WRITING ILLUSTRATION REELS

“I walk behind her, the dolls looking like passengers on a ferry enjoying the scenery over the rail…”. From my novel, “Dreaming Reverie.”

Now I have 5 funny little dolls.

This is the illustration for the last chapter of my novel Dreaming Reverie.

Exploring charcoal to do my novel illustrations has been gratifying.

The process itself is revealing.

  “You had a pet!” I say, not disguising my surprise.

“Yes,” she whispers so softly I can barely hear her.

“It was a bird. You rescued it when it was hit by a bus, and you’ve kept it for years. Years?” Is my conscious mind interfering? I deepen and remind myself to keep my ego and projections out of this.

“Six years, Blu was my best friend for six years,” she says softly.

  I open my mouth to say something, and she holds up her hand to stop me. “Please, Rachel, just listen.

“I didn’t mention this because dreaming is strange and unsettling for me. I figured if I ignored the dreams, they’d go away, but they didn’t. But after a few weeks, I felt really embarrassed I hadn’t shared this with you, and I could never find a good time after that.

Sometimes you just have to make choices. 

Writing involves editing out the parts that don’t enhance the story. It’s harder when you’ve already done an illustration for the part you’re excising.

  As we pass an alley, Simon points. “That’s where we used to live.”

The boy says this without any visible emotion as he continues on towards the restaurant.