Bigfoot and Nessie is an Eisner Nominee!!!

LOOK AT THAT BACKGROUND. I’ve never been nominated for anything in my life, and now my name is on a website with a classy light that follows you around as you scroll.

I found out about this last week and it still feels unreal! When I first got into publishing, I thought my books would stand out and get noticed. (LOL.) I thought all I had to do was get published and people would realize how much they loved my stories and characters and that of course there should be more of them. If you’re a fan, you might be thinking, “But that happened, right? Because I DO want more of your stories!” Well… yes and no. Readers have enjoyed my stories and connected with my characters (and OMG, thank you to everyone who has!), but the industry is tough. (Which industry? Doesn’t matter – they’re all tough.) And it still pains me to admit that I have not had the success I thought I would and, and – and this part is especially painful – might never have. Ugh. OUCH. It buuuuurns.

Ahem. Anyway. After fifteen spotty years of publishing, I thought my fate was decided long ago and that things like this were forever out of reach. Bigfoot and Nessie: The Art of Getting Noticed is about finding the courage to be creative in the face of the fear that you might fail. That no matter what you do, you might never get noticed. Or if you do, maybe outside validation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. These are the things I struggle with! I have felt like a failure, and I have felt frozen with fear that no matter what words I put down on the page, they’re going to be the wrong ones. Because if they weren’t the wrong ones… wouldn’t things be going better by now? Wouldn’t I have had the success I always thought I’d have?

Neither of those things are true, of course – it’s just my brain’s way of trying to make sense of something I don’t actually have control over. All I can really do is keep making things that bring me joy and hope they resonate with others. As a reader, I always feel like the author can feel my love for a book somehow, even if I never say anything, but as a writer, I feel like I’m putting things out into a void. Like messages in bottles sent off into the sea. Did anyone find them? Did they get where they needed to go? Did the right message get to the right person? Should I keep putting MORE messages in bottles, just to be sure?!

And all of that is a long-winded way to say that the creative life is tough and there are so many ways it can tear you down and make you feel not good enough. But sometimes it does the opposite and hands you something cool. Sometimes the bottles come back with new messages that prove you weren’t sending them off into a void after all.

This book was a collaboration between me, Laura Knetzger, Rachel Sonis, and Jay Emmanuel, and the rest of the team at Penguin Workshop. Having collaborators means not only having people to share the creative process with, but also having people to be excited with when something like this happens! I’m honored to have worked with this group and so proud of the book we made!

The Website Is Back Up!

You may or may not have noticed that my site has been down for a while, due to some technical difficulties that I didn’t realize were happening right away. I ended up losing everything from last year, which was probably just me saying, “Hey, the Bigfoot and Nessie books are out!” and posting some art, which I can repost once I sort out what’s missing. Any comments from last year are gone, too. Because even though I could have sworn not very much time had passed since I last backed up my site, apparently it’d been more like a year. O__o

But if you were wondering why the site was gone, or why there might be stuff missing, that’s why! And if you’re wishing I posted more or that you could hear from me more regularly, you can join the newsletter, which goes out monthly.

 

COVER REVEAL – Bigfoot and Nessie: The Art of Getting Noticed

So excited to finally share with you guys the cover (and overall cute, colorful art style) of Bigfoot and Nessie: The Art of Getting Noticed !!!  It officially comes out February 7th, 2023, but you can preorder your copy today:

Introducing a hilarious and heartfelt graphic novel in which an unlikely pair of cryptids–one a Bigfoot whose failure to get himself photographed disappoints his family, and the other a Loch Ness Monster, who seems unable to escape the spotlight wherever she goes–meet up and find friendship, creativity, and just the right amount of attention.

Meet Bigfoot and Nessie! Yes, that Bigfoot and Nessie. Only…Well, things are a little complicated right now.

Bigfoot is having trouble fitting in with his family. He can never quite manage to get himself into the picture, much to the disappointment of his mom, dad, and sister, who always want to be in the spotlight. When he meets Nessie, who’s equally desperate to get away from the cameras, he begins to ask himself the ultimate question: What’s the price of fame after all?

Big-hearted and clever, The Art of Getting Noticed by Chelsea M. Campbell and Laura Knetzger invites us to explore our most tender selves through friendship and creativity—and have quite a bit of fun in between!

Deal Announcement – Bigfoot and Nessie!

I’m so excited to finally be able to share this news! I wrote a graphic novel for kids called Bigfoot and Nessie, about, you guessed it, Bigfoot and Nessie. It’s about their friendship, but at its heart, it’s also a story about finding creativity without putting pressure on yourself–something I struggle with a lot.

The idea came about after binge watching a lot of We Bare Bears, and I was thinking about Charlie (he’s a bigfoot, if you’re not familiar with the show) and how he doesn’t want to be photographed, and I started thinking what if a bigfoot did want to get photographed? But was also failing at it? I added in Nessie, who’s got the exact opposite problem–she’s too famous and is trying to avoid getting noticed–and it came together from there.

Laura Knetzger, who writes and draws the Bug Boys series, is doing the artwork, and I’ve seen it, and it’s amazing! Check out her artwork in the Bug Boys cover below. And also go read it, because it’s a really fun slice-of-life series about two friends having adventures.

New Read – Adventurer’s Academy

Adventurer’s Academy

It’s no surprise when Serena, straight-A magic student, gets into her dream school, the Adventurer’s Academy. But getting placed in Remedial Sorcery? Total shock. Apparently it’s not enough to be good at magic–you have to be good at teamwork, too. But it’s not her fault people are so hard to get along with. Especially her annoying lab partner, a cute warrior who thinks all sorcerers are cowards. Now Serena’s determined to prove him wrong, no matter what the cost.

I’m trying out Kindle Vella! I have no idea what I think of the platform yet, though it is very satisfying to get thumb’s ups on episodes. This story is complete, and you can read the first three episodes for free!

 

Art Post – Angry Hot Dog

 

Angry Hot Dog, based on the angry hot dog Gene was drawing over and over on an episode of Bob’s Burgers. (I don’t remember which one!) Here you can see Hot Dog angrily ranting while crossing the street with Ketchup, who’s heard this rant a million times and is so over it.

Made in Rebelle 4. The foreground is watercolors and the background was made with oil pastels, I think on yucca paper, which is my favorite of the papers I’ve tried so far.

The Unicorn Rests in a Garden

I’ve been doing a lot of drawing ever since I got a graphics tablet this last Christmas, and while I’ve been posting it over on Facebook and occasionally Instagram, I’ve fallen way behind on posting it on my site. I’ve lost track of what order I made these in, so I’ll start with this one, based on my favorite of the unicorn tapestries, The Unicorn Rests in a Garden:

I’ve also started a RedBubble shop with some of my designs. I don’t know why, but there’s just something really satisfying about seeing your work as a cut-out sticker.