Hi There!
A Little More About me…
(You can read my official bio at the Home page!)
My first foray into comics was Garfield. I loved that fat cat and lasagna and everything about these short paneled stories. I used to take printer paper and create “books” with staplers, tape, and a marker for my parents to read. My poor parents… they had to read a lot of books written and drawn by me!
By the time I was older, I had discovered the magical place called the library. Every week, I’d check out a stack full of books from my school library and the local library. Late into the night, trying hard not to wake up my parents, I’d read… and my mom would catch me! I’d quickly hide my book under the pillow or between my bed and the wall and pretend to be asleep. It’s probably why I needed glasses.
For my whole childhood, I never really thought of being a writer or illustrator as a career. I guess my brain assumed these books were written by someone, but I never imagined that someone could be me. So I did the “correct” thing and majored in a STEM field and tried my best to fit into the mold of a 9-to-5, stable career path. Little did I know, that life would have other plans. Two degrees and a lot of time and money into my professional life, I was working as a software engineer completely unhappy with what I was working on. I figured I needed a creative outlet, and I started drawing a comic every single day about my cats Mickey and Minnie, and I decided to share it online to participate in Inktober 2019.
To my complete surprise, my comics started to go viral! I watched in awe as my comics started to go from a few likes from my friends to tens of thousands of likes and millions of views from strangers around the world. An agent reached out to me asking if I was interested in publishing a book.
Me? I was flabbergasted.
Thankfully, friends around me suggested I pitch multiple agents before going with the first one, and it led me to my agent, Kathleen, who has been the best guide and champion of my work. We sold my first book, a comic collection, right after I decided to quit my job and put in 200% of my time and effort into this thing. She encouraged me to try writing and drawing my own graphic novel, and I created Cat & Cat Adventures. Year after year, I began to publish new books. I sold A Sky of Paper Stars in a multi-house auction and even sold a YA graphic novel based on my own experiences in college.
One of my key motivators behind creating these books is to create stories that I think children not only will love to read, but will feel just as inspired as I did reading old classics. When I get letters from young readers drawing their own versions of their cats, it reminds me of me as a little kid, drawing my own characters and copying the covers of my favorite books. When I meet students at schools and they tell me how my stories helped them feel seen, it reminds me of the countless books that helped and shaped me, too.
I have so many projects I’d love to work on and so many more stories in my heart that I’m dying to share!
And I am so, so grateful that I have wonderful members of the team at my publishing houses and in my agency who are helping make the stories in my imagination a reality, a physical book on a shelf.
I am represented by KO Media Management! For publishing/illustration inquiries, please contact my agent at info@komediamanagement.com.
