July 26th, 2023
I’ve been working on Brushfire for over half a decade, and two-thirds of it is out in the wild for people to pick up and read, yet I still have a hard time explaining to people what it’s all about.
I usually mention that Brushfire itself is an underground community of wildlife, and that they’re scientists and adventurers and that there’s a mystery unfolding in the books. Which is all true but is all just the simplest explanation of a thing that isn’t nearly as simple as it seems.
When I’m working on it, I often refer to a list I made of the big things Brushfire is about, which is also a list of the things that are already always on my mind. It’s ingeniously called:
The Big List of What It’s All About
– The literal story (multidimensional)
– Environmentalism/Climate
– Immigration/Emigration
– Spirituality (afterlife)
– Nostalgia
– Creativity (blank page v. current project)
– Family
– Identity/Community
– Government
– Societal Failure
– Addiction
– Grief
– Pain
You’re probably thinking something like “your squirrel story is about all of this?!” and I think that all the time, too.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s too much and I think that’s why it’s perfect for a tale about squirrels; there is nothing minimal or subtle about a squirrel, so the story takes the form of the animal.
I also decided to take big swings on my first all-ages project because of an interaction I had over my last graphic novel, The Weirdos — which I’ll talk about next time.
[ 📸 by Cori Miller ]
The Den 