The crayons in my son’s toddler classroom are shaped like large pebbles. This form serves the crayon’s function: to teach him to productively hold a pencil.
It is our sincere hope that Audacious Ignatius has a similarly productive form. We hope that its beauty and joy offers a simple reminder to productively hold the stuff of one’s life as Ignatius did, enabling attentiveness to the Spirit and freedom to participate in the work of God in the world.
This past weekend, Fr. Jim Martin, SJ gave Audacious Ignatius a shout out on Facebook. Check it out!
Both Katie and I are grateful to be able to able to work from home on projects like Audacious Ignatius, though the workplace is not always the most efficient. I found this text conversation from the morning of a big deadline day.
(Ñaño is the most prized comfort object. He actually makes a cameo in the “Preaching in Spain” page of Audacious Ignatius!)
We struggled for some time with the layout of the cover of Audacious Ignatius. We went through our bookshelves at home and perused the local libraries. From these ideas, Katie eventually created a few demos and we sent it around for feedback, starting with our families. Here is a snapshot of how it went in her house. 😀
Andrew ended up voting for the “On the Way” in the end.
As we created Audacious Ignatius, a team of friends gave us invaluable feedback. Feedback on theology, the life of St. Ignatius, grammar, and the rhythm of the words.
One of the most clever ideas came from a friend for a blurb on the back cover. Here it is on an early mock up of the dust jacket:
In the final days before printing, though, Katie and I read this article about how seriously Mr. Rogers took how literally young people interpret speech. (If you read it, scroll down to #1-9 of how to craft a message in “Fred-ish.”)
The dear Fred Rogers would probably would not put this in a book. We ultimately decided to take it out, but wanted to share it so you could giggle a bit.