Well, the illustrations for the book are done, and it was quite a journey. My illustrator/artiste extraordinaire is Jennifer Klapecki, and we had the good fortune to be introduced by a mutual friend. She did a sample illustration and the publishers and I were duly impressed and she got the job.

There were 23 illustrations and we had just a few short weeks to get them all done. I really have to commend Jennifer on her dedication, because this job totally ate her life during the time we were working together.

I'd send her photographs of piercings with written instructions about the angle for the image, jewelry styles and sizes, and other details. Sometimes I sent passages from the book that describe the piercing placements, too. She'd draw up a draft, scan it, and email it to me. I'd sometimes print it and use white out and pencils to show her the necessary edits, and then I'd scan and email the draft back to her. Sometimes I would write out instructions and other times I'd call her on the phone (from Mexico to the US via Skype--thank goodness for Skype!).

Some of the illustrations went back and forth literally dozens of times! It was a very intense job for both of us, because the deadline was so tight. Jennifer was amazingly patient with me and so willing to do whatever it took to make the illustrations perfect. I think we made a great team and I'm thrilled with how they turned out.