Hallowink Hollow Series Written & Illustrated by Lisa Loucks-Christenson

Hallowink Hollow™ Series

Written and Illustrated by Lisa Loucks-Christenson

Hallowink Hollow Halloween Party, Volume 1, 2017 Sketchstory

Hallowink's Halloween Blizzard, Volume 2, 2018 Sketchstory

Hallowink Hollow: Rescue Me, Volume 3, 2019 Sketchstory

Hallowink Hollow: The Haunted Carnival, Volume 4, 2020 Sketchstory

Hallowink Hollow: Escape from the Haunted Carnival, Volume 5, 2021, Sketchstory

Hallowink Hollow: The Talking Corn, Volume 6 (2022 will start on 10/01/2022, God-willing), Sketchstory

Written & Illustrated by Lisa Loucks-Christenson

The Hallowink Hollow Series

2019 Inktober Sketches on 3x3 sticky notes by Lisa Loucks-Christenson.

Publish Date: 10/31/2019

2018 Inktober Sketchstory by Lisa Loucks-Christenson

Published 10/31/2018

Lisa's Inktober 2017 Sketches on 3x3 sticky notes

ISBN-13: 978-1-59819-273-5 in EBOOK October 31, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1-59819-273-5 Paperback (September 2018)

ISBN-13: 978-1-59819-275-9 Hardcover (September 2018)

Published 10/31/2017

Interview with Author & Illustrator Lisa Loucks Christenson

and Hallowink Hollow Reporter, Poke-U-Pine

(This is a tongue-in-cheek, fact-fiction interview between Lisa's character, Poke-U-Pine and herself. )

When are you releasing Hallowink?

I'm planning to release Hallowink Hollow Halloween Party in ebook format on 10/31/2017. September 2018, I'm hoping to release the paperback and hardcover.

Wait? Did you say 10/31/2017? Aren't you still doing the drawings for October on the 31st?
Yes. I have them all done, the inside front matter, bio, even a ink self portrait for my bio. The only page I need to create is the 10/31/2017 drawing. I'll do that right away on the 31st so I can insert this in the book and publish it. It'll go live just after midnight on 10/31/2017.

Will the Inktober and dates be included in the story?

Yes. I purposely wrote that info off to the top, sides, because I thought I may want to publish the story without it on the pages. That would be like taking a character out of this first story. This first Hallowink book is about taking time and spending time at each place, it would be like skipping a day to remove it. In future adventures they will be fully illustrated in color, without dates or titles for each drawing, or reference to Inktober. However, it needs to be duly noted: Inktober IS the reason this story, among a few others (below) was created.

Where is Hallowink Hollow?

Author: Hallowink Hollow is perhaps as real as a place as an imagination allows. Hallowink Hollow grew out of a real hollow –– a gated fortress found deep in woods of the author, Lisa Loucks Christenson. The hollow is home to 22 mischievous critters, and maybe more, who the author found had discovered the best path to the annual Hallowink Halloween Party is by traveling through the forest with friends. The creatures, aptly named, Hallowinks, journey through the meandering paths en route to the annual celebration.

What inspired this Hallowink's story?

Author: This story was illustrated during Inktober, the author found inspiration about a week or so into the month, when Little Buck Usagi (a real wild rabbit the author raised and released) came back to her . . . but with the most unusual tale, and experiences, she had to write it down.

Why did you use sticky notes instead of art paper?

For Inktober my daughter Emme asked if I'd illustrate the drawing using sticky notes (we have a small gallery of years of notes on a wall in our kitchen - notes I stuck in her lunches growing up documenting her milestones, and mostly using her characters (Kerk & Derk + Fenk) to tell the story.) Maybe I'm just weird. Still we like looking back at our wall and I plan to release a book from the collection –– one day. Currently there are 150 notes, maybe more. We stopped counting after 2015.

Did you know what you were going to do either as a theme or for drawings?

For Inktober, I had no preconceived idea. I planned on letting each day be my inspiration, except I knew I wanted a horse in each drawing. My daughter had sent over a text message with various themes, and ideas. I loved them all and only had 31 days so I scratched them all.

What is one thing you wish you could change about your drawings?

Hallowinks was illustrated using one ink pen (so I had no room for errors - so expect some), I really had never used just one ink pen. I have the outlining pens with my watercolors, sketching, but not for the entire month and as my only tool. It was very challenging and I learned I really had tons of room for improvement. Then the worst thing happened: on 10/29/2017, my pen ran dry! Yes it did. On 10/30/2017 the author had to draw, using a backup pen, having used every drop of ink in the first one.

What is one lession you can share about your Inktober exeperience?

All my illustrations were drawn on 3x3 sticky notes, no practice lines, no pencil -what ink hit the page stayed or was blended. Mistakes were inevitable. I had to learn to forgive myself to make them to keep my ideas going forward and not stop or look back. I gave myself one piece of paper a day.

So what I learned is drawing 22 characters in that tiny space is in itself a great lesson in keeping things you draw simple. Before this, I had every tiny detail included.

Share with us how the story was born . . . what brought it into existence?

This story was born because three, no four things happened . . .

1. A real wild rabbit was screaming so loud it woke the authors' brother, Brian and he was able to save it from a cat at his house, one who had a couple buddy's and found this little rabbits siblings that met their unfortunate end. The authors' brother brought the rabbit over to release it into her woods. The problem was the author has owls that live in her woods and hawks who eat little rabbits every night. So, she decided to raise the rabbit until he was double in size, and then set him free. She called him Little Buck兎 Usagi. (Usagi means rabbit in Japanese, a name the authors daughter Emme chose - being an anime artist, who could argue?

2. The authors' daughter Emme (an awesome anime and fantasy artist - who is way better at illustrating than her mom), introduced her to Inktober in 2016. The author got half way into the month before a long list of "to-do's" cut the authors' debut year, short.

3. The authors' mother, Gail, was also inspired by Emme's suggestion to do Inktober. In her late 70's, Gail kept to the task, drawing her Inktober drawing each day too. Something wonderful happened: her mom met her own characters . . . over and again, ones she calls her "Backyard Nuts"!

4. One night at dusk, then another night during October Inktober, Little Buck Usagi returned . . . with the most incredible adventures in Hallowink and shared them with Lisa.

Which of the 22 characters (the Hallowinks) is your favorite character?

It would be impossible to say who my favorite character is. Instead, I think my favorite behavior in the characters is Copy Owl and Friend Bat. The owl copies everything his friend the bat does. I enjoyed their simplicity and ability to say so much drawing so little detail. I enjoyed drawing all the characters and hope to use them in stories in the future.

Is there a list of the characters somewhere we can see?

In the book.There is a page listing the 22 characters. I have to say, it's hard to see them in the end––in fact, I purposely drew many of the Hallowinks stepping off the pages, which will be extra challenging to see who is who.

Will you be adding more information or illustrations character profiles for fans?

Yes. I'll create bios and pages for each character, maybe some of their habits, attitudes, etc. Look for that at a later time, once I've had time to study them more, learn more about who and what they like to do. I'll probably create trading photo cards, too.

Is there going to be another adventure next Halloween with the Hallowinks?

I use the month of November to write my Wolves of Whitewater Falls books, it's hard to hold off for another year. I'm not sure I can wait a year before doing another Hallowinks book. I was thinking of trying to squeeze in a short tale for Christmas.

Will you draw the next adventures with the Hallowinks on sticky notes?

Probably not. Maybe for sketches, or surprise appearances on my kitchen gallery wall, but not for another book. I miss my colored pencils! I want to draw these on my usual art paper - and use a pencil so I can erase my mistakes!

Is there anything else you'd like to share about Hallowink?

I'd love to know if you'd like to see more adventures with the Hallowinks of Hallowink Hollow. Would you like me to re-illustrate this or color it? I'd rather not, it's special to me the way it is, but fans rule and I listen to them.

Stop by and visit: www.LisaLoucksChristenson.net and filling out the Contact Form

www.LisaLC.com Peacock Books Hallowinks.com

Hallowink Hollow Series

Written and Illustrated

(Drawn on 3x3 sticky notes, one per day, during Inktober)

by Lisa Loucks-Christenson

Hallowink Hollow Series Ordering Line: (866) 562-5125 toll free