Today Sarah E. Steinberg guest posts for GeekDis to talk about being a disabled and neurodivergent illustrator, working with her author partner Rowena Zahnrei and crowdfunding kidlit. Sarah joins us to share their creative journey together which resulted in the creation of The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky, a graphic novel trilogy featuring neurodivergent representation.

Please give a warm welcome to Sarah as she tells us more about crowdfunding kidlit and introduces us to The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: The Baffling Birds Trilogy!

Rowena and I met online, as neurodivergent and disabled people tend to do, in the Kids Comics Unite Intensive course in 2021.  I can highly recommend this course, by the way, if you’re interested in making comics!   We’ve both been writers in some capacity for most of our lives, but wanted to start making comics – in particular, I wanted to learn to illustrate them!  I’m an architectural designer by training, so drawing characters has been a huge stumbling point.  Plus, ADHD means I write the exciting parts of my stories and then lose interest, and chronic illness means less energy for things no one *needs*… so without accountability I fizzle out. 

Rowena wanted to test partnering with an illustrator to see if her scripts translated well to graphic novels.

We each had projects going that we had a strong vision for, were pitching to agents and editors, and didn’t feel we could experiment freely with.  But we needed the practice to get those projects where they needed to be. We decided that we needed to partner on something finishable and low emotional investment.  Rowena had a light project in her “unfinished stories” folder based on her childhood stuffed animals, a blue bear named Nicki and a racoon named Raccy, who accompanied her to investigate natural mysteries like the peculiar pile of shells surrounding a tree at a seaside park.  I needed practice drawing hands and consistent human faces, and suggested we turn them into kids. Rowena got hyper-focused on this idea and turned out a script in less than three hours! My ADHD brain wanted to go full speed ahead – but my energy impairment was slowing me down.  Lucky for me, Rowena understood the vagaries of chronic illness, and didn’t mind the A LOT IN ONE WEEK and then A LONG PAUSE pace of Nicky and Ricky’s first drawings. Plus, we didn’t expect to do anything with this book, other than make it to prove to ourselves we could.  

As we wrote and edited and sketched, we found Nicki and Ricky taking on some of our own characteristics – Ricky is a methodical completionist, with lots of patience and a great memory, while Nicki is impulsive, intuitive, and has an eye for big picture solutions (plus she’s got my pre-illness energy).  During our weekly zoom check-ins, we felt how those traits balanced each other.  Rowena got excited about my far-fetched ‘yes to anything’ ideas, and I appreciated the reminders to complete what we’d already committed to and the steady pace of her writing and critiques. We began to think of The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky as a representation story – one in which neurodivergent traits were a feature, not a glitch – which is how we experience them (when we’re in the right company at least). 

We had the opportunity to join in Crowdfundr’s Kid’s and YA Content Creators event this month, and despite having only one half-finished book and two rough manuscripts, decided, WHY NOT?  Let’s be real – me and my ADHD jumped at the chance. Rowena – an autistic introvert – was a bit more hesitant (she says: “To say I have a social media presence – even a ‘social’ presence – would be to stretch the word ‘presence’ until it inverts into its opposite to prevent itself from tearing. I’m an autistic introvert. I’ve always found it easier, and a lot quicker, to write a novel than an e-mail, let alone a text!”).  But I’ve been freelancing with a “yes to most things” attitude for longer than I’ve been disabled, and the habit of “yes” has stuck. My enthusiasm convinced her. I was also finding that my energy impairment prevented a lot of paid work… but that drawing and coloring were two activities I could do a lot more of without exceeding my limits and causing pain or a crash – so a crowdfunding campaign might allow me to get paid (a little) for the work I was actually able to do. 

So we had a neurodivergent crowdfunding project on our hands. As we tried to come up with convincing reasons for people to sign up for updates, I realized that I don’t join that sort of thing… unless I have a really good reason.  It was mid-May; my 2nd-grader was about to be turned loose on me for the summer.  I’d sign up for ANYTHING that offered some free entertainment that was plausibly educational, and all the kids I know are ravenous for graphic novels. So I thought – why not help kids make science comics, following the scientific method to tempt parents, and featuring Nicki and Ricky’s personalities. I’d make a worksheet each week! Or, a comic introducing it AND a worksheet! Or… a comic and 4–5 worksheets? For 8 weeks? And now over a hundred people signed up expecting something impressive? GULP.

This is where ADHD and chronic illness got in a battle. I’ve had ADHD all my life (though just diagnosed and medicated this year) and disabled by ME/CFS for only about 3 years, and my sense of timing is not calibrated well yet to my current state.  As a veteran freelancer, the combination of multiple deadlines and new projects kept me go-go-going in a happy ADHD overachieving way… but ME/CFS’s unpredictable energy drops stole my ability to push through, and stole entire weeks from my work schedule.  For June and July, I was working on the newsletter giveaway templates week by week, two self-published picture books for other authors on contract, the three crowdfunded comics, and a manuscript and pitch package for a graphic novel that my agent wants to send to mainstream publishers in September!  

I’m currently struggling deeply with how to prioritize and make sure I’m covering my bills, finishing my contracts, and advancing my career… without injuring myself.  The dopamine of newsletters and funding goals has gotten me through this month, but one of my projects is significantly behind.   Depending on whether my neurodivergence or my disability dominates from now til the end of 2023, we’re hoping to ship out books before the end of December.  But if not, I’ll go ahead and be public with our supporters and my clients – this is my life now, and I’m doing my best. I’m a disabled freelancer in a world that asks us to produce more every day- and I want to prioritize exploration, creative experimentation, and represent ND and disabled creators positively in the world. 

I hope you’ll consider backing our project – we’d love to be able to go to San Diego Comic Con in 2024 to sell comics and meet in person (our biggest stretch goal)! Our books and workbook are going to be great for ages 6-9, both neurodivergent and neurotypical.  And we’re still offering the free print-at-home versions of our Summer Science Investigators’ Society comic worksheets at BafflingBirds.SarahESteinberg.com for a few more days.  

Thanks for reading, GEEKDIS!

Many thanks to Sarah for talking to us about Crowdfunding Kidlit and her creative journey with The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: The Baffling Birds Trilogy! Sarah and Rowena’s Science Comic Workbook has a beta version that is still free for a few more days until August 5 2023 so make sure you take the opportunity to grab it if you’ve got kids in your life!

Please take a moment to visit Sarah’s website to learn more about her work and if you’re able to you can help with Sarah and Rowena’s crowdfunding project too.

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