First I have to come up with the concept. In the case of The Letter Setters, I was a fan of Letter Man on The Electric Company television show back in the 1970’s. As a grown-up creator, I always wanted to do something like that, where one letter would change the context of the entire scene.

So I got out a sheet of paper…

and started sketching.

With a lot more sketching and revising, the concept turned into this:

I pitched the idea to my long time editor, Mary Cash at Holiday House. She made some suggestions, like using three-letter words (consonant-vowel-consonant) instead of four-letter words. I said that would work, so we signed a two-book deal and I got started on the books. I made a list of words that would link to each other by only changing one letter. The order and meaning had to make some sort of sense, and when they did, I wrote a manuscript based off that list:

That manuscript may look a little different than what follows in the sketches, but sometimes that happens. Things get revised and revised again.

But once that stage gets approval, I start on the sketches. Here’s how I begin all my books, with a sheet of blank thumbnail boxes in Adobe Photoshop:

Then, with a lot of deep thought, I fill them in:

Then I enlarge them all, clean them up and import them into an Adobe InDesign layout.
Click the arrows to “flip” through the pages!

(I cannot legally show you the entire book, but here are many of the pages)

With some back and forth, little revisions here and there and input from the publishing team, I go to final art. Notice that I added a 5th character!

This is the fun part—I get to put my headphones on and go to work. I love drawing the final lines, filling them in with color, and bringing the character to life. What a process! Making books is hard work, but lots of FUN!

(Again, I cannot legally show you the entire book, but here are many of the pages.)

There are four books under contract in this series, with more ideas on the table. Enjoy!