Why My Heart Is Pounding Right Now

Sorry to any of my normal readers for my break in writing here. I have been working super hard on something that I just released today. I apologize in advance if my self-promotion for this project bothers you, but this is really important to me, and so is this community, so I really wanted to share what I am and have been up to. Here it is:

I am in the process of an amazing collaboration with Claudia Sahuquillo an artist/illustrator/fellow body painter from Barcelona (one of my favorite cities!) to bring a POETRY COLORING BOOK to life via Kickstarter! It’s an adult coloring book in which Claudia will be interpreting my original poems into illustration, which you will then be able to color. Get out the markers, crayons, and colored pencils y’all <3

I could go into the details of why coloring should not just be an activity for children, but then you’d have no reason to watch the supercool video I made explaining the project. One thing I will say is that the title has not yet been decided, and instead of picking it on my own, it seemed like more fun and in the spirit of crowdsourcing to let the backers of the project contribute their thoughts and have a say! I'm excited for that and also so much to see the illustrations Claudia makes from my poems! AHHHHHH. My heart is pounding so fast.

The publisher is all set to go when I can pay them, which is why a little bit of help from my friends is necessary, and why I started this Kickstarter campaign :) So:

• If you love the idea of the project and can’t wait to get your hands on this innovative, multimedia work of visual and intellectual art/poetry, PLEASE DONATE. Every little bit helps.
• If you don’t have any interest in poetry or coloring books but just want to support an artist that you love (me! or Claudia! or both!), PLEASE DONATE.
• If you are not financially stable and need all the money you have for other things but still want to support us, please SHARE the project, because maybe someone you know will be excited about it or benefit from it.

Also, there is an Early Bird Special for donations made right away for a limited amount of books! That’s because in order for the project to get noticed by more people in the Kickstarter community, it needs to have a lot of backing early on!

This coloring book is something beautiful Claudia and I can add to the universe, something that will connect with people, something that can maybe turn a bad day into a good one, an angry/crazy/stressed/overwhelmed mood into a calm one, feelings of despair into something even a little more manageable.

We are so excited to get started on it!

If you’re not exactly sure what I’m up to here, all the information is in the video below and on the official Kickstarter campaign page here! And even if you’re not interested, the video was made not only to be informative, but also funny, so you might get a kick out of watching me squirm in front of the camera (or even watching a surprise guest do something pretty crazy!).

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Love and thank you for reading,

@jessandthesea