Literary Sketchnotes

...and a question for you?

Hello, drawing book readers! This week I have something different - instead of a comic from my old drawing book, here’s a little sketchnote page from a recent Calgary event that I was happy to attend.

The Writers’ Trust of Canada is a unique non-profit that provides significant financial support to writers in Canada. Last week, here in Calgary, the Writers’ Trust hosted a conversation between three Canadian writers. First, Calgary-based Marcello di Cintio, known for his personal journalistic writing around issues of politics and human rights… Jenny Heijun Wills, a writer whose work I haven’t read (yet), and Guy Vanderhaeghe, a superstar of Canadian literature, who came to the event disguised as a self-depricating and good-humoured Saskatchewan gent. Actually, I’m pretty sure he was just being himself.

These three writers joined up in Calgary last week for a talk about writers and writing and how we can all get through this together. Sorry my sketchnotes are a little hard to make sense of, if you weren’t there. Hopefully you get the general idea that all three of them had thoughtful things to say. Shelley Youngblut, CEO & “Creative Ringleader” of Wordfest, moderated the panel.

I loved what Guy Vanderhaeghe said about “absolute certainty.” He was making the point that when you are creating fictional characters, you can’t make them too simple, consistent, or one-sided - if you do, they cease to be believable. (I’m paraphrasing.) For a fiction writer, he said, one-sided characters are “dangerous.” He compared it to the danger that arises when real-life people see things in black and white, as so many seem to be doing, these days. He said all this in a couple of lines that were much less clumsy than the ones I’ve written here. No surprise coming from the writer who long ago rocked the Canadian literary world by winning a Governor General’s Literary Award with his debut collection of short stories, Man Descending.

(Later, Canadian singer/songwriter Justin Rutledge named an album after the book. Not to be confused with Dar Williams’ tune And a God Descended.)

I remember reading Man Descending when I was seventeen years old, on a holiday during my German exchange student year, in the south of France. It felt like a very surreal place to be reading such a Canadian book. Since I don’t have any comics to share this week, here are some of my ancient photos from that trip. Wow! That was a crazy experience (and a story for another day).

And now… a question for you!

Why don’t I have time this week to post anything else? I am busy with something new… job hunting! Well, I am not looking for an entirely new job. I still want to work as a graphic recording/comics writer and artist/illustrator/writerly kind of person. How’s that for a job description? But I am looking for new projects to do in 2026.

Since I started working as a graphic recorder in 2013, I’ve never advertised! I’ve been so lucky to have had clients reach out to me to ask me to work with them. It’s always a bit unpredictable, but it always works out. However, in the strange world that is 2026, I have been feeling that I could use some predictability. And so I thought, instead of waiting for clients to reach out to me, maybe I can reach out to them.

I’m going to reach out to my community to let people know I am available for a few projects in the weeks and months ahead, and see what happens. But I thought I’d start with this little crew of drawing book readers who are already familiar with what I do! I wanted to let you know first. Maybe you know of an organization that would like to work on a project with me? Or maybe there is something I can do for you! I’m open to commissions big and small, and I’m happy to draw pictures and write stories in person and remotely. If you have any ideas, please send me a note!

I know that some of you readers are already supporting my Substack financially, for which I am so grateful! And many of you also help out by sharing and recommending these posts to others. I wish I could do more to say thanks. I literally have a basement full of sketchbooks I would like to share, but for now, I need to make sure I have enough steady work lined up, to justify spending time on the drawing book.

Thanks for reading! And no matter what happens, I will keep doing my best to share these weekly comics. I have a few good ones lined up, so hopefully that one will be coming your way next weekend!