In my new book, The Spear Cuts Through Water, there will be a map of what is known by the characters as The Old Country, rendered gorgeously by the talented artist and writer Chris Panatier. Printed on the book’s endpapers (essentially the reverse side of the hardcover), the map is a heavily stylized representation of the land in which much of the story takes place. Credit where credit’s due, the germinating idea for this approach was my brother’s, and I thought it was a good one. After working with the artist and my publisher, I was pleased with what we came up with.
Simon Jimenez
Fiction and Excerpts [1]
You Are (Not) Here: Fantasy Mapmaking for The Spear Cuts Through Water
The Labor of Creativity: Celebrating Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke
Be wary of those who fetishize the difficulties of their own creative process. One does not need to shirk the healthy levels of their own emotional and physical well-being to make a work that would add meaning and clarity to the world. The human life is composed of such limited currency. Spend it wisely, and in pursuit of a balance of passions.
Take care of yourself.
Such is the contemporary wisdom on work ethic; for the most part a good and healthy redirection of cultural norms. But like any maxim or ideal, it does not apply to all. There are those for whom a life’s balance cannot be struck. Those that, due to whatever mysterious confluence of personal/societal history and chemical composition have created them, for whom work is life. Whether it makes them happy or not. Whether or not they sleep at night satisfied. Their waking moments have been and will continue to be dedicated to that Thing, whatever it may be.
The Labor of Creativity: On Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke
Be wary of those who fetishize the difficulties of their own creative process. One does not need to shirk the healthy levels of their own emotional and physical well-being to make a work that would add meaning and clarity to the world. The human life is composed of such limited currency. Spend it wisely, and in pursuit of a balance of passions.
Take care of yourself.
Such is the contemporary wisdom on work ethic; for the most part a good and healthy redirection of cultural norms. But like any maxim or ideal, it does not apply to all. There are those for whom a life’s balance cannot be struck. Those that, due to whatever mysterious confluence of personal/societal history and chemical composition have created them, for whom work is life. Whether it makes them happy or not. Whether or not they sleep at night satisfied. Their waking moments have been and will continue to be dedicated to that Thing, whatever it may be.
Series: That Was Awesome! Writers on Writing
Read an Excerpt From The Vanished Birds
A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in the captivating debut from Simon Jimenez. The Vanished Birds publishes with Del Rey on January 14, 2020. Read an excerpt below!