The Tickles only come to life during the dreams of a small boy named Keke.
The whimsical troupe of characters are the creation of author R.C. Clark, who pens the book, The Tickles, under the name R.C., and the illustrative imagination of Nanaimo’s Sarita Mielke.
These characters visit in the night and readers must determine for themselves whether they are good or evil.
“I see this book from the perspective of a child. He’s dreaming all this in his head,” said Mielke. “I liked the idea of having some whimsical folklore characters so I instilled them in the book.”
She wanted the characters to have an elusive, dream-like quality to them so she used certain elements for them, such as parts of a witch or a raccoon, without the character being completely recognizable as that archetype.
“I’m taking a lot of inspiration from folklore and there is a high emphasis on nature,” said Mielke.
“As I read it I imagined some little monsters coming to get you. Like when you were little and your parents say ‘the tickle monster is coming.’
“With everything I do as a visual artist, you are constantly inspired and pulling from your experiences. You are constantly collecting these things,” she said.
Mielke worked on a previous book with Clark called If I were a Foot. She met him by chance when she was selling a motorcycle jacket on Craigslist. He saw her e-mail signature which said she was a graphic designer and checked out her work. He liked it and approached her to illustrate his book.
“He said ‘Hey. I am an aspiring children’s author, do you want to collaborate?’” said Mielke.
The last book, Clark handled the publication process. At first Mielke was going to pay out of pocket to publish the books, but after talking to friends who had successfully funded a project though Kickstarter she decided to give it a try.
“The biggest push was word of mouth and hitting the pavement myself, and using Facebook” said Mielke. “When it comes down to it, the people who usually pledge are your friends or your work comrades.”
The goal was to raise $5,000. The campaign ended up raising $5,315 for the project through the support of 87 backers. Mielke said she did all the leg work because she didn’t think she could count on someone randomly stumbling upon her Kickstarter campaign and pledging.
Another challenge beside getting backers to print the book was finding time to complete the project. Mielke runs a graphic design company, Wildfree Creative, and teaches yoga. Clark lives in Saskatchewan so the two had to correspond by e-mail to collaborate. It took several years for The Tickles to become a reality.
There will be 1,000 copies of The Tickles printed and five per cent of the book’s sales will be donated to an environmental charity. Mielke is still deciding on whether to donate to Greenpeace Canada or the Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society that plants trees along Rosewall Creek. The tree planting helps preserve the creek habitat. To lessen the environmental impact of creating the book, it is being printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks.
“It might be nice to keep the money closer to home to see the effect on the environment and see the trees,” said Mielke.
She also plans to donate books to Nanaimo elementary schools.
The Tickles is $15 plus tax. For more information please e-mail sarita@wildfreecreative.com.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
