We’re rapidly approaching the one-year anniversary of the publication of my first book, HOW TO FEED YOUR PARENTS. In related news, today marks the one-year anniversary of the last time I posted here at Standing in the Shallows. Wow!

Join me, won’t you, in a week of looking back, pushing forward, and trying to figure what to do now. To kick things off, please enjoy this artwork I commissioned from the fantastic Jake Morrison, imagining what my main character, Matilda Macaroni, would look like as a fantastical … chef … explorer? With her giant cat? It’s like she wandered into a Miyazaki movie by way of the Land of Ooo.

If you like Jake’s art, check out his Kickstarter for DANI AND RAMEN: A NOMAD’S TALE VOL. 1, about a red panda and a frog on the trail of the trees that used to surround their home. Perhaps, in their quest to discover the root of such wanton environmental destruction, they will also end up saving the world? Maaaaaybe?

There are no amphibians or Ailuridae in my book, but—like DANI AND RAMEN—it does feature a character who is passionate about food.

HOW TO FEED YOUR PARENTS is still available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon and a bunch of brick-and-mortar places. You know, in case you’re wondering.