Ideas come to me easily. It is within the development stage
where I find a challenge. Luckily, the world has YouTube. I’ve had a steadfast feast
of information from world building to character development. And just when you
think you’ve learned enough to get moving… tons more tumbles into your path. I
am, however, having fun.
My fairytale book is moving along nicely. So far, I have a
total of 16 verbal stories (2 of which will become separate books) just ready
to be written down. Yesterday I read to my daughter the first draft of the
first story – mostly to get a reaction. I struck gold! The Bean heard these
stories all year and I was worried that she would get fed-up and walk out of
the room. After all, she is notorious for things like that, but… Huzzah! She
kept listening and wanted to know what happens next. She had useful questions
and suggestions. The Bean remembered the characters from the other stories and
I was thrilled that she could make the connections for each story.
Pride is real people and I’m full of it. The Bean’s interest
was the very thing I needed to keep prodding on. I usually have an inner
cheerleader for that but she was on vacation. My little beanie is now my
biggest fan and I’m grateful to her.
In addition to the story, I am working on an illustration
style for the book. I have been practicing a style which uses Zen doodles. I
plan on using a model next time but I like the oversized eyes in this piece. I
don’t think I will go with the big eyes for the book but I like it in this
practice illustration. What do you think?
