A Look Back in 2022
I’m rusty, so bear with me.
Never would I have imagined what the year 2022 would bring me. I remember on my birthday that year how I wished that’d be the year I’d “do the things I want.“ In a way, I guess I did.
I had originally wanted to write this right before 2023 started, but alas, those weeks before and after the turn of the new year was a hectic one (of joyous events and merrymaking no less—beginning the new year with celebration of a friend’s marriage is a big one!).
Glancing back, this year was quite the rollercoaster of events for me. I honestly did not expect what happened to happen. When I first began 2022, I had just started my new webcomic The Blue Childe. I was planning to work on it throughout the year—hoping to oil up my comics muscles so-to-speak, but that oiling turned up a notch in March with a different project. You see, I ended up joining an online comics workshop in March and that’s when the frying began.
Back in November 2021, I chanced upon a comics community called Kids Comics Unite that was paneling at AnimeNYC, and (with great pushing encouragement from my sister), I joined. When March rolled around, there was a yearly comics workshop intensive opportunity open in the community. (Again, with a big nudging from my very supportive sister) I bit the bullet and signed up to the Intensive.
For the next several months (minus a week or two in which I flew off to Spain to celebrate another friend’s wedding), I was mostly focused on the Intensive. Thus, TBC (The Blue Childe) sort of got left on the wayside (I’m sorry!) as I juggled between lessons (and homework), freelance work, and family life. I learned A LOT from the program (and met some cool people), so I definitely recommend KCU to anyone wishing to work in comics!
After finishing the Intensive, I felt ready (and more-than-slightly-nervously-scared) to send my newly-crafted graphic novel pitch out into the open world (querying!). So when the chance came around the corner in the form of a #KidLitGN Pitch Event on Twitter, I went for it. I wasn’t really expecting anything so you could imagine my utter surprise (and flabbergasted dumbstruck-ness) when I got picked by an agent who soon wanted to meet to discuss my pitch. Of course, I signed on with said agent and officially became (that coveted) Agented Author!
It was also around the latter half of 2022 that I rejoined a childhood pastime of mine: HARPG. Horse Art-RPG is a gameplay style originating from DeviantArt where artists of ALL levels are encouraged to practice and develop art and stories together within an interactive community (in this case revolving around owning an imaginary horse stable—yes, I was and still am that little horse girl secretly at heart). Hence the frequent amount of horse-related drawings that I had a blast experimenting with different styles and compositions. Of course, HARPG isn’t the only Art-ARPG’s available on DeviantArt (I remember joining a fantasy ARPG in my wee teens similar to D&D). Anyways, that story’s for another time.
Since looking back on 2022, I’m nervously-excited to see what 2023 will bring.
