Author: Iva Cheung

Angry Jelly Donut

Last fall I participated in the annual #Inktober challenge—drawing a picture in ink each day of October, based on a list of prompts. Although a lot of participants use the official Inktober prompt list, I opted to follow Janelle Shane’s AI-generated #Botober prompt list, and one of those prompts was for an “angry jelly doughnut.”

After I posted my attempt on Twitter, Steve Kleinedler (@SKleinedler)
replied, “This needs to be a children’s book, and the angry jelly donut needs to be pissed off all the way thru to the end. No transformation.” I said, “I smell a Kleinedler–Cheung collaboration,” and within days, I had a manuscript from Steve in my direct messages.

It took me a while to find the time to work on this hilariously absurd project, but I finally got it done, and you can download the accessible PDF of Angry Jelly Donut*, the children’s book, for free.

Cover of the book *Angry Jelly Donut*, story by Steve Kleinedler and illustrations by Iva Cheung. The image shows a golden-brown jelly donut with a spot of red jelly oozing out a hole in its side. The top is sprinkled with powdered sugar. The donut has an angry facial expression and is sitting on a green armchair in a room with blue walls and beige flooring.

If you’re interested in getting a hard copy, you can find an 8×8 hardcover or (adorable) 6.5×6.5 paperback wherever IngramSparks books are sold, including Bookshop.org (paperback; hardcover), Chapters-Indigo (paperback; hardcover), and Amazon (paperback; hardcover). If you’d rather get it from your local indie bookstore or library instead, be sure to let them know they can order the book via Ingram Content Group.

Want to show your allegiance to Team Angry Jelly Donut or Team Happy Vanilla Cupcake? Order a shirt from TeePublic!

Steve and I are donating $1 from each hard copy and shirt sold to charity, with half going to Indspire, which supports education of Indigenous children and youth, and half going to the Trevor Project, which offers suicide prevention and crisis intervention programs for LGBTQ youth.

I don’t really consider myself an artist, but I had an awful lot of fun creating the illustrations, and I hope they bring you a bit of delight, too.

Enjoy our ridiculous little book!

*Yes, I’ve retained Steve’s spelling of “donut.” He’s the lexicographer—take it up with him.

UPDATE, December 16, 2022: Steve and I made our 2022 donations to Indspire and the Trevor Project. We sold 122 books and 95 merch items in 2022, so each charity got the equivalent of US$108.50. Thank you to everyone who supported this silly project! We will continue to donate as we make sales, so if you know anyone who’d enjoy an Angry Jelly Donut book or shirt or mug or tote bag, be sure to visit your favourite online book retailer or the Angry Jelly Donut TeePublic store!

Bye, design

I’ve been firmly planted on the editorial side of publishing since my early days as a volunteer writer and proofreader at my student newspaper in undergrad, but my first paid gig in publishing was in production and design: after I moved cities for my MSc, I got a job laying out the student newspaper once a week at my new school.

I absolutely loved it. Continue reading “Bye, design”

The plagiarist

Four-frame cartoon. Frame 1: An editor sits at a desk and an author is in a chair facing the editor. The editor says, "“…and you’ll probably want to make some changes to this section here, or you might face accusations of plagiarism.” Frame 2: The author, panicked, says, “Oh my god. You’re telling me I committed plagiarism?! Are you… are you going to report me to the authorities?” The editor is confused, saying “What? No, I’m—” Frame 3: The author says, “I swear I didn’t do it on purpose!” The author says, “I believe you! Unintentional plagiarism happens a lot. We just have to fix—” Frame 4: The author says, “I CAN’T GO TO JAIL! MY FAMILY NEEDS ME!” And the editor, flabbergasted, says, “I… I just think you need to add some quotation marks and citations.”Last spring Mark Allen asked those of us who’d been guests on That Word Chat to contribute door prizes for the annual Freelancers Happy Hour in conjunction with the ACES: The Society for Editing national conference.

My contributions were:

  • an ebook copy of Midlife (there’s still time to get your hardcover before they’re gone forever!) and
  • a bespoke four-panel cartoon.

The winner of the cartoon was Vee White, and when I contacted them to discuss ideas, they told me about an international plagiarism survey they and Andrea Klingler conducted on a sample of editors, writers, and publishers who work with English-language content.

They’re working on compiling the results, but attitudes toward plagiarism apparently span a spectrum from believing plagiarism is no big deal to, well, the (over)reaction you see here.

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