contritions of the phoenix zine june, 2016-updated | Page 40

bad stuff you can't change, and learning to accept the good bits instead. I hope that the next two books expand on that idea, and give the reader a good sense that7. the young woman, she is a young maude, correct? and if she is a young maude, does everyone else see her or a young version of themselves?

The young woman, Matilda, looks like a young Maude, but she's not a young Maude. She's one of the many spirits that roam the deep tunnels. She was able to take (and keep form) when Maude thought she had run into her dead fiance. While everyone can see her, she is mostly focused on Maude - she was created from an instant of Maude's fear and loss, and an in many ways represents all the things Maude felt that she's lost. Her one goal (early on) is to torment Maude, but as the story progresses, even she learns to let go and evolve away from that.

8. if a someone handed you a novel/short story they wrote, would you take a commission to do the graphics for it?

I really do like working with other people, but I'm so booked up with commissions these days that I dream of just finishing my own stuff!

9. do you like when the story begins to take on a mind of it's own; when it changes from what you originally thought it would be?

I really do like it when the story shifts and changes on me. There's something really interesting that happens, where the story becomes new and interesting to me, even though I'd plotted it out and planned it - it takes on a life that breathes, and it feels like all the pieces start to fall into place. It almost never happens in the first draft, but rather as I'm working and reworking a story, you find yourself teasing out little seeds and hints of something bigger (and better) than you'd ever originally intended!

10. tomato worms are gross! has that been the biggest battle in your garden?

They are so gross. I've managed to use basil, onions, marigolds, and other companion planting techniques to cut down on them. Right now though I'm having a SERIOUS problem with rolly pollies. I have a garden turtle (Hildegard von Terrapene) who helps keep snails down in the garden, but she's less interested in rolly pollies.teaching my husband about the various combinations that you can do for companion planting. I also started designing a "robots vs giant monsters" game, but I'm still in early, early, early rules for that one!

11. what card games have you created?

I'm always creating silly little games, but they rarely ever go anywhere for public consumption. I created a card game to go with All the Growing Things - you play against another person, planting gardens (stacks of cards) and your goal is to have as many companion plants as possible. You can then play cat cards on your enemy, or on yourself (they chase off monsters), and occasionally you'll have monsters, or pests come through and attack your garden. I've never finished the art for the game, but someday I'd like to do that! I also used it as a way to start

12. what has been the funnest graphic novel you have done?

Right now my favorite graphic novel is the one I'm working on with my husband, called Era of Great Wonders - we're about 4 issues in, and again you can read all of these for free online - and while it's a little more serious than All the Growing Things, it's still incredibly fun to draw. It was reviewed by one reviewer as "a child endangerment story" but it's really not: the children are the only ones who I can GUARANTEE you, will survive the story!

Round 2 ps: All the Growing Things has been a work in progress, mostly because I spend so much time working on other things. I'm really enjoying taking the time to script out the next two books (and I just had an interesting revelation in book 2, about how to structure it!). My main focus of the story was to have a fun adventure