The World in Deeper Inspection

My longest running and second oldest serialised work. TWiDI is my non-commercial passion project. It is the embodiment of all the things I have loved all my life into one big story: gothic literature and aesthetics, the Victorian Era, cryptids and paranormal phenomena, literary fiction, cultural and artistic history, and character-based writing.

TWIDI is also what I call my ‘landmark work’, in that it has documented and continues to document the maturity of my artistic and narrative voice since the age of 18. Every story is approached differently, as an outlet for all the strange and experimental ideas I have — ideas that wouldn’t work elsewhere — and for concepts and historical fun facts that I’m unable to explore in other stories.
TWIDI is mainly a playground for folklore surrounding the otherworldly and the beyond: how humanity processes death and grief through story and the creation of mythological characters and religious beings. In almost all my work, the afterlife appears as a constant theme, side-by-side with literature. TWIDI features supernatural characters, themselves inspired by our real-world stories, who engage in reading and storytelling.

What makes TWIDI slightly different than the rest of my portfolio is its outsized focus on creativity as a connecting thread between people in the past, present and future. While the wonder behind this focus is core to all of my work, TWIDI specifically celebrates the joy of being creative in personal and mundane ways.

My first children’s story, though I wrote this for young adults too who were experiencing a similar conflict about the fear of growing up and losing oneself to aging. The main character Lora’s fears of growing up is based on how I felt when I was 11. I witnessed my peers become teenagers around me, turning their attentions outward to crushes and trends, while I stubbornly held on to play-pretend and my internal life. I remember telling myself as kid that I will continue to watch cartoons and not engage in those live-action dramas that adults watch, which seemed boring and only talked of things that didn’t matter to me. This is not true anymore: I watch both, and I am all the better for it, especially now that I am able to appreciate complex, diverse subject matter and have witnessed more of life. This gradual shift and positive acceptance of change is what Seance Tea Party is about: growing up, growing old, is not about desolation and shrinking, but about possibilities expanding. It’s story about growing up that’s neither about abandoning or retreating back to childhood, common in coming-of-age and 90s ‘overworked dad regains meaning of life’ films respectively. Instead, it’s about becoming the person you are all through the stages of life.

Seance Tea Party is nostalgic, warm and cute. I based its art direction on vintage children’s book illustration, whimsical autumnal Halloween aesthetics, and heartwarming, quirky, beautiful all-ages movies of the 90s - basically the kinds of things I have enjoyed as a kid (I still do).

Originally a humorous adventure-comedy for adults that found its place as an all-ages book. My Aunt is a Monster has stronger callbacks to my core interests: joy, wonder and life fuelled by a love for all the world. It’s a companion to Seance Tea Party in that it features a cast of mostly adult characters across age ranges who model exuberance and vitality, even if some of them are typical cartoon villains.

The art direction is less involved; it’s just the best of my natural art style turned up to maximum, plus a comeback of the way I used to draw as a teen - which had stronger whimsical flourishes compared to the measured, somewhat serious, literary approach used in my historical fiction. The story itself is light-hearted and fun, inspired by my favourite genre of fiction: the cozy adult comedies of Alexander McCall Smith and playful books with extremely long titles like the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window, and The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an IKEA Wardrobe.