YAY! The cover of Besties: Work it Out has been released out into the world!
This is the first of two spin-off graphic novels starring Olive’s friends, Beth and Chanda. Work It Out follows the duo as they take on various odd jobs in an attempt to save up enough money to give Beth’s mom a much needed spa day… but nothing can prepare them for a dog-sitting mishap that throws their plan—and friendship—into chaos!
As you might have noticed, Beth and Chanda look a little different and there are some more names than usual on the cover. The very talented Kristina Luu will be doing the art for the Besties books, something I’m very excited about— her work is so fun and kinetic! I also had a collaborator in writing the book, Jeffrey Canino.
The process for this book (and its sequel) has been very collaborative! Jeffrey and I developed the idea for the story together, deciding on what topics we’d like to cover and any big scenes we’d like to include. I then sat down and wrote out an outline, figuring out the timeline of events and how to connect the scenes. After that was settled, Jeffrey took the outline and wrote the script based on that, developing the scenes and characters and breaking the action down into pages and panels. Once he was happy with the script, the two of us did a pass together, tightening the dialog and fine-tuning the humor. Luckily, the two of us live together, so it’s very easy to brainstorm and workshop. Our editor, Mary Wilcox, offered her thoughts and suggestions for edits at each stage. After the script was completed, Kristina started translating it into comic pages with the help of designer, Andrea Miller; letterer, Lor Prescott; and coloring assistant, Damali Beatty. It’s been a new and exciting experience for me to see someone else interpret a story I worked on into visuals. Kristina’s artistic voice and creative choices add a whole additional layer to the characters and storytelling. It’s been a lot of fun to watch all of our efforts stack up into a tasty parfait of a book!
I’m so proud of and excited about Besties, and I can’t wait to share it with readers! The book will be coming out in October 2021 and is available for preorder now!