Now a super fun tradition for this site, the JGT Birthday Prophecy Cycle celebrates the birthdays of the real Jocelyn, Taylor, and me. In real life, we were all born 21 days apart. So, to commemorate that, we hold a theme for each year's birthday cycle.
This year's theme is very simple, but it means a lot to me. It is called the Dedicated Series.
As you may or may not know, I am about to start grad school and earn my M.F.A. in Writing for Children. I have stated before that the JGT comic has been a big inspiration to my creative goals. In saying that, the real Jocelyn and Taylor have been big inspirations as well.
Some years ago, for their birthdays, I wrote original children's stories inspired by each of them. And I promised them that if those stories ever got published, I would dedicate the book to them.
So, for this special year, I have revisited those children's stories and reunited each character with the person to whom their story is dedicated.
The children's story I wrote for Jocey is called The Girl Who Broke the Moon. Below is the original cover I drew for it 4 years ago.
It follows a little girl named Rossy who thinks that she accidentally broke the moon and then tries desperately to apologize to it. Now, JGT Jocey and Rossy meet for the first time to celebrate Jocey's birthday!
To this day, I love working on The Girl Who Broke the Moon, and I cannot wait to write "Dedicated to Jocelyn Lopez" on its first page.
I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Jocey! Because of you, JGT and little Rossy exist. Thank you for being such a supportive and fun and all-around amazing friend. And again, I am so, so proud of you. May the world continue to be filled with your light and your brightly colored ideas, too!
Genie
