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Well-known author and illustrator Bill Slavin will be the guest speaker at this month’s Heritage Week event hosted by the Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society.
“It’s as good as it gets right now.” Bill Slavin might like to contemplate life in the middle ages or during the Napoleonic era, but he certainly doesn’t want to be transported back to that time. The Historical Society was treated to conversation, tea, and cookies by Bill Slavin and Esperanca Melo in late January, in preparation for the upcoming Heritage Week event where MCHS will host an evening with Bill.
Currently, Bill is working on the third installment of his Mordecai Crow series. The artwork is where the trilogy began; Bill created the world of Mordecai Crow based on the medieval landscapes and architecture that he and Esperanca enjoy visiting while traveling in Europe. While the novel is post-apocalyptic, Bill explains what’s interesting about dystopian stories is not the apocalypse, but rather the re-imagining of how we are currently living. The theme of the endurance of the human spirit seems to find itself in Bill’s historical interests; he has done extensive research into the experiences of soldiers in Sicily and Italy during World War II; and his imagination is captured by stone and stone objects from the medieval and Roman eras.
While he is fascinated by the past, Bill is firmly planted in the present. Bill has been a long-time adopter of technology to aid in his work, having worked on some video games when 16-bits per pixel was the highest standard for graphics. His third book in the Mordecai Crow series will be done completely on his iPad with his stylus; he is sure that he has found the brush and technique that most closely resembles the analog tools used in the first two books of the series. The second book is at the printer now and is set to be released in May. “I think it’s improved my work,” Bill said of the stylus and iPad.
He jokingly refers to the Mordecai Crow graphic novel series as his retirement project, but the discipline Bill exhibits in bringing his work to life indicates this series is not that at all. Each morning, Bill draws for about four hours. “I love drawing. The story often comes out of the drawing,” Bill shared when asked if he had planned to create the story as a trilogy from the outset. While he could see the story arc continuing, the first installment of the series holds its own, so it was a series that took on a life of its own as he put stylus to screen.
While crafting his award-winning illustrations and successful graphic novels, Bill has also found time to be an active member of the Cavan Monaghan community in myriad ways since moving here in 1990. Esperanca and Bill met in Toronto in the late 80s and chose to settle in Millbrook, close to family and nature. Over the nearly four decades that they’ve been in Millbrook, the couple has worked, at times, side-by-side on various projects, including four children’s’ book they’ve designed and illustrated together.
The Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society invites you to get to know Bill Slavin when he delivers a special talk that will be sure to entertain and delight at a Heritage Week event on February 22nd at the Millbrook Legion.
By:Rachel Finnie