Welcome back, wayfarers!

I don't know where you've been this year, but as you can see by the timestamps of this blog post and the last, I've been out and about, traveling, working, sharing life, creating, and yes, reading! This was a year in which I had to sort out a lot of things with my creative life, work life, my convictions, why I even started blogging in the first place - and though it would be silly of me to say I've Got it All Figured Out, I've certainly found some headway (more on that later). In search of, well, a lot of things, I found myself reading more this year than I ever have. With almost 60 books in their various forms under my belt, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites in no particular order!

Bone - Jeff Smith

This year I took particular interest in learning about graphic novels, and it seemed only fair to start with Jeff Smith's fantasy epic. I've had my eye on this series for a while now. A younger James first eyed this series on his cousin's shelf back in '06, and thought, "Oh, there's no way that graphic novel is for me. It looks weird." Who the heck did this stick-swinging, ditch-rambling, marginalia-doodling kid think he was? This was and is 100% for me! Smith plops these rubber-hose cartoon characters in a spooky high fantasy world. As a fan of old cartoons and fantasy, it's a perfect marriage. Somehow Smith manages to balance slapstick gags with exposition about ancient magic and monsters, all the while making beautiful use of space on every page. Sometimes I'd be hurtled through an argument between two characters for a page and then have my breath taken away by a single-panel page, sweeping and detailed, of a landscape or action set piece. For someone who's curious about the craft of graphic novels like me, Bone is a masterclass.

Bandersnatch - Diana Pavlac Glyer

Recommended by my dad and a few friends, I finally got the chance to read the detailed history of the Inklings, a writing group helmed by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. In addition to the historical bits about Englishmen at a pub arguing about hobbits, theology, and Norse mythology, Glyer took lessons from this famous writing group and wrote some distilled advice about how to be a part of your own creative community. There are plenty of books about the Inklings (though surely not as well-researched) and plenty of books about the creative process (some completely useless), but the use of one to inform the other makes this feel more grounded than your average book about collaboration and writing.

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

This is perhaps the most read and talked about murder mystery novel of all time, and I finally read it. It involves a dozen random nobodies who find themselves on a remote island that seems to be hungry for blood, and lots of it. But why? And how? There's not much to say about this one that hasn't already been said, so if you're reading this and like murder mysteries, go get yourself a used copy for $5, cozy up for a weekend, and get ready for the wildest, most deranged, and best thought out plot of Christie's I've read.

The Tombs of Atuan - Ursula K. Le Guin

Friends and online discussions led me to Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, and The Tombs of Atuan, the second installment, is widely the fan favorite. It centers on a high-priestess-in-training, Tenar, in a remote religious commune and the strange arrival of a newcomer. It floored me to see how Le Guin uses point of view here. When characters from the previous installment start showing up in Atuan, there's a dissonance between what we know of them and what our heroine Tenar knows of them, creating a fantastic dramatic irony. It's short but sweet, coming in at 180 pages, and each page is soaked in mystery, intrigue, and suspense. No scenes or dialogue is wasted. Le Guin writes fantasy in a way that feels so otherworldly and so human simultaneously, and that's felt most in The Tombs of Atuan.

Bird by Bird - Anne LaMott

Of the 'writers on writing' books I've read, Anne LaMott's has an unserious tone about it that I really needed at the time. A lot of writers take writing seriously - and rightly so - but LaMott comes alongside the reader as a flawed, insecure human being. Her writing advice, which was unique and helpful, did go down a lot smoother because of her penchant for self-deprecation and hyperbole. Bird by Bird made me want to write not because I'm a writer, but because I'm human, and sharing stories is what humans have always done.

Lightfall - Tim Probert

If Bone was a masterclass in graphic novels, the Lightfall series by Tim Probert showed me what kind of graphic novel I personally want to make. Lightfall is a fantasy series (detecting a pattern yet?) that doesn't show its entire hand right away, which is always the secret sauce for me when I read fantasy. A straight up good guys vs. bad guys story isn't going to cut it for me most of the time, and Probert swerves away from that in an interesting, non-brow-beating way with interesting design and character choices and oodles of environmental storytelling. It didn't give me any new ideas per se, but it has become my top comp title (a similar story you compare your work to when pitching). Another encouraging piece of Lightfall I carry with me is that Probert clearly uses traditional media in a lot of his process, which I was worried had either fallen out of style or had become too slow and innefficient for current editors and publishers. But not so! Check out Lightfall for delightful characters, critters, and a fantasy plot that stands out.

Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett

While we're still on the fantasy train, let's talk about Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It is one of two series that I read this year that can be read in any order. I didn't know this was possible, at least not without forfeiting quality, but Pratchett does it over and over again. I read the first book in Discworld, The Color of Magic, back in 2024 and was utterly stumped. "What's the big deal about this Pratchett guy? This just reads as typical 80's pulp fantasy." I thought. "Try another book," the internet told me. "He gets better." So after sifting through recommendations I decided to read the 8th book in the Discworld series, Guards! Guards! next. It's a tale of a rag-tag night watch unit in a grungy fantasy metropolis. I can see why it was so highly praised because it features the best character of Discworld throughout. Discworld fans may think I'm referring to Captain Vimes, the rough-and-tumble sleuth, but no. Nor am I referring to the machiavellian Patrician, the unelected head of the city. I'm referring to the City itself: Ankh-Morpork. What a rich and textured character this city is, full of academic wizards, guild clowns, and legally protected pickpockets. I will be returning to Discworld in the near future just to be in this screwball low-fantasy cesspool of a town that speaks more to our own world than I first thought.

The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner

This middle-grade adventure novel is deceptively simple, and for about 3/4 of the book I didn't think it was going anywhere. Then, in the final 50 pages, The Thief set me on an intriguing six-book journey of politics, intrigue, war, and most of all, thievery. The Thief is a heist story that is less fantasy and more pseudo-historical fiction, deeply inspired by ancient Greece. Upfront, I will ask you to be vigilant as you read, because things are not as they seem. Every conversation, every rabbit-trail, every set piece on this seemingly endless road trip has tremendous purpose in the series. That's how Turner's books work, each with slow buildups and varying levels of confusion in the first half (it may have you thinking, "Really? That's it?"). Then the third act kicks in, with grand reveals and recontextualizations to follow that will feel like ice on your spine.

A Meandering Line - Minna Sundberg

These last two spoke to me on a more personal level. Minna Sundberg is one of the first webcomic artists I followed back in the '10's. I was stunned by her painterly style and use of negative white space in her work. A few years back, I decided to check up on Sundberg, since it had been a long time since I'd followed along in her newest webcomic, Stand Still, Stay Silent. I was met with a long blog post about how Stand Still ended early, and that Sundberg had come to know Jesus. As a person of faith myself, it warmed my heart, but what was going to happen to her work? Well, she made this book, A Meandering Line, all about her personal testimony and where she's headed next with her newfound faith. It's a beautiful, lovingly crafted story that charts Minna's journey of cultural Christianity in her youth, indifference and cultural pressure in her teens, pitch-black nihilism, grumpy deism, and back around to falling wholly in love with the God of the Bible in 2020. It touches on a lot of reasons people fall away from faith, and how Sundberg eventually found herself unable to run from the Truth. If that story appeals to you at all, whether you like graphic novels or not, I'd highly recommend you buy a copy. If that's out of your price range, you can read the whole thing online here.

The God of the Garden - Andrew Peterson

I owe a lot to The Rabbit Room. This year I delved deeper into this collective of Christian novelists, poets, musicians and visual artists and found myself at home. Andrew Peterson, one of the founding creatives, wrote The God of the Garden in 2021, and shared in the memoir about all sorts of things: struggles with depression, guilt, creative barriers, and a longing for the New Earth. But more than anything, Peterson talks about trees. Trees older than our great-great-grandparents. Older than the country that I live in. Older than written records of the land they stand watch over. Peterson's memoir blends wonderfully with a message about caring for and respecting the natural world we live in. The God of the Garden brought a lot of things to the table that I needed to hear, but the best thing was that I'd felt I'd sat down and had a long conversation with someone like me. A creative person, a co-creator long-descended from Eden. A person angry at the state of the world. A person angry at the state of themselves. An artist that only finds rest in the presence of God. It challenged me to seek out other like-minded creatives. Let me tell you, they are not easy to find, especially where I live. It reminded me of the desire I have for thoughtful artist friends who can encourage me in my craft and show me how to share it faithfully. If you have that same longing, you can start here, at The Rabbit Room's website.

A Short Update

Where have I been? Working hard and wrestling with my role as a person who makes things.

Firstly, about picture books. Yes, I'm still making picture books! I'm working on my own and on a few for clients, these things just take time. There is little more I enjoy than bringing an author's vision to life - picture book authors in particular have such generous hearts.

Next, the big project. Back in November of 2024 I wrote a graphic novel manuscript for National Novel Writing Month, and it's turned into my flagship project. As of right now, I have the fourth draft of the 180-ish page first book, a strong second draft for the next book, and a rough, incomplete draft for the third book. Right now, my aim is to polish Book One as much as possible for pitching to literary agents and publishers. It's funny how indulgent writing the story was when I first began ("surely writing shouldn't be this fun...") but now I'm coming to learn that it's the story I've been wanting to tell for a long time, and it's nice that the pieces have fallen into place and I've finally allowed myself to sit down and do it - 'Commercial Appeal' be darned. 'High Concept' can take a hike. I write because I like to, thank you very much. Stay tuned, hopefully you'll be hearing more about this project right here on this ol' blog.

Speaking of which, about the blog. I created this blog to share my thoughts, but a hunger for a platform and building a content mill ran me down. It didn't take long. The same thing happened to my Instagram account, unfortunately. I spent the year of 2025 away, trying to discern what a balanced approach would look like, where I'd still be able to share my thoughts and work online without getting caught up in analytics and SEO. Starting right now, 2026 will be my test balloon for that new formula. We'll see how it goes!

Thank you for sticking it out with me, and I hope to see you at my stoop again real soon.