyone in this upcoming year ^_^

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A book I wrote, "Illusionarium", will be coming out soon.  {May 19th!}  My favorite part about this is that I got to make the book trailer!

{A book trailer is, like, a teaser to get people excited about the book.  I made the trailer for Entwined, so it was a lot of fun to do it for Illusionarium too.}  And, like the trailer for Entwined, the first version was totally the wrong direction.

I wasn't real happy with it.  The silhouettes I made felt too cartoony, the gears too heavy, etc.  And I felt like the there wasn't a unifying element in the style.

So, I scrapped it and went forward with a different look.  I made the vignette a lot more delicate, simplified the color scheme, and used images that were from the time period of the book.




I liked this much better!

It was a blast to make.  This is totally  my dream--to have a small-productions animation studio where I get to make, like, commercials and music videos and a bunch of different styles and I can get all artsy and stuff and there are dancing ballerinas everywhere

My other dream is to secretly live in Disneyland for the rest of my life.










A girl's gotta dream.


Anyway, here's the trailer.


A great big thank-you to Matt Gates {who did the music}, Jeff Meacham {sound mixing}, Joe Fowler {producer}, and After Effects, which is my favorite animating program EVAH!  Thanks, guys!

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Things have been kind of crazy lately.

A lot of that has been due to "Illusionarium," the book I've been working on these past few years.  It's nearing the end stages of development.

A lot of the writing I do takes place on the train.  Since I have to commute into the city for my day job, I get up really early--about 4 am--hop on the first train, and ride it to Ogden, then to Provo, then back to Salt Lake.  


When I get off from work, I ride it from endline to endline again, typing the whole time.  It's pretty much become my second home.


In fact, I've gotten to know all the little secrets.

For example, the train has 3 really nice, new cars--


...And one really old, horrible, creaky, leaky car affectionately called the "Cattle Car."


No one ever rides the Cattle Car....except me.


...which makes me the train creeper!  hahaha!!

The fancy cars are constantly blowing freezing on you...but if you feel the walls of the Cattle Car...



...you can find some toasty hotspots.  It's the best.



I know some other pretty nifty secrets, too.  I swear there is an abandoned grand piano sitting on the hill between the Draper and Thanksgiving Point stations.  No idea how it got there.

 
 One night I nearly missed my stop, and in my haste I left the Illusionarium manuscript w/the editor's feedback on the train.  Oops.  I guess some lucky train person got to read Illusionarium early!


...as well as everything that's wrong with it.

 My best train story though happened one freezing cold night last February.


The train had just pulled into the Provo station, like it always does, and I waited in the Cattle Car, like I always do, for it to reverse and head back to the Ogden station, which it always will.


I guess I must've been pretty into the story, because I didn't notice how the whole train had emptied and sat at the station for a good 40 minutes like that...

...until the lights went out.


...and the train s-l-o-w-l-y chugged out of the station.  In the wrong direction.


It stopped a while later, in the middle of an abandoned railyard...


...in the middle of nowhere.


I, um.  I wasn't quite sure what to do.


 Everyone was gone.


The door was locked, so I couldn't get out.


There wasn't anyone, or anything, that I could see outside the window.  Only the frozen railyard.

I decided that maybe I should just keep working until they put the train back at the station.





I had a good cry.

It didn't really help.*

*crying only helps if you do it in front of someone...dang it.

It also didn't help that I needed to go to the bathroom!

Desperation led me to do the one smart thing I'd thought of all night...look up the train's website online and call their customer service.


...which was closed.




We really don't need to see this.

I don't know how long I remained huddled in the cattle car...maybe an hour longer or so...before I somehow found the emergency number for the entire public transportation system...


A very nice lady assured me that someone would be there very soon.


Very, very soon.


At least within the next several hours. 







THEY FOUND ME!!!!!!!!



Hurrah!!


I was saved!!!




I followed them for what seemed like forever, out of the creepy lone railyard and back to the station, where another train would soon be headed north.



Needless to say, I was pretty darn happy I'd been rescued.


In fact it was probably the happiest day of my life.


In fact, I think I'll ride the train...forever! <3 <3 <3

FYI, this draft of Illusionarium turned out to be rather dark and violent.  I can't for the life of me figure out why. 

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