A Film About Billy

For Us By Us Juvenile Fiction

raw ink afab We’re doing layout work for A Film About Billy right now, and it’s taking me back a bit.

I’ve hardly put this project down my entire adult life. I started the story when I was a teenager, and on the 6th of next month I’ll be 25. It’s hard not to feel crazy when I think about it—about how I came of age by writing a coming of age story—if you can call it that.

Recently I attended and indie comics expo in Columbus OH. After the first day I drank a few beers on a friend’s porch and got the chance to talk with a group of real life high school students for the first time in years.

Apparently I had given one of them a demo copy of my book the year before, because out of the blue one of the girls said that she liked my book. When I expressed surprise, a second student interrupted me to say, “Yeah, It’s really good.”

I was too surprised and abashed to do anything but confirm that they had in fact read the book. Making the total population A Film About Billy’s pre-published readership somewhere around 10.

Needless to say, this meant a lot to me.

This book has been a long time in the making. I’ve learned a lot about storytelling, about comics, and about myself over the course of these years. And the thought that the end product still registers on some level with people that are like I was when I started it—namely in high school and not particularly pleased with it—well, that’s… It’s just wonderful.

Thanks to my 2 person secret teenage review team

-danny mac