Most days, I help tell the stories of things that leave Earth.

Rocket motors. Launch vehicles. Giant machines built by patient people who somehow figured out how to throw hardware toward the stars. It's a wonderfully improbable way to spend a Tuesday.

The rest of the time, I'm usually chasing something smaller — a strange idea, a funny sentence, a trail that disappears over the next hill. I write and illustrate picture books for my three kids, who remain blissfully unimpressed by résumés but have very strong opinions about whether a giraffe should wear pants.

I travel whenever life gives me an excuse. Along the way I've collected a growing pile of photographs, odd conversations, tiny cafés, and enough wrong turns to know they're often the interesting ones.

Thanks for wandering through it. — J