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Hi, Shannon, how are you
doing today? I'm doing great? How

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are you doing? Absolutely fantastic.
Hey, congratulations on this new graphic novel.

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I mean, the cover itself says
Keeper of the Lost Cities, the

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graphic novel that to me says oh, even as an adult, I got

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to check into this. Oh,
thank you. I love that. I

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have a zone now. You know, it's like the Morton's the Steakhouse,

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and I'm like Keeper Veloci's phlographic novel. I love it. To put this

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together, though, What was it
like to get you know, the basically

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the graphics and the story altogether,
to keep that story alive and moving forward.

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It was really fun to get to
collaborate this time and really have like

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kind of a whole team working on
it. Because the novel was adapted by

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Selina Friend, and then the art
was done by Gabriella, and I was

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involved both in selecting them and then
also weighing in. I got to see

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draft of the script for the adaptation
and give notes, and then I got

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to see the art at every stage, and then we made text changes sometimes

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based on the art, and so
it was really really fun to be having,

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you know, all of these people
with all of these takes on the

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story contributing this time. Instead of
it just being kind of me alone in

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my little office writing what's in my
head now, it was now, you

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know, a group effort, and
even though we rarely communicated with each other,

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we all were putting our own fingerprints
on the project. And it's kind

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of magical that we came out with
something that I feel like is very true

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to Keeper, but also is something
that would never have been what it is

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without those other voices in there with
me instead of it just being me.

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And so I love that. I'm
so glad that you talked about the collaboration

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because I have seen so many beautiful, beautiful graphics from young adults and adults,

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but they don't know what to do
with him. And what you're sharing

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with us is go out and form
a team, get somebody who is an

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author, get somebody who can have
leadership here, and put those pictures to

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work for you exactly. I mean. It was fun because it worked both

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ways. Like definitely I was the
captain steering the ship, but it was

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also like I wanted to make sure
that I stepped back and said, but

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let the experts do what they do
best. You know. I made it

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very clear from the beginning that I
didn't want to write the adaptation script because

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I felt like I was too close
to the book. The book was exactly

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the way that I wanted to be. Every scene was exactly the way that

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I felt that it needed to be
in order to tell the story and to

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then go back and change that.
I wasn't sure that I could be objective

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enough, and so I thought,
I want somebody else who goes in and

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makes the changes, and then I
can look at it and go, I

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don't know if that works. I
think we probably wanted to do something else,

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or yes, that works great.
We totally capture that. Because each

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format is different, there were things
that we had to change because putting it

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into the graphic novel format, all
of a sudden it was like, Wow,

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that joke isn't funny anymore, the
scene is dragging. We need to

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condense this, or oh no,
we need to slow this moment down because

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it's the emotions of what Sophie's feeling
aren't reading through right now. And so

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it was it was great to step
back and let Selena do her thing.

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And then I also, whenever I'm
working with an artist on the series,

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I try to give it, you
know, both specifics as far as like

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these are the markers that you have
to hit in order for it to match

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the descriptions of the book, but
then also let them kind of have their

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own space to draw what they are
picturing, instead of me trying to be

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like, no, no, it
should be that the wall is this color,

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and it's this tall, and it's
you know, and the windows right

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here, and you know it's I
like to leave room for them to put

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their own interpretation in because so often
what they picture is even better than what

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was in my head. And so
we end up with this kind of fun,

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you know, group project where everyone
brought the best of themselves into it,

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and I just was there to kind
of make sure, okay, but

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we have to stay true to what
the original material was, otherwise fans of

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the series won't appreciate it. And
so that was kind of my job is

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to say, okay, but how
do we match what we here's the point

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of this scene? Are we capturing
that but turning it into a graphic novel.

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Let's be honest here, there are
some graphic novel novel fans that that

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have never really picked up a regular
book to read it because they like graphic

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graphic novels. So so you're you're
bringing new people to this story, and

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so they're going to be going,
well, who is Sophie? Why?

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Why is she so important here?
And you can't just explain it to them

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because they now have pictures and they're
going to have images of who they think

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Sophie is exactly. Yeah, And
that was that was really the thing was

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that I a lot of times I
was giving notes saying like, I feel

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like we have to remember that this
book in the going to just be read

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by fans of the series, and
so I do think we need to slow

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this moment down and make sure that
for someone who's coming into this scene having

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not read it before, that they're
understanding what is happening, what is being

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felt, what isn't you know,
these kinds of things. That's that's actually

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why it ended up being just part
one, because when we started doing the

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initial like potential condensing of the four
hundred and eighty four pages of Keeper down

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to what would be, you know, a three hundred page graphic novel,

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it was just like, we're cutting
too much stuff out and we're we're losing

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like the emotion of the book.
We're just getting those plot beats and that's

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it. And what I think a
lot of readers connect with is feeling what

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the characters are feeling in addition to, you know, watching what happens to

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them. And so we kind of
decided, all right, let's slow it

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down and split it into two.
Even though obviously it's not ideal having to

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say wait for part two to come
out. You know, it's for such

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a better book to be able to
split it into isn't it kind of retraining

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the mind of your following that because
now that you do have pictures, because

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I find myself I know the story, but you sit there and you read,

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you read what's in the bubble,
and then you look at the picture,

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and then you go to the next
one and you look at the picture.

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So and I have a feeling I'm
going to be going through this book

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two or three times so I can
get the actual physical essence of this story

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exactly. I mean, it's funny, that was something because I will admit

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I've read graphic novels and everything,
but I do read more prose novels than

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graphic novels, and so I had
not even thought about just even like the

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placement of the text bubbles, how
much thought has to go into that and

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making sure that they get read in
the right order, and that if it's

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something where you do want readers looking
at the art before they read the text,

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that you put the text in the
right spot so that that happens,

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or if they need to read the
text before they see the image to give

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them that context, and you have
to place the text there. And there

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were just so many little tiny details
that had to be just right in order

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to make it work. And I
was just like, wow, I have

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I knew that graphic novels were,
you know, a true labor of love

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and just really kind of creative masterpieces
on their own, but to really see

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how much goes into it, it
was just like, wow, these these

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are amazing, and I'm so honored
that I get to have one for my

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series. Take me into the structure
of those text bubbles, because is it

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still about left to right reading when
it comes to those bubbles? I mean

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ideally yes. I mean it's funny
with the page because sometimes you have a

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page where there's only two or three
panels on it, and so you're you

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know, you're wanting them to or
sometimes there's only one panel and you're wanting

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to make sure that they really kind
of step back and see the art,

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and so then you're putting the text
down at the bottom, or but yeah,

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I mean obviously here in America we
read left to right, and so

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if there were times where that was
the note that I was giving that,

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like where they put the text bubble, It's like, yes, it makes

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sense that that character's text bubble would
be on top of the other one,

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but it ended up making you read
it weird and changing the meaning. So

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let's move the text bubble over to
the other side of the panel, or

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things like that. It was it
was interesting the way that it and I

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would always say, I don't know, maybe I'm just being weird here and

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I'm the only one that looked at
the panel and read it that way.

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Can we get some other opinions in
house that my publisher and make sure that

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it's not just Channon Messenger is weird. But usually it would come back and

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say, no, you're right,
we all read the text in that order,

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and that is not quite the way
that it should be. So we'd

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make some tweaks wouldn't you say that
one of the attractions of the book Keeper

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of the Lost Cities is the is
the fact that it talks about feeling like

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you don't fit in because we're all
in that position. It doesn't matter what

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age you are, we all have
that, And to me, that's an

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attraction to a storyline. I mean, for me, that's what makes me

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want to write the story. I
just so much connected with Sophie and her

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I call her a girl who's caught
between two worlds, and she kind of

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grows up around humans feeling very out
of place, knowing that she's very,

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very different, and that she doesn't
know how to even talk to anyone about

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how different she is, and really
struggling. And then suddenly she finds out

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that all of that is because she's
not human, and she belongs to this

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secret world within our world, and
she kind of gets it in her mind

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that like, Okay, finally I'm
going to belong I'm going to fit in,

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I'm not going to be different.
And then she gets to the Last

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Cities and realizes, no, she's
still very different. She has a different

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way of seeing the world because she
was raised in a different world, and

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she has abilities that are very unique, and she has, you know,

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kind of these weird things that keep
happening to her because she's actually part of

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these you know, big conspiracies that
are going on. And that's kind of

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her arts throughout the whole series is
you know, she's searching for that perfect

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place to fit in because she's so
tired of being different, and throughout the

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course of the books, it's for
realizing, no, I'm always going to

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be different, and hey, maybe
that's a good Maybe that's actually what makes

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me valuable and important is because I'm
different and because I'm me. And I

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do think readers really appreciate that messaging, especially at the younger age, but

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at any age, being told that
it's okay to be you and that you

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bring something unique to the table and
it's okay if you're not one hundred percent

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that you know what people think you
should be, that you're just you.

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I feel like that really resonates with
readers of any age. Well, you

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give me permission to live by my
mantra, which is they think I'm weird,

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so I'm about to prove it.
And because it gives me the chance

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to be weird and to be myself
exactly. I mean, I'm very much

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that way too. I have never
been one hundred percent that I will fit

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in anywhere, and I'm learning to
be okay with that. Where can people

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go to find out more about you
and every one of your books in this

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story, because like I said,
this is going to open up the door

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for so many new readers. I
mean, I'm excited for that to happen.

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When my website is Shannon Messenger dot
com, there's also keeper Ofthelos Cities

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dot com, and then I am
on social media Instagram. I'm also on

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uh well, I don't think they
call it Twitter anymore. I'm on back.

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I'm not on TikTok because boy,
that seems like if I joined TikTok

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I would never get any writing done
ever. So I am not currently on

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TikTok. But if that ever changes, all be a link on my website.

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Well, please come back to this
show anytime in the future, Shannon.

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The door is always going to be
open for you. I would love

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to come back. Thank you so
much fun. You'd be brilliant today.

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Okay, I will try you too,