Not many people can say procrastinating during a job search actually paid off, but Julia Wertz can.

While surfing the Internet during an online job search, Wertz, a writer and cartoonist from Napa, discovered the “missed connection” ads on Craigslist.

Missed connections are online posts left by those hoping that the person they just met or even only smiled at in a brief encounter would like to meet again. In bigger cities like San Francisco and New York City, the ads have become a popular tool for those looking for love.

Wertz said she thinks missed connection ads are “completely silly,” but something about them spoke to her. “I was oddly drawn to them on a purely observatory level,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Inspired by the notices, Wertz created an anthology of cartoons about missed connections. The book, “I Saw You”, includes work by 97 different contributors. Each created art about their own missed connection. Some encounters actually occurred, others are embellishments. The book was recently published by Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House.

“Missed connection ads tie into that whole genre of voyeurism and things that were not supposed to be seen or heard, yet because of the Internet, people can reveal things anonymously.” 

“As a cartoonist, it seemed only natural to put the two together,” Wertz said.

Wertz edited the book. “Half of the contributors I hand-picked, and half were open-call. I   didn’t want the entire book to be my personal selection because I wanted variety,” she said. 

“I Saw You” recently was reviewed by the Sunday New York Times, the equivalent of literary gold to a writer. She had no idea the book would be featured in the paper. “I was mostly excited just to show my mom,” she said.

Wertz said she likes cartooning and drawing because it combines both the artistic and literary worlds.

“When I’m forced to put a story into boxes, suddenly the pictures make sense and I know exactly what sentences from the story to use.”

Now living in Brooklyn, Wertz said it took about two years from start to finish to complete “I Saw You.” A lot happened in those two years.

“In between then I did two other books, moved to New York, lived in five different apartments, had and lost about seven jobs,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Although Wertz gets back to Napa only about twice a year, “I love coming home because it now seems so rural compared to New York. It’s great to just experience silence again.”

A 2001 graduate of Vintage High School, Wertz said two teachers in particular influenced her work, Mr. Thomas and Ms. Dossa (now Lamonte.)

“They were both very encouraging of my continuing to write and, as cheesy as this sounds, to just keep doing what I wanted to do,” Wertz said.

This is Wertz’s second published book. In 2007, Atomic Book Company published “Fart Party,” a compilation of her own cartoons.

The name “Fart Party,” started as a joke, but Wertz’s success isn’t. Her third book comes out in June, which is a second collection of Fart Party comics and also published by Atomic Book Company.

While she can’t elaborate, Wertz is also in talks with producers and writers about a television option from her work. “It’s still all speculative at this point,” Wertz said. “Hopefully, something will come through.”

“I never set out to make it big in publishing or Hollywood, I just want to make good comics,” she wrote.

So does Wertz still read missed connection ads?

“The answer is ‘no,’” Wertz said. “I don’t believe in that whole sappy ‘love at first sight’ thing.”

And how about that employment search?

“I never did find a job off Craigslist,” Wertz said.