WARREN THE 13TH AND THE THIRTEEN-YEAR CURSE COVER REVEAL!

I'm so excited to share the cover for the third book in the WARREN THE 13TH trilogy, WARREN THE 13TH AND THE THIRTEEN-YEAR CURSE. During my last school tour with illustrator Will Staehle, there was a lot of speculation among the students over what color the final book would be. So if you guessed blue, you win a virtual pudding cookie!

The book comes out on March 24th, 2020 and the description is as follows...

**(mild spoilers for those who haven't read the first two books!)**

At the end of the second book in the Warren the 13th series, the Warren Hotel had transformed into a giant ship and set sail for the open seas! When Warren the 13th and the 13-Year Curse opens, Warren is adjusting to the demands of running a floating hotel and is planning his 13th birthday party when disaster strikes--the hotel is shipwrecked on a strange island. To make matters worse, his octopus-like friend Sketchy is kidnapped by a traveling circus! Warren and his friends must solve a series of riddles to find the next location of the circus and rescue their friend before it's too late. Along the way, they meet a delightful new cast of characters, including elderly pirates, a sea witch, a talking clam, and a giant sea monster. As Warren pursues Sketchy's kidnappers, he will learn the truth of his friend's mysterious origins--as well as one final secret of the Warren Hotel.

You can preorder the book now via:

Amazon

B&N
Indiebound

Cover Reveal for Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye!

It's here! The final cover for WARREN THE 13TH AND THE ALL-SEEING EYE is finally out in the open! Will designed a ton of fantastic cover possibilities over the last couple months (as he does), but this is the one that everyone loved best. I think it's beautiful - it captures both the elegant Victorian aesthetic as well as the creepy, fun, and adventurous side of the book. It will look even better in person - word on the street is that there will be foil on the cover! Click the image for a larger view.

I also got a chance to see all the final art for the interior and Will did a knockout job on everything! With every step this book feels more more real...and more surreal. Check out this sample spread:

It reminds me of a tarot card. Hmm... Warren the 13th tarot... there's an idea! Seriously though, Will and I keep brainstorming all kinds of crazy and fun things to promote Warren with. Hopefully we'll be able to make some of them a reality.

In other news, I'm getting ready to attend the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco this weekend. I'll be participating on a GraphicCon diversity panel on gender and comics (Friday at 12:15 at the Moscone Convention Center 3010 W), so if you're at the conference, I hope to see you there!

I'll also be taking part in an author speed-dating event where I'll be pitching Warren to a bunch of librarians. I wanted to come up with something special to leave behind with each librarian I speak to (and woo them with), so I've been constructing little "invitations" to the Warren Hotel, complete with a room key, hotel newsletter, and bookmarks.  I even bought a "W" wax seal to seal the envelopes with. I'm not gonna lie, I've always wanted a wax seal, I just never had a real reason to own one. But now I do and I can get all Game of Thrones up in here!

Well, that's it for now. I'll post an update after the conference and let you all know how it went! :)

Tutorial Book Sneak Peek

One of the projects I'm currently wrapping up right now is a professional manga character design tutorial book that will be published by Focal Press next year.

This book will go beyond the typical "follow-along" format of most tutorial books and will focus more on storytelling and building characters from the ground up. It's been an enormous project but I'm excited to see how it all turns out.

Here's a little snippet of the cover image which I just finished recently!