I always feel something at the end of a book project. Sometimes it’s relief that it has finally come to a close. Sometimes it’s a bittersweet feeling—happy that the book has taken shape, but sorry not to spend time with it anymore.
And then there are the out and out I-can’t-believe-I-don’t-get-to-work-on-this-anymore doldrums. This is the feeling I had working on the sixth and last book in the Graphic Universe series Guinea P.I.G. Pet shop Private Eye, Going, Going Dragon!
I knew that when I began working on this series that it going to be different. The first book in the series Hamster and Cheese introduced Sasspants—a loveable but gruff guinea pig and avid reader turned reluctant P.I.—and Hamisher, a frenetic hamster whose silly hijinks, drawing abilities, and love of dragons turned out to be the just the icing on the cake of this sweet creation of friendship.
From the very beginning the woman who wrote the brilliantly funny words, Colleen AF Venable, and the other woman who drew the charmingly humorous pictures, Stephanie Yue, had uncannily strong sense of who the characters were and how they should interact together. Their deep understanding of this pet shop universe made my job working with them so easy. I simply had to make sure that all the words and all the pictures would fit on the page. (And because there was so much to say and show that wasn’t always easy!)
So in honor of the holidays I present “The 12 Days of Sass and Ham” with a couple of my favorite moments from each book in the series.
#1 Hamster and Cheese:
As the saying goes, it’s true, “All Good Things Must Come to an End,” and my time designing this series has come to a close. Luckily, though, in the case of the adventures of Guinea P.I.G. we can open the books and read them again and again.