From Gothic to Gotham #2

I heard an interview with someone who said that a minority of people hear voices in their heads narrating their lives – I thought everyone did. I always hear voices and that’s probably why I am drawn to Quakers, where the goal is to silence the chatter.

While I write, I hear speaking – many voices, many emotions – narration, conversation. Sometimes I awake in the night and hear them resolving a plot twist, and have to scramble for pencil and paper to write it before it’s gone. And when I draw, and pace the movement of story through panels, I hear the talk and the pauses. Then while I paint and ink… more voices. Sadly they don’t all agree on one version! The story changes and I am left with a multiverse to edit back to something linear.

Page from Call Me Bill – a 1873 Quaker Meeting, New Jersey

Do I ask for too much from my readers?

Will readers stay with the story if I ask them to jump back and forth through time? My current story features an elder nurse looking back through a scrapbook she made in WWI (over 60 years prior). She talks about the photographs in the book and remembers the people. On this page, the elder woman’s hand rests on a photo in her scrapbook, while she remembers the soldier when he was a boy, and also remembers when he was her injured patient in France… that’s three timelines on one page. I’m still unconvinced whether this page works… what do you think?

a photo of a soldier, and his childhood, and WWI hospital

I have always loved visual art and literature so comics satisfy my craving for both!

Stained glass has told stories in sequential narration for 1000 years – that’s one reason I chose it as my profession. With a side order of cartooning!

You know I wrote Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022), and it was nominated for Canada’s top prize, The Doug Wright Award. And maybe you know I am working on my second graphic novel. It’s a LOOONG process. Some threads get dropped even after you thought they were woven in.

Here is one. The blinded war photographer being led off the battlefield by stretcher-bearers… Still so many stories to tell. I hope someone picks up the dropped threads…

graphic novel pencil then ink
blinded photographer led off the WWI battlefield by stretcher-bearers

2024 stretched my muscles and wings in new ways! Besides designing gorgeous new stained glass and caring for our stained glass heritage, I forged ahead on my second graphic novel, and designed and coordinated the creation of two large granite monuments!

Heritage Stained Glass Care

Custom Stained Glass

From Graphic Novel to Granite Monuments

I brought all my creative and organizational skills to the creation of two monuments carved from granite boulders. I was the Lead on the Monuments Project, which was one of several S.S. Atlantic 150 Legacy Projects. I worked with the SSA 150 Steering Committee, community members, and skilled trades. The event these monuments commemorate is the villagers’ heroic response to the catastrophic wreck of the White Star Line passenger steamship S.S. Atlantic at 3:00 AM on April 1, 1873 on the rocks of Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia. The villagers launched a dangerous rescue, saving over 400 victims, and recovered and buried over 500 bodies in two mass graves. Read more in my graphic novel Call Me Bill (Conundrum Press 2022).

Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia

Upper Prospect, Nova Scotia

My Work-in-Progress Graphic Novel!!

I wish you all the very best in this new year! Please contact me if you would like to collaborate in 2025!!

It’s Autumn already!!

I am taking this morning to update my Blog to tell you what about the exciting things I have been working on this year! It may seem that I have slipped under a rock, but far from it. It has been an intense, non-stop stained glass year AND a book I wrote and illustrated has just been published!

I have been working on fabricating 9 large stained glass windows for Church of Our Lady of Lebanon in Halifax. The designs were made by Lebanese Canadian Iconographer, Rita Assaf. Each window is 5’x12′, divided into 6 stacking panels. I have also been bidding on other jobs, and accepting a few so I am not completely off the radar while creating the large windows. I have an apprentice for this year, which is an amazing opportunity to teach these little-understood techniques and skills!

I Wrote a BOOK!

AND I wrote and illustrated a Young Adult graphic novel during Covid, and it has just been published by Conundrum Press’ new imprint Emanata! CALL ME BILL is the true story of the disastrous wreck of the White Star Line SS Atlantic (yes, the same as the Titanic) on April 1, 1873. The memory of this important story was overshadowed by 2 world wars, the Titanic wreck, and not to overlook the fact that the White Star Line deliberately tried to bury the truth! CALL ME BILL also tells the story of the heroic rescue, traumatic recovery of 500 dead bodies by a few Nova Scotian villagers.

So, why is the book called Call Me Bill? Here’s why! From the April 5, 1873 Halifax Morning Chronicle…

Read CALL ME BILL to learn more about this incredible person!! Available at bookstores or order online at Conundrum Press.