UPDATED: Wanna see the cover of my next book?

in I draw to keep my hands from destroying me, YOU ARE HERE

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.

You Are Here jenny lawson

(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.

Me: I'm drawing here. Dorothy Barker: Nope. Also, I ate your eraser.
Me: I’m drawing here. Dorothy Barker: Nope. Also, I ate your eraser.

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!

#6

UPDATED AGAIN:

NUMBER 3. IS THIS REAL LIFE?
NUMBER 3. IS THIS REAL LIFE?

324 thoughts on “UPDATED: Wanna see the cover of my next book?”

Read comments below or add one.

  1. I LOVE IT. I love the title, I love that there are cats in it, I love that I am still working on the fine details of that tree. LOVE it.

  2. OMG! I’m SO excited to read the next book!! (and I’m not finished with Furiously Happy yet!) 🙂
    I like this title, “Completely and Fantastically Lost: An Obscure Guidebook For Misfits and Strangelings”

  3. It’s really beautiful…and it will be nice to know where I am. 🙂

  5. I would prefer that Dorothy Barker licked me. But thank you for your licking generosity. Drop-dead (no, don’t!) perfect cover. {applause}

  6. Eeeee!!! I just preordered it. Coloring helps me calm my mind so much. And now a coloring book from,the author of the books that have helped save my life. I might just pass out from excitement

  7. Pre-ordered. I love the title, but Feeling Stabby would have been good too.

  11. The only thing I wanna see more than the cover of your next book … is the cover of my first book. I guess I should finish writing it, for starters. :-/
    Again, I will say: Your artwork is amazing.
    Congratulations on your continued success, Jenny. 🙂

  12. Eeeee!!! I just preordered it. Coloring helps me calm my mind so much. And now a coloring book from,the author of the books that have helped save my life. I might just pass out from excitement

  14. Awesomeness Jenny! Absolutely delightful, delicious and delovely;) FUCK you for being so talented and brilliant;) And for sharing it with us all;)

    Your Admirer;)

  15. I can’t wait to get it! (Although I like the “feeling stabby” title best.)

  16. Not gonna lie, I REALLY like some of those rejected titles (probably because life feels like a continuous stream of bullshit right now) but I love the thought behind the title you finally chose. We’re all here together. <3 Metaphorically. I don’t think you’d all fit in my cubicle.

    Also, is there a particular place you’d most like us to preorder from? I don’t know how this works. Do you get more ‘credit’ from one site over another or anything?

  21. I cannot wait to vandalize the shit out of your new book. You are a GIFT! I love you and can’t wait for you to feel the love from Us (your blog peeps) through all the books you sell.

  24. I would have settled for Feeling Stabby: A sophisticated coloring book to sooth troublesome minds, but the final version is awesome!

  25. When I scrolled down and saw the cover it gave me goosebumps for some reason. Or there was a draft in here. Who knows.

    Either way, I’m ordering two because I want to keep one as you drew it and I want one to play with.

    Let’s all save each other! #TheBloggessTribe Whoooo!!!

  27. I love it! Cant wait and so excited we get to see things others don’t…cause we are special…we are your “tribe”..

  28. Why are you so goddamned talented? You can write. You can draw. You can juggle cats. STOP BEING SO TALENTED! We mere mortals don’t stand a chance.
    (P.S. Please don’t stop being a goddess. You’re the deity in which I place my faith.)

  29. I love your art, I could happily wander around in it for days. Which I just realized makes no sense. What I meant is that I could get lost in one of your drawings and be happy and soothed.

  30. Uggggghhhhh, not until MARCH?! But…but… I’m needy! Fine. Fine. I’ll be…patient. FINE.

    I’m really looking forward to seeing it. You could put out a book of blank pages and I’d probably buy it. I mean, ideally, don’t do that, because I’d be kinda bummed. But just FYI, I am totally your minion.

    P.S. You’ve saved me plenty of times, too. The “Furiously Happy” audiobook is an instant day brightener, even if I’m just lying on the couch in a hermitty bubble, ignoring the big bad world.

  32. Will you be doing a tour with this one? Pretty please – I know they are hard on you – but I would love to meet you – I would drive alone for hours if needed – and I hate traffic – I hyperventilate and white-knuckle it whenever I have to drive in a city.

    (It’s a definite possibility. 🙂 ~ Jenny)

  38. It’s perfect.

    Someday when I write a book, I think the title will be the same phrase I start most of my stories with when I’m talking.

    “It’s like this, see…”

  42. I like the title, but I think you should have considered “Let Me Lick You.” I think I will use that though, so I am sort of glad you didn’t. As long as you don’t sue me.

  43. DONE DONE AND DONE!!!!! Cannot WAIT to fill the hours melding minds with you. SMOOCHIES!!!

  44. “creative vandals” ha ha ha! Jenny, I am SO excited to buy this book. Thank you thank you thank you!!!! You’re the best lady!!! <3

  46. Feeling Stabby always resonates with me, but your final choice is excellent. Can’t wait to hold it in my hands. Way to go, Jenny!

  48. I don’t know that I could stand to screw up your art with my coloring, so I preordered 2 to give me 1 to screw up and 1 to admire.

    Wait, what?! I have to wait until NEXT YEAR for this?? Now I understand about it’s being a “lovely surprise” since I will almost certainly forget before then.

  49. Put it on my Wish List until I get my new credit card that won’t expire until after the publication date. Then I will move it to preorder!

    squee!!!

  51. I personally loved “I’m not allowed to have matches”. I think that title would have been awesome. A bit cumbersome though. I suppose the one you have will just have to do. Congratulations on getting another book out there though!

  52. You do understand that the painfully broken part of your brain is the price you pay for all the outrageously amazing talents you have and that all the wonderment that has come back into your life is because you chose to share the wonderment of your talents with us and not lock yourself in that deep dark hole like so many before you have done, right?

  53. Wow Jenny, this is incredible! I have heard so many wonderful things about your books and how they help people who are struggling with their own anxieties and depression, and I cannot help but think of how much more this new book will be helping people, too. Some of us cannot seem to express what is going on inside and around us through drawings, and that can sometimes add to the frustrations. To be able to see what we might be feeling being expressed on paper can be a good relief. Even better that we can color it if we please as it will still allow us to express these things and become part of the book, in a way.

    I love the title you chose and the reason behind it is beautiful. I also got a good laugh at some of the other titles! Maybe you should save them for a rainy day?

  54. Perfection! The title, the rejected titles, and most of all…you! Pure perfection.

  55. Awesome sauce. I used to love coloring as a kid and this will be the perfect way to get reintroduced to to magic markers!

  56. Just had a wonderful friend pre-order for both of us, as I’m short in funds right now. I love the community that your writing, and drawings brings together. People the world over are part of this amazing club where everyone understands our bizarre, and often dark minds. We’re all awesome. If it’s not too late, may I make a suggestion as an artist? Please print the drawings one to a page, no back to backs. that way we don’t have to sacrifice one drawing for another!! For some reason I know I will be putting these up!!

  57. Just pre-ordered from my local independent bookstore. Thank you for creating this book!

  58. this would be so cool in a spiral binding to make it easy to flip open to one page and lay flat. even better if the front or back cover had a full length fold-in page to put behind the current page so that marker won’t bleed through (if the paper isn’t heavy enough to prevent that already). i have already ordered mine and am trying to wait patiently. waiting. waiting. waiting…

  59. Thank you for the cry…I needed that…#tearsofcommunity #tearsofjoy

  62. Thank you Jenny! You are brilliant (again). I really love the title “I just want my brain to stop being an asshole”. Because it has been lately!

  63. SQUEEE!!!!!!!

    I will completely forget that I pre-ordered this, so March will be awesome when I get a little present!

    I’ve not managed to get signed copies or book plates for your others–I somehow always miss out. Will you be doing that for this one?

  66. Completely and Fantastically Lost: An Obscure Guidebook For Misfits and Strangelings

    This one screams Jenny to me.

  68. Completely and Fantastically Lost: An Obscure Guidebook For Misfits and Strangelings

    This screams Jenny to me. Should I worry about it screaming?

  69. Just preordered 2 copies, one for me and one for my best friend! Thank you for your eye-opening responses to life. As a teacher, your insights help me look at students and their families with compassion. My tears, from laughing along with your words and drawings, show a healthy respect for all that you have and continue to experience. Blessings to you and your family and thank you for reaching through your pain and sharing yourself!

  70. Preordered! I’m having the most sucktastic day and this just helped make it better.

  71. I love the chosen title the best, BUT, like others, I really liked “Feeling Stabby”. I shall look for it as a future
    chapter title….LOL.

  75. So, I’m gonna go back up and read the rest of your post, but this stopped me like I walked into a brick wall and I don’t care what it is, you please must do something that does in fact carry this title:
    Completely and Fantastically Lost: An Obscure Guidebook For Misfits and Strangelings
    Please and thank you and felicitations and shit 🙂

  78. Pre-ordered. Not just because you’ve helped me through so many things, but because your art is incrediballs.

    And also because I’m not certain I’m all “here”, but would love to be “there”.

    You got this Jenny! Congrats!

  79. You can’t see it, but I’m doing a crazy little happy dance in my head right now. The Squirrel of Doom is dancing with me, too. (He just showed up without an invitation. Huh.)

  80. Pre-ordered from Amazon. Lick away! (I’m giggling and snorting like a ridiculous 12 year old boy, but there’s no emoji for that.)

  86. Perfect title! Reminds me of being lost in a big mall or park, I look at the huge map. Then I see it! YOU ARE HERE. Relief. Te same kind of relief you feel while releasing your creative inner coloring maven. SIGH 🤗

  87. Jenny, you are amazing! I’m proud to be one of your fans!! Don’t give up. I need you in my life.

  89. This reminds me of the Wayward Academy philosophy, that the fabulous Kim Rhodes summed up perfectly.
    “I don’t know you, but I know you. I’ve got your back.”
    We’re all in this together, and that gives me so much hope. ❤️

  90. Done! So excited for you for having created this and for me for getting to have it in my life.

  91. And THIS is the silver lining of having a fucked up brain. Creativity coming out of your ass. Please tell me you will have a place where we can show off how we colored your pictures. :o)

  92. I pre-ordered one for myself & one for my sister. March can’t come soon enough! Thank you, Jenny for all you do–you are truly amazing!!

  93. I have pre-ordered! But please don’t lick me. Nobody gets to lick me. I don’t even like doggy licks. I’m okay with hugs, though. Usually. Or even a handshake, if you’re more comfortable with that. I can’t wait for the surprise in the mail (because I will forget). It will be like an early birthday present if Amazon is at all close to be correct about the publish date. Whee!

  95. So excited! This will be the BEST COLORING BOOK EVER. Will it be available in spiral binding? That’s one of the biggest problems with most coloring books – a stitched/glued binding makes it hard to work because the pages don’t lay flat.

  97. Just pre-ordered 3, as that seemed to be the correct number. My “having the right thing for the right person I may not even know yet” talent will let me know who the rest are for later.

  99. I love the title but I can’t help to think how awesome it would be to promote a book called Feeling Stabby.

  100. Congratulations on your new book. I just wish it were not a coloring book because oddly enough coloring makes me crazier. I get obsessed with errors, can’t relax, etc. I cannot get into the whole coloring craze. I feel left out. I get the same terrible fears I do if I try to doodle, or zentangle, or anything. I begin to obsess on how awful I am at it. Maybe I am ungiftedly OCD. It must be perfect, and I have no gift. I judge myself too harshly and hear “those voices” criticizing me. I mean, WHO THE HELL CAN’T DOODLE???

  103. i’m in!
    and i love that i don’t have to color it if i don’t want to. totally just gonna appreciate your fabulous work the way it is. xo

  104. I’m so in love with this book idea…I just preordered TWO of them: one for myself and one for my best friend in the world. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read your posts and the comments by your readers and understood what my BFF goes though a little more clearly. This lovely, beautiful, wonderful woman I love more than anyone else survives depression and anxiety on a daily basis, and she falls into the same deep pits that many here have found themselves in. She can’t pull herself for anyone, including her fiancé or me, the people she loves best. Here is where I’ve learned how to be patient and supportive and understanding and most of all, unconditional. That’s what she needs so that is what I try to give. I can’t thank you, Jenny, and this amazing tribe of people enough for everything you share. The least I can do is support your work, because I know it’s going to help others…it’s helped me and it’s helped me help someone I love dearly. THANK YOU.

  105. I LOVE IT AND THE ENTIRE BOOK (sorry for yelling, but just so excited!) It’s already one of my 3 favorite books…can you guess the other two?? 😘💖 Love you Jenny, you are my HERO and I will be preordering as soon as I get the money!! Thank You, Thank You and Thank You!

  106. Jenny, thank you so much for this! I can’t wait to receive this book. You have so many wonderful talents, and I thank you for sharing them with us. You are awesome!

  107. Another book?
    Thank God.
    I cannot wait one more day to get inside your crazy mind.
    Did somebody mention cats?
    O. M. GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. xxxxxxxxxxx from MN.

  109. Would love to pre-order but don’t know where I’ll be March 2017 😉
    Will be on the lookout though!

  110. I just pre-ordered my copy (copies..?), too…but dang…we have to wait until March, 2017??? Crap, now I have to shop for Christmas presents after all…or,hmm. I could give fancy ‘IOUs’ and then present the book three months after Christmas..

  111. How thoughtful of your publishers to release the book one day before my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! I’m going to have to find a room in my home where I can hang up all the art I can fit in from this book. Maybe the foyer, so people will know what they’re getting into as soon as they walk in the door. Thank you for sharing your art with us!

  112. I can’t tell you how happy and excited I am for this to come out. Having recently discovered the soothing benefits of adult coloring books (that sounds way naughtier than it is) I can’t wait for yours.

  113. Pre-ordered! And now I have to practice patience… of which I have none.
    I have to find something to take my mind off the wait so I think I will start stalking my postman now. I can only imagine he will find this charmingly endearing and therefore be at my door straight away on the release date. Or maybe sooner. Cause that’s how it works right? That’s the kind of power postpeople wield over the book making process.?.
    This is so happening. Time to go meet my new best friend!

  115. It’s going to be a great and fun surprise to me in March when my 2 copies arrive because I’ve forgotten I ordered them. I can’t wait! : )

  116. Thank you for finding me, I had no idea where the hell I was! Can’t wait to get the next drawing and the book.

  117. Love the title and the cover! Now lets hope someone gifts me some money for my birthday, so I can pre-order it. Will it be available for pre-order on The Bookdepository eventually as well?

  119. TAKE MY MONEY.
    No, really. My hands and my colored pencils can’t wait to have this book.
    And thank you so much for sharing your drawings and your crazy. The crazy in me recognizes and honors the crazy in you.

  121. So excited for another book. The title reminds me of advice my dad gave me about stressing out or feeling anxious, “remember: you are always here and it is always now”

  122. Holy crap I have to wait til MARCH? I CAN’T WAIT THAT LONG. I will most definitely forget and possibly even buy a second one because I didn’t realize I’d ordered this one. But I did and it will be one of the most amazing random gifts to myself ever. Thank you!

  123. I have a thought (well, sometimes more, but one for now). This would probably be too much of a personal intrusion for both of you, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Victor tries to stay in the background of your blog-life. Would he consider sharing some ideas about how he takes care of himself and how he helps/interacts with you when you are fighting your battles? Partners have a unique position but are sometimes largely invisible in their own struggles with helping someone they love. There are few published works that is specifically written for the partners. Thank you for all you do and thank you to your family for supporting you and sharing you.

  124. Usually I just lurk, but had to say Fantastic Title!!!
    Perhaps they could leave just a little white space so we could all write our favorite alternate title on the cover as a sub title?
    Ordering as soon as I get home.

  125. If i pre-order 4 will it happen faster? No? SOLD ANYWAYS! 💙 I already have “Just Because You Can’t See It…” framed on my wall and love it so. i want a clean book and one to color and two to give away to the two people i love best but i will still wave and waggle mine at everyone i don’t love best and demand they get their own. I’M SO EXCITED!

  126. Yay! I’ve pre-ordered three so that I have two to give away to friends who need them.

  127. I haven’t read through all the comments so you might have answered this already, but would you be willing to sell copies of some of the drawings? I’d love to get larger prints to hang in my office.

  128. Love the title and the cover. Your drawings are amazing, and I can’t wait to get the book. Actually, all the alternative titles were pretty great, too. Peace and love!

  130. I’ve pre-ordered and now I’m waiting for my lick….
    Congratulations Jenny!! You’ve done so much for us readers!

  131. I cannot wait for this!!! I’m obsessed with coloring books and I adore you, so this is bound to be my most favorite book ever!

  132. Pre-ordered because the delivery should be the same time as my graduation to become a teacher and that will be amazing to have as I embark on my next crazy journey.

  133. Aaaand, pre-ordered. March is typically a pretty grey and shitty time of year here where I live, so the timing will be perfect. 😀

  134. I am SUPER excited and just pre-ordered, because it comes out ON MY BIRTHDAY! What a great present to me!

  135. This is so wonderful!! I like all the potential titles too. They were super funny. Very excited for you and the release of this book! Yay!

  138. I am so excited. This is such an important book. I’ve already pre-ordered 2 copies! Jenny, thank you so much for trusting us with this very personal, beautiful book.

  139. Ordered 2, one for me and one for anybody who needs it,,,,

    Stay awesome Lawson

  140. I ordered one book. I hope I am still alive next year to receive it. But I wanted you to feel successful now, not later. I mean your success later is important too, but why wait to feel good?

  141. Perfect cover. Self portrait in the middle? Going to wait a bit to order…I’d hate to order it and be somewhere else when it ships but definitely plan to get at least a copy (though the whole premise of writing in a book is kind or weird to me, so maybe one copy to keep and one to color?).

  142. No way am I going to color this in… But I’d gladly give it a place on my shelf so I van look at your stunning, thought provoking art. You are a gift. And gifted. And the world is better with you in it.

  143. Hello, lovely Jenny. I’ve pre-ordered one and I’m excited to get it! xoxo

  144. Your title reminds me of the title to another of my favorite books, by John Ratey, bestselling author and clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School: A User’s Guide To The Brain.

  145. i’m so excited. and i’m glad someone else said that coloring is stressful to them. i find it the most stressful, least helpful, anxiety inducing horror. i think it’s because i’m a visual artist and i feel like it has to be perfect. i would prefer it not to be spiral bound, because i’m a bookbinder. but they do make those spiral bounds that have a perforation near the edge, so you can have the benefit of spiral bound, while those of us who are just going to rip the pages out and hang them still have a nice clean edge. that would be nice. the drawing on the left reminds me of something from pokemon. i’m new at that, so i can’t remember what it is. some kind of icon, not a pokemon itself. anyway, i absolutely love your drawings. they are superb. and i enjoy seeing you, so i’m hoping maybe you return to chicago. i always cry when i see you, but it’s a good cry.

    thank you so much for everything you do. you have helped me immensely. and thanks for #theBloggessTribe. so nice.

  146. I may have pre-ordered one or two (or six) and cannot wait to be able to share them with friends and family!

  147. I have preordered … and now I’m pre-happy, pre-excited, pre-sharpening my pencils…..

  149. Has anyone else suggested this? Could this book be made kinda like a binder? Then when Jenny releases a new drawing, we could print it and add it to the others.

    Probably not.

  150. I want to be your non stalkerish best friend who drinks wine and then comes up with ridiculous antics (read funny land mines that shoot out sticky confetti when stepped on). Or just coming up with 9000 ideas that we are way to lazy/drunk to follow through with.
    I once threw all items from my apartment, when j was in college and not in my right mind) and was completely baffled on why the neighbors called the cops. I would go Steiger up Rambo if some dumb college student did that to me now, but at the time it was uproariously funny. Even the police officers left chuckling. We got a warning and our hung over asses had to collect out belonging the next day. I ramble. I freak out. I hide in my bedroom eating cherries and hoping those I hate are blowing chunks with each pit. So that’s me. Hi, my name is Shayne and I have major depressive disorder.

  152. Haha! It was supposed to say I would go straight up Rambo on a drunk person throwing crap out of their windrow into their garden.

  153. March 7, 2017 is it? I’ll be very very patient. I restrained myself and only ordered two. I love all your alternate titles, though. Maybe I’ll print them for bookmarks. Thanks for all your hard work! <3

  157. Thank you, Jenny, for sharing your drawings. Coloring has been a way to keep me afloat when I can’t access words. So this means you’re helping me AGAIN as I learn to manage my own crazy. Preordering now!

  158. Woo-freakin’-hoo! Just in time for my birthday, I’ll have to tell everyone to order me one. Or maybe just one person, so I don’t get a ton of them. Then again, since I tend to put things in “safe places” and never see them again, maybe I need a ton of them…

  164. It’s current amazon release date is right before my birthday! I ordered 2. One for me and one for whoever the fuck I decide has earned it.

  165. Vaguely disappointed that the world “motherfucker” was no where in the title but I’m still going to buy it!

  166. Pre-ordering TWO. For me, just me. Because I’m selfish, and that’s ok. (also, so I can mark up one and keep the other pristine. Because I’m a dork like that.)

  167. Personally “Feeling Stabby: A sophisticated coloring book to soothe troublesome minds” was my favorite, but the title you picked suits it much better!

    I am gonna color the shit out of this book if I can ever finish the Cyberman/Victorian themed page in my Doctor Who coloring book. (It’s Cybermen, and hot air balloons, and a mansion on a damask background, and a pain in the ass to color)

  171. I think “I’m not allowed to have matches” is my second favorite title. Also the one about chucking it at assholes.

    I cannot freaking wait and have preordered it for me, my mom, and my best friend. Because reasons.

  175. I think any of the titles you created are appropriate but the final title is ‘it’ for sure. Mine is pre-ordered and it will be like Christmas when it arrives!!! Thank you so much!

  176. Excellent work Jenny! I’ll pre-order it from Amazon. I still am reading “Furiously Happy’ but can’t read it at night because it makes me laugh too hard and then I can’t sleep because I’m laughing. You’re the BOMB Jenny!

  177. I love the title you went with, but the other ones also made me laugh out loud 🙂

    So very excited for this and I’m heading over to Amazon to pre-order this…. NOW!

  178. Can’t wait to get it! And I love the title. It’s kind of like when you’re lost, then you see a sign with a map and the words “You Are Here”. Then suddenly you have a location, a direction and a destination.

  179. Jenny you are amazing! Thank you for sharing your perfect-imperfect life with us. I pre-ordered 2 – can’t wait!

  181. Cool. Looks good Jenny. If I buy a hard copy can I add a photograph of a taxidermied animal for consistency?

  182. I am super excited to see the cover and so happy that you’ve decided to make a book out of your drawings. They are so beautiful and haunting and I am heading over to pre-order this right now! (At Amazon.ca, though, so hopefully it’s available for pre-order there as well. If not, you might hear me cursing from there.)

  183. Jenny, you are truly a gifted artist. I am absolutely in awe with what you do and can’t wait to get the book and look at all the detail!

  184. Preordered – and just in time for my birthday present to myself. Stabby – I still like stabby…..

  186. I LOVE IT!!! Although I love, and use, the phrase “Feeling stabby”, and was all for that as the title, as soon as I saw You Are Here, I just knew it was the perfect title. Jenny, you are so talented and brave and we all love you so much. You are my spirit animal. <3

  187. I ordered two! And I will totally forget about it before I get it. Win, Win!

  188. This is on my book list now and hopefully it will be a present for me next month for my birthday. Remember coloring saves lives and you are never truly alone.

  190. Dearest Jenny, I jhave been thinking about getting into coloring ever since I saw how you used drawing to quieten the crazies in your head. So I just preordered your coloring book. Now I have to go out and buy another coloring book so I can practice before yours arrives. Because what if I mess it up? What if I can’t do justice to your beautiful, heartbreaking designs? Yeah, my head is crowded with a few crazies right now. Thank you for showing me that my crazies can be beautiful in their own way, if I can find the courage to let them see the light of day.

  192. I love the title, I love your previous two books, and I love you. Seriously, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was one of only two things that could make me laugh when I was in a really dark place in my life (the other was Parks and Recreation). I’ve recommended both books to so many people. I’m 100% buying this one!

  196. I almost asked if it’ll be available for Kindle and then I immediately wanted to stab myself in the neck.

  197. Thank you Jenny your talent is amazing. I’m ordering 3, 2 for me and 1 for my niece. We love you❤️
    This will be torture waiting though. Instant gratification!!! Go! Go! 😁
    And please use feeling stabby somewhere in your next book. Thought I was the only one. 👍🏻

  198. Your book is coming out the week I turn 42 (the answer to all life’s questions) so of course I pre-ordered it.

  201. My favourite title was….
    I’m Not Allowed To Have Matches (And Other Things I’ve Learned): A coloring journal for creative vandals, notorious scribblers and incurable weirdos.
    BTW… colourful is spelled correctly, even if my computer doesn’t recognize it as correct. Canadian, eh?

  202. OMG is there anything you can’t do!! So amazing and talented. Preordered!!

  203. I forgot-are you going to come to Seattle if your awesome mind will let you for this one? I never go to anything like that, crowds make me all stabby but your stuff is beyond worth it!!
    Cristin

  204. I’m reading a book titled “You. Are. The. One.” by Kute Blackson. In the prologue, he writes about a beggar he saw in India, on a broiling hot day when all the author wanted was to find an air-conditioned room and a comfortable bed. But there was this beggar, drumming and singing with great rapture, eyes closed. And Blackson noticed that the guy was blind, which was why his eyes were closed, and singing without need for recognition. Furthermore, the guy had no arms, and was playing the drum with his stumps. And he had no legs! At this point, Blackson was a mess, weeping over this wonderful man who had nothing, yet seemed so happy. He knelt before the beggar and said, “How do you do it?” and the beggar said, “What else is there to do but love?” He said, “Young man, life might give you what you want. Life may never give you what you want. But you can always give life who you are.” After awhile, Blackson stood up to leave, wanting to give him something, but the beggar said, “I don’t need your money. Just share your gifts with the world. Who you are is a gift. By not sharing who you really are with the world, you are robbing them of something they need.”

    Why do I share this story with you? Because, Jenny, you are a gift to the world. You share with us who you really are. Thank you.

  207. You and J.K. Rowling are the only authors I’ve ever pre-ordered (fine company there!). Going to Amazon right now to order multiple copies (not willing to share this one 😀).

    Congratulations!

  208. Yahoo! Something to look forward to! And forget I pre-ordered because… faulty memory. 🙂

  212. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! Preordered. Lick away.

  214. TWO days before my birthday! Excellent! I am so excited, I have wanted to color in your drawings since I saw the first one! Although I really love them in B&W too. Hmm. Maybe TWO copies are required. Thanks, Jenny’s nervous hands…

  215. March? Really? I need it within 6 weeks! On the downhill slope…but you really help

  216. I’ve ordered 2 because I want you to be #1… And because I think your stuff is fantastic. So excited!

  218. I’m SO EXCITED!! Pre-order–DONE. Have one to color, one to keep (archive special original), and two for gifts (so far). I can’t wait until March… totally unfair. But, I’ll try and be patient. Hrmpf! And, Squuuuueeeeeeee! Thank you, Bloggess! 🙂

  219. Pingback: UPDATED: Wanna see the cover of my next book? – "It's Time To Begin"…

  220. March? I have to wait until March?! Well, at least it’s ordered, and I am thrilled that it is on the horizon. Ish.

    Thank you again (so much) for being you and sharing the good, the bad, the crooked and strange. And especially the stabby. I feel so at home here! xoxo

  221. That is awesome. I am SOOOO looking forward to this when it comes out.

    I just finished “Furiously Happy”, which is awesome. Thank you for sharing your wonderfully fucked up mind with us. It makes me feel less alone, here in the dark with my own amazingly asshole brain and my constant companions Depression and Soul-Eating Anxiety.

  222. You are wonderful. I absolutely love your raw and honest soul. Thank you for being you! <3

  224. I’ve preordered this book. It sounds great. I love your drawings and you are so talented.

  226. Eeeeeeee! Just screamed like a little girl. Can’t wait. My daughter and I love your first two books. My mother- in-law introduced your book to my daughter and then my daughter inriduced it to me. Thank you for being you.

  227. I got literal chills up my spine and up and down my arms when I saw this. Thank you for sharing your work us hoi polloi. 🙂

  228. Just now pre-ordered! My best friend loves adult coloring and she will absolutely plotz when she sees this!

  229. Gah! I wanna preorder but I’m in the UK and can’t find it on any of my usual bookstore websites pouts

    I really like “Feeling Stabby” as a title though – maybe for vol2 of your art?

  230. Just preordered my copy and am putting in on my Facebook page for all my besties. Best of Luck, Jenny. You totally rock.

  233. Jenny! Love the blog & your other books. Pre-ordered 3 (2 for st. pat’s gifts to like minded friends – I mean why not??) & eagerly awaiting this one. Thank you so much l

  234. I want to preorder it, but I’m so broke it’s not funny. Definitely going on my wish list, though, so I can hopefully remember to order it when I have some money to treat myself. I love coloring books.

  235. Totally preordering, duh. And btw, I like the feeling stabby title, cause, ya know, sometimes we all feel a bit stabby.

  236. I want this book so bad, I just asked my ex boyfriend to buy it fir me and U will seriously consider giving us another sjot. Jenny Lawson: reuniting Couples Thru Coloring

  238. I just pre-ordered – I am super excited and it’s faith that there will be good things in my future for 2017! Thank you!

  240. Pre-ordered 3 copies – one for me and one each for my two BFs who will love them. Also, I love you and I’m so glad to be here. With you. And all the strangelings. Where I belong.

  241. “Feeling Stabby” and “This is Bullshit” both would have totally worked for me. You know, for your sequel or whatever. Thanks for sharing your awesome artwork with us.

  242. See, I originally read this before you updated, or tweeted your status (I retweeted when you were only at #24 on Amazon’s bestseller list!). or updated again. I think I shall pre-order it In Person at my local Big-n-Nasty, erm, ah, ‘scuse me Barnes and Noble, since that allows me to also get some more steps in today.

    SO proud of you, M’Lady! This is truly “The Big Time”. Bask in all your glory, surround yourself with the furbabies and stuffed ones, and have Victor fan you with whatever Texas has similar to giant palm fronds, while Hailey drops grapes into your mouth. Be careful not to tilt your head too far back – don’t wanna choke! The rest of us out here will dance around, nekkid, of course, in the privacy of our own homes if that is our wont, clapping and chanting and playing little finger cymbals. Let the revelries COMMENCE!

  244. Preordered! So excited! Congratulations! Thanks for always being there for us too. Means the world.

  247. Please please go on tour for this book….I have managed to miss you when you were in/near Chicago but I will not miss you again!!!

  248. I’m super excited for your book, and to reward you for catering to my need for more of your awesomely funny commentary on life and all things that make me smile, I took this picture for you when on vacation in the ever popular WISCONSIN DELLS! Yes, this is where I vacationed this year. Land of swimming in other people’s (gag…hack…kkkhhhh) who knows what. Anyhow, we went to a very strange freak show thing and this is how they guy was collecting tips. I loved it, and of course, immediately thought of you. So, without further adieu…a raccoon, wearing a pimp hat, eating cotton candy (well, except the cotton candy was gone and it was filled with singles because the freak show guy was collecting tips in it).
    DANG IT!!!!! I can’t put a picture in this…well, I tweeted it to you…maybe you’ll see it 🙁

  249. I have no idea how to colour (I be Canadian friends leave my spelling alone) but I am still excited regardless. I like the black and white seems like a perfect decoration for my dorm room and a great reminder and a million times better than those “motivational” posters.

  250. I’m going to order it on amazon after it’s been release only because they don’t charge your card until the book has been shipped maybe? And when I buy something online and use my card, I am making a obvious effort to spend money at that exact time…not in over half a year. haha. So I shall order it…but not for quite a while. But I am super excited! You’re amazing!

  252. I looked at the release date at was like ‘whaaaaaaaaaaat? That’s like two years away!’ …then I realized it’s less than a year… o.o
    I will totally preorder, but can I get it without the lick, please? Thanks!

  256. I remember when you first started sharing your drawings, Jenny, and I thought they were incredible. Like many others, I thought they would make an excellent book. You’ve gone one better, though, by making it a coloring book. It will be awesome, just as you are.

  258. Once it’s released we should do a book club! You know… a COLORING book club.. which is like regular book club, only with more coloring and less discussion and we will decide on a page to color and then all share how we’ve done it! It’s the best kind of “I don’t want to see people” book club because staying at home coloring. 😀

  260. I liked Feeling Stabby…that made me laugh. You Are Here makes me ponder and go hmmmm in a good way.

  262. I just preordered! IM SOOO Excited!!! Thank you Jenny, for being you, and sharing your crazy world with ours 🙂

  264. I want to buy it now!!!! Please hurry. I just finished your first two. Cannot wait to read this one. :). Love love love the title.

  265. Pre-ordered…so when it shows up, I’ll be like WTH did I order now? And then I open it and I’ll be amazed! I can’t wait!

  267. This is SO BEAUTIFUL Jenny!! Thank you so much for such an important reminder that we are all in this together, are not alone and HERE. Grateful for you! And holy christ on a cross, did I just pre-order a book that doesn’t come out for 8 months?! AND I didn’t even know a book could be on the NYT list before it’s published. Amazed! Congrats!!!

  268. I pre-ordered as well! Now I just need to find the best reasonably priced pencil crayons! Super excited!!

  269. Are the pages going to be perforated so that they are easy to tear out? The idea of ripping pages out of a normally bound book gives me anxiety.

  270. I have pulled the pennies together of my wine slushie fund and PRE-ORDER!!! The Tribe is in effect and we fully support you and all you do!!!!

  271. cannot ever say it enough, you have saved me! in soooooooooo many ways!!!!!! I have told both my therapists about your books and how much they have helped me in my life to understand myself and allow myself to be me. you are amazing and so multi-talented. I thank you again and I’m so excited about your upcoming coloring book! Preordered!!!! Congratulations on #1!!!! Thank you thank you thank you

  272. Oh! & My holidays since I was a lil’ tot always made me feel”stab!stab!stab! Runawayyyyy!!!!” This reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they approached the French castle and get a cow tossed at them and scream “run away!!! run away!!”

  273. Jenny –

    Ran across (figuratively speaking) this today & thought of you:

    Long before internet posts of cute animals, there were Victorian taxidermy tableaux
    https://aeon.co/videos/long-before-internet-posts-of-cute-animals-there-were-victorian-taxidermy-tableaux?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ddf0988c9c-Daily_Newsletter_20_July_20167_20_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-ddf0988c9c-69066405

    Actually, I initially thought perhaps you were behind it, but if so your sleight-of-hand is too powerful for me, oh-puppet-master.
    Thanks for all of the joy you have brought me (and the poor saps in my karass to whom I pass on your gems). It seems to me that your ongoing efforts to ease your own suffering do quite a bit to ease the suffering of others fortunate enough to wander into your Venn diagram. (No euphemism intended – I love Victor, too, but from afar and in a manly, punch-in-the-arm sort of manner.)
    And for the (new) art. Hugs, MP.

    P.S. “Victorian Taxidermy Tableaux” would be a great name for my bluegrass punk heavy metal country band, if I had one.

  274. I preordered it last night! I was worried it wouldn’t be available in Canada right away because we seem to be behind on everything amazing, but there it was!!! Woohoo!!!

  275. I Pre-ordered mine! I’ll be so happily surprised in March. Also, too, love the new drawing with the kitty cats. Would love a copy with Dorothy Barker drool, but will settle for printing one off at home and maybe having my cat step on it. 😉

  277. This will be my first coloring book and I’m super excited for it!! Thank you again for sharing yourself with the world and giving us all a safe online place to hang out. 🙂

  278. Your drawings are so beautiful! I preordered and I am highly excited to get the book so I can choose what to do with it. You are absolutely AHH-MAAZING!!

  280. Just preordered. Hope you don’t mind if I add “Feeling Stabby: A sophisticated coloring book to soothe troublesome minds” to the front cover. It’s my fave!

  282. Even without your glorious writing ability? I think you could easily have had a career as an artist. These drawings are amazing – with a style that is obviously all your own. I love the cat in the unfinished drawing with your helpful pooch in it. Just amazing! I’m so glad you are in the world to share these talents with the rest of us.

  283. Ok I’m guessing you did this on purpose … Regardless I got a kick out of it and maybe someone else will too. The sentence above says: ‘Come here and let me lick you! ‘ Then the next sentence below it begins ‘ A few places where…’
    Blahahahahahaaa! Did this crack anyone else up? Or is it just me??
    I look forward to. Your new book! I’m sure it will be FaNTaSTiCaL!!

  285. Pingback: I may be slightly demented. – Crazy Doll Lady

  287. Jenny, this book means as much to us as it does to you. I’m not sure who is getting the bigger gift, but at this level of awesome, why split hairs?

  288. Of course I am going to be ordering this book. Your drawings are amazing and I love you….in a non creepy……sister-ish way.

  290. Hi Jenny … LOVED your book “Furiously Happy”, lent it to a friend who has PTSD from working as a paramedic. I started taking an AD to deal with menopause symptoms (including mild anxiety) and here I am two days in, 3 a.m. unable to sleep AT ALL. So will come back off them before they take hold. Thanks for your honesty and funny-ness! Good luck with the new book. Sure I will be purchasing it. 🙂

  291. It was actually quite calming to be able to pre-order it 🙂
    VERY much looking forward to when it comes out – and to the finished cat drawing and more beautiful “teaser” drawings 🙂

  292. AAAAHHHHH -falls over from internal fangirl overload- Not only are you an awesome author and person, that I personally got to meet in Cedar Rapids Iowa, you’re an artist too; another great passion of mine! You inspire me mentally, emotional and now artistically! Doodles are the greatest thing in the world and now I think I have found the motivation to get out of my HUGE artist block!

    THANK YOU JENNY FOR JUST BEING YOU!!

  293. YOU DO YOUR OWN COVER ART???? I was seriously about to comment asking who the heck does your artwork because I want to look up & gawk at all their stuff, but then DANGIT, it’s you. Thanks for being so freaking good at everything.

    (The drawing on the cover are mine, but the cover itself was designed by the same awesome cover designer that did the Furiously Happy cover. Philip Pascuzzo is a genius. ~ Jenny)

  295. I’m ordering your new book today! You are my hero. Not because you are perfect, but precisely because you are not. You are honest. And you are funny. And even when life, or your body, or your mind knocks you down you find a way to get up and move on. Like you, I struggle with chronic health issues and live with mental illness. Your books and your blog are bright spots in sometimes very bleak days. Thank you for being you!

  298. I hope you find a way (or use one of the pages) to incorporate the B titles. Because they’re all really subtitles or pieces of the whole creative process, ya know? Little chapters.

    I’m partial to ANYTHING that acknowledges that stabby feeling.

  299. Your book is being released on my daughter’s birthday, so, of course, I had to pre-order it for her! Will you be coming back to Atlanta after its release for another book signing? Would love for you to autograph it!

  300. pre-ordering!
    Because I want it and because you are f-ing awesome Jenny.

  301. The only thing that was frustrating me as I was reading this post was “HOW SOON CAN I ORDER THIS??” Ah, blessed link. Two copies pre-ordered, thank you very much.

  302. So. I don’t know who else has noticed but in the Amazon list of “Customers who bought this also bought”, there is both Kitty Litter and Diva Cups. I don’t know why this amuses me so, but it does.

  303. I just finished listening to Furiously Happy, loved it. It also inspired me to be a bit more honest about what is going on inside my head with my audience, we’ll see how that turns out.

  304. is so delighted she turns cartwheels all over the lawn

    This is quite an achievement, really. I could never turns that many cartwheels before!
    Thank you!

  305. I can’t believe this is happening! Thank you Jenny for making this book happen! I’ve been looking forward to it ever since you started posting your doodles. They are amazing and I just finished pre-ordering 3 of them so I can give them to my girlfriends who find themselves needing a little pick-me-up every now and then. You are amazing!

  308. Congratulations, Jenny! The drawings that you have shared here hold so much soul and layers of story – they are truly art. Thank you for tapping into that within you and sharing – scary as heck, I;m sure; but so amazing when it all pours out and almost writes itself! I look forward to seeing the full and final product!

  309. This is really cool, Jenny. Congratulations. I’ve enjoyed seeing your drawings pop up in my Instagram feed over the past few months and am not at all surprised that they’re being published. They are beautiful.

  310. That is amazing and the drawings look delightful.

    March 2017 seems very far away. I’m really not ready to make any post-January 20th plans yet, so I’ll hold off for a bit on ordering it.

  311. Best seller’s list? Duh.
    I certainly ordered my copy.
    Didn’t you want a new car from your publishers? 😀

  313. Pingback: I made this for me. And for you. « Fribliss

  315. I apologize, ma’am, but i did not pre-order. Mainly because I want to buy it from my local independent, Boswell Books, when they offer it for pre-order. You may remember them….or maybe not. But WE remember YOU….

    (I do remember them! And I support this decision. Support your local indie bookshop whenever you can. 🙂 ~ Jenny)

  317. Pingback: Sometimes tattered and worn = loved « Fribliss

  318. I sent a copy ofFuriously Happ y to my youngest son who has to deal with multiple mental and physical health problems.
    Love it ‘

  319. The words that you have written in these drawings are the types of words I search for on quote websites. I try to write notes to put in my teenage daughter’s lunch box every now an then, when she needs a little reminder to keep on keeping on, even when she prefers to hide away. I look forward to giving this amazing new book of yours to her for a stocking stuffer. Thanks for continuing to keep on keeping on and allowing us to be on this journey with you.

  320. Jenny, are you for real?? Really, are you really a real person?? I just got your book “Let’s pretend it never happened” and I can’t still still long enough without grabbing it and then calling my sister to read bits and parts of it and wait till the two of us have laughed so hard we both have to stop or throw up. You would fit so well into our truly Polish family and your mind works like ours do, only with much more to say than we ever thought possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being the writer you are. I have not laughed as much as in the past three days — you are incredibly and certifiably crazy, but that’s okay cause me, my sister and, well actually my entire family (I’m still working on my husband) are too. Love, love, love you! Barb Harmon, Aurora, OH

  321. Thank you, Jenny. We read your book aloud on a car trip and it helped our son in ways we couldn’t ourselves. It means so much to us.

  322. Pingback: You are here. And I am too. « Fribliss

  323. You are Awesome, and I thank you for your hard work and dedication to our community of misfits and strangelings. I SO look forward to your next book! You are Lovely! I want you to know that what you write here helps me, and SO may others, and I deeply appreciate your efforts. ,<3

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