Super Penguin

Hey friends! Happy Sunday! It’s been awhile since my last blog post, I’ve pivoted from trying to write every week, to trying to write once a month, to saving the blog for when I have something to say. There’s been a lot of my book time spent editing SP2, doing a podcast, having meetings and when you throw in my other work and family responsibilities, I’ve been very busy. I made the decision to dial back the blog, but will still keep it and post when inspiration sparks.

Over the past couple of weeks, I made a couple of big announcements on social media about working with an artist, Katie Weston, and am developing an audiobook voiced by actor Shaun Weiss. Both those things have me really, really excited and charged up for the future of SP. There’s always doubts in my head saying things like, “How am I going to make this work?” and, “Am I on the right path?” but these events have been big, obvious billboard-like confirmations that are impossible for me to interpret any other way than “Trust the process, it’ll work” and “Yes, this is the right path.”

While the past few weeks I’ve been riding the highs of my journey, there were really low lows that happened before them. These moments that bothered me a lot, at times, they made me want to quit. I think it’s really easy to share the great things that happen to me, but the hard parts are important to the story too. A lot of the time, we only see each other’s highlight reels. Well I want to share some of my really crappy moments, and then tell you something about it.

Story 1: I had an artist lined up before Super Penguin ever got published. I’m not going to tell you who it was, because this person is still a friend that I respect very much. But I will tell you that this is someone who is incredibly talented and that I was terrified to ask them to be a part of my project. In fact, (real low moment as an adult) my mom asked for me. They said “yes” (possibly because of my mom’s pressure, haha!) we had a meeting, talked about ideas, and then it fell apart. The artist got busy with more important projects (my words, not theirs) and then communication fell apart completely. I was devastated. I began to label myself and Super Penguin with words like “not good enough” and for awhile I believed it. Thankfully, the publishing process was already started, so I pivoted instead of scrapping the project entirely (at that point, I wanted to be done with the dream of being an author but had invested too much financially). I moved forward with a cover artist through the publishing company and it was so far from my vision that I literally became nauseated when I looked at it. (I’ll share it below) We were so far off that the second round of cover art came from a completely different artist. Thankfully, I eventually got something close to my vision of the characters and we moved forward, but by then, I was absolutely, positively against any artwork inside my books, and I would only ever have cover art. I got some feedback at the absence of pictures but I was against it because of the hurt and bad experiences. However, as time went on, I softened my stance a bit, had a meeting with Katie, and as I talked with her, I realized she was way more aligned with my vision than Artist #1. When I first needed an artist, Katie was still in college, and needed to get through that first. I’m literally grateful for the rejections that set up this partnership! Lesson Learned: Sometimes the wrong answer has to say “no” so the right answer has time to develop.

Story 2: Last April, I went to a convention that Shaun Weiss was also attending. It was the worst convention we went to all year. Multiple factors played into it: bad weather, new convention, not the biggest of cities. What should have been a medium-sized convention, performed much smaller. Financially the weekend was a loss for us, and (more importantly to me) it was a long drive and two and a half days away from our families. In my mind, it was a waste of money and a waste of time. When these things flop, I feel especially guilty for dragging along my buddy, Gardner and him spending time with me he could be spending with his family. The one positive from this convention was getting to meet Shaun, but at that moment, everything about the weekend was a big, fat L. Now keep in mind, I’m a relatively optimistic guy. I’m almost always looking for silver linings but at this con, I didn’t think there was one. I was bummed about the poor performance, embarrassed to answer the “How did it go?” questions that would come from family and friends and I wished I had never stumbled upon this convention’s website. Little did I know, that convention would set up my friendship with Shaun. We stayed connected through email and Instagram, and now month’s later, I have found the PERFECT voice for Super Penguin. The great news I shared last week probably never would have happened had I not gone to that little dumpster-fire of a convention. Now, I’m so glad I did! Lesson Learned: Sometimes really good things grow from really crappy things.

The third lesson I learned from both of these events, is to just keep moving forward. I believe that life is a puzzle. Things that happen to us are the pieces and as we put them together we can start to see the full picture of our life’s purpose. I believe that we don’t see the picture on the box, though. God is the only one who sees the box and knows what it’s going to look like. There’s some dark pieces, but they are still a part of the big beautiful picture and if you keep putting it together you’ll create a masterpiece.

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