By way of giving hope to anyone foolish enough to consider illustrating as a career and simultaneously breaking one's parents hearts, I hereby give you
Dylan Landis.
Dylan hired me to illustrate four of her home design books, she possesses the ability to articulate exactly what she wants and allows for a reasonable time frame. She did not blink an eye when my freakishly tiny black cat, Baby Samona, jumped up on the desk to sprawl all over the drawings we were reviewing, nor did she question the fact that my cat had no tail. Most people, mistaking Baby Samona for some sort of rodent recoiled in horror and shrieked "What
is that?" but Dylan took my rescued runt in gracious stride and I knew then she was good people.
Her facility for the written word and appreciation of the bizarre has led to a work of fiction,
Real People Don't Live Like This. I was recently made aware of this fact while perusing
Vanity Fair, Dylan was noted in the "Hot Type" column by Elissa Schappell who says "The characters ...are blessedly extraordinary".
Indeed they are, but I am particularly fascinated by the mother who secretly rents a welfare hotel room that she obsessively decorates. Always write about what you know, Dylan has, mother/daughter relationships, and decorating. The novel is quirky, darkly humorous and contains a few decorating hints for the deranged.
Her vivid work of fiction obviously did not require my illustrations, she paints such haunting images with her words.
