I have been waiting for my illustration mojo to arrive since I was 12. Younger.
I spent my:
- teens lovesick for boys and planning ways to make them love me as much as I loved them
- late teens and early twenties in a maze of city streets with boys who loved me more than I loved them
- early and late twenties studying for a Master’s degree in Geology
- thirties rearing children
- forties rearing teenagers
- fifties building a career
…and all throughout this time, I longed for my illustration mojo to stop dancing just out of my reach, so I could turn those tantalising glimpses into something I could grab and take hold of. Put onto paper the strange little world that I could just just about make out through the mist.
I turned 58 last week and that strange little world has finally kept still long enough to grab. I have it now, it’s mine. I am 58 and I have found what I was longing for since I was 12. It would have been nice had it arrived before now, but it didn’t, and I am happy it’s arrived at all. To paraphrase the old saying: “The best time to find your artistic mojo was forty years ago. The second best time is now.”
The hero’s journey is full of pitfalls and treachery, but with the help of a guide she finds the path to salvation. I had a guide who helped me to find my glory. He helped me six years ago, in 2020, as I walked around the quiet country roads listening to his book Superfans. That was partially the reason I started teaching online. He helped me in 2023 when I relaunched my YouTube channel, going from 1k subs to nearly 14k now, and found my voice as a videographer, and made new friends, in the process.
His name is Pat Flynn and he has helped me now. In late 2025 he suggested joining a 30-day challenge, in which we would post a 1-minute video every single day for a month, starting in early 2026, “when the craziness of the holiday season has died down, late enough into January that you’ve had time to catch your breath.” He said magic would happen, and he was right. Pat, it turns out, is a wizard.
When I started the challenge on Monday January 12th I knew that my topic would have to be something fun, or it would be too hard to sustain every day. That morning, the day everyone would start the challenge together, I had no idea what I would do. It didn’t take long to decide what my subject would be. With having fun as my primary directive, I decided to build the little world I had started to create, of the animals that live in the beautiful natural landscape around my home in south Galway. Wearing clothes, ones from centuries past, because they are beautiful.
I called it by the real name of the locality, but then I had a feeling deep down that the world I was creating might someday capture hearts, and I didn’t want to be the person who ruined the area by having hordes descend to see it for themselves, so I made up a name.
Welcome to the Wilds of Caraclooma. The name is an anglicised derivative of Furry Friends (cara clúmach) which is very apt. The quay near my home, where the seals, the dolphins, the dogfish and crabs live alongside the seabirds, is now called Cloomafluck, the Anglicised version of Furry and Wet (clúmach fluich). I am certain there are horrible grammatical errors within those names but who ever said furry and fishy creatures were good at their letters? As for shellfish? Come on! They don’t even have eyes! (I think.) And the island where some of the action takes place is rechristened Island Ishree, from oisrí, the Irish for oysters.
I read once that writers either plan everything beforehand or they make it up as they go along, by the seat of their pants. You’re either a planner or a pantser. Turns out I am the latter. I know three days in advance what action is going to take place: three days’ worth of drawing, so i don’t have to rewrite or redraw anything. After that it’s misty again. But I get there.
If you would like to know how the stories unfold, you can wait for the first physical comic to come out: it’s about two weeks from going to print. It will be small (A6) and unlike my recent production, Reuben and the Gastrobeasts, it will be truly a comic, stapled at the spine so it lays flat, but with nice sturdy paper. Here is a sneak peek of Brine Ó Rón of Island Ishree…it’s not the page I would have chosen because it doesn’t tie in exactly with the story (although I can just about make it work) but I had uploaded it earlier by accident and it was still on my computer.
(Any time you think your computer skills aren’t what they could be, I bet they’re no worse than mine. Just saying.)
There is a lot more in the way of sneak peeks but I am not able to upload anything on the train, where I am on my way to Dublin. You can indulge all you want – if you want – by following my progress on Instagram and YouTube in the Shorts section. You’ll see for yourself what a seat-of-the-pants writer looks like!
Watch this space…
(If you would like to start your own illustration journey with me as your guide, you can come to my next dedicated illustration course on vivify.ai. Six weeks of studying the great author-illustrators of the 20th century, with a view to unlocking your OWN inner illustration mojo. Starts 10th March, 5.00pm GMT, every Tuesday, 90 minutes each class, lots of feedback, small numbers – only 8. $180. Go to vivify.ai/browse and you’ll see me there!)
