Slow Work Counts

It’s been a while since I last created an update on my progress with the Searching for Faerie book. The last blog I shared about this book was March 18 of last year—thirteen months ago. A full stretch of time where life happened: work, family, responsibilities filling the space where writing once lived more freely.

And yet, I’m not returning to this space empty-handed. I’m coming back with something I’m genuinely excited about—the second edition of the book is almost finished, and I feel a renewed sense of pride in the changes I’ve made. What once felt lacking or unfinished has been revisited with more clarity, more intention, and a deeper understanding of what I was trying to say all along. Still, I catch myself thinking I should be further along by now but my excitement to present the progress overshadows that:

Since my own digital design skills have their limits, I had the chance to collaborate with another artist, Jersey, to bring this vision to life. She was incredible—she quickly understood what I was trying to express, and after just a couple of drafts, created something that truly captured what lived deep in my mind and imagination. It feels amazing how we seemed to meet in that same space somewhere in the yonder —where visions, dreams, and imagination gather and quietly take form.

A little look into the journey behind Searching for Faerie. The image on the right is the original version of the book, currently available on Amazon. It's the beginning of this story as I first brought it to life.

The center image is the improved 2nd edition, which I’ve revisited and refined what once felt incomplete, shaping it closer to what I had always imagined - assisted by another creator who gets my vision.

On the left are the snips of paintings on 24” x 24” canvas that I’ve been working on here and there, in little spurts of time. These pieces represent a dream version of the book, each page painted on canvas without any the constraints of available elements and manipulations in digital illustration. This has been a slow, layered process… but one I keep returning to - and now I have all 41 pages laid out in varying levels of accomplishments, starts and edits.

As I come close to finishing the second edition, I realize I’m not just completing one project—I’m standing in the middle of another. The 41 canvases I’ve started, each one touched in quiet, in-between moments, are waiting. And soon, they will become my next focus. SOON!

The progress has been real, but slow—built in fragments, shaped in the small mini projects squeezed in between a full schedule and a full life. I imagined this process to feel more linear, more obvious. Instead, it has felt like carefully gathering something tentative - delicate even, one improvement at a time. Some improvements are discarded - some improvements cause delight.

I’m learning that this is what the work actually looks like. Not perfect conditions, not uninterrupted flow—but returning, again and again, even when it’s inconvenient and rushed. It results in a compliation of accomplishments that start to cohese into something. Sometimes just acceptable, and on some days - something great that makes me smile as i fall asleep - feeling like Babe when farmer Hogget says - “That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.”.

Organizing creative work visually supports steady progress

Lately, I’ve been reenergized by Dan Koe and his call to write—to use essays as a way to think, to process, to clarify - to contribute positively to counteract the massive misinformation, shallow thinking and noise that is muddying up the shared pool of knowledge we all contribute to.

In that sense, writing then is not just expression—it’s contribution. It's creation. It's a way of refining my thoughts, of turning something vague into something i know i understand and believe in - and offering it back, sharing my

experience and my intention.

So in the next few blogs, I’ll keep honoring that call to action—to write without worrying if it’s judged. I just need to keep sharing my progress, and to keep creating. To contribute something real to that shared pool of knowledge. And to show, not just through words but through work, that I am producing—as a creative, a writer, an artist, and as someone bringing not only a revised book into the world, but also my dream version of it, painted page by page (all 41 pages of Searching for Fairie!).

Buy on Amazon