Remember last week when I announced my third book and then I fell into a puddle of relief when you said you were excited about it? And I promised you that I’d tell you the title one day very soon?
Well, today is that day.
(If you don’t know what I’m talking about then go here and then come back. We’ll wait. Done? Awesome. Back to the blog post already in session.)
I really struggled choosing the title for this book because I wanted something unique and fun, but also serious and weird and basically encompassing all of the bizarro things that were going through my mind when I created it, and that’s not exactly easy to stuff into a single line. In the last year I came up with a ton of different title ideas but none of them ever seemed quite right.
Here were a few contenders:
Completely and Fantastically Lost: An Obscure Guidebook For Misfits and Strangelings
Feeling Stabby: A sophisticated coloring book to soothe troublesome minds
THIS IS BULLSHIT: A handbook for life.
Get Lost. (But in a good way. Inside your head. Or in this book. Whatever. I’m not telling you what to do. STOP YELLING AT ME.)
THIS IS YOUR BOOK. (To color, write in, discover yourself, set on fire and/or throw at assholes.)
I’m Not Allowed To Have Matches (And Other Things I’ve Learned): A coloring journal for creative vandals, notorious scribblers and incurable weirdos.
I JUST WANT MY BRAIN TO STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE: An illustrated journey for the similarly confused
Vandals Needed. See Inside.
THE BIBLE (PART 3)
None were quite right. But I kept coming back to this specific thought I’d had so often when I was creating the drawings. If my head was in a bad place I’d remind myself that I just had to live through that exact temporary moment that I was in because eventually I’d pull out of the haze. And if my head was in a good place I’d remind myself to stop and appreciate the moment I was in…to live in it and celebrate it rather than worry about the future or the past. And when my brain went missing I’d remind myself that I was still real and that I would come back to myself. That I was still here…even when I felt I wasn’t. And that I wasn’t alone because you were here too. Maybe not in person, but in spirit…you were alive in the moment with me, whether you knew it or not. Whether you were struggling or thriving or feeling lost.
You weren’t lost. You were here. And that is a wonderful thing.
And suddenly, there was the title.
(Click to embiggen if you want to read the words on my sketches.)
It won’t come out for quite a while but until then I’ll be sharing other drawings here to thank you for being so supportive and for making me feel so much less alone. For reminding me that I am here. And for being here with me.
If you want to preorder you can do that here and then it’ll be a lovely surprise present to yourself if your memory is as faulty as mine. Also, it’ll be a lovely surprise to me because I have no idea how this sort of book will do and I really, really hope you like it.
Want to preorder it? Yes? Really? COME HERE AND LET ME LICK YOU.
A few places you can preorder today if I didn’t fuck everything up:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Indigo
Indiebound
PS. Thank you. You have no clue how many times you’ve saved me. I don’t know where I’d be without you, but I’m so grateful to be right here with you now.
PPS. A behind-the-scenes bonus: I was only halfway done when I took this picture but this is what my lap looks like late at night…with a sketch pad and a variety of animals trying to make my life difficult.
PPS. That drawing isn’t in the book. I’ll share it here when I’m finished. That way it’s like you’re getting a ton of the book for free as a bonus for pre-ordering. Or for thinking about pre-ordering. Or for telling someone to preorder it for you because you are hard to shop for and now your family doesn’t have to just give you a $20 bill for your birthday. EVERYONE WINS.
UPDATED: HOLY SHIT, Y’ALL. It’s #6 on the Amazon bestsellers list. I’m sure it’ll drop back down any second but I can’t tell you what it means to have such an amazing community behind me. DRINKS FOR EVERYONE!
UPDATED AGAIN:
