Man er... computer down!

My computer has died so there may not be any updates for a while. Already spoke to HP and am now awaiting their box so I can ship it back for repairs. Until then enjoy the doodle and remember... dragons and computers don't mix.

~_^ the dragon is a character from my novel btw.

Chocolate Croissants & Pink Dresses

(This image was the original concept design for the JBTM cover sleeve- however due to the change in the story I am rethinking a new cover and may save this for book 2 of volume 1- there is an incomplete computer colored version as well of just the front half. I may post that at some point as well.)

Today I went to a book signing for Cornelia Funke's new novel "Reckless" and I must say the Ms. Funke is so far the author I can most relate to. Originally an illustrator for children's stories she decided to write to give more depth to the ideas she had been illustrating. Luckily for her however, she found it easier to get published than I am. None the less writing never comes easy and sometimes you just have to keep editing (for example "14 times" for a single chapter).

Ms. Funke along with her co-author (and film producer) Lionel Wigram read part of chapter 1 of the novel (which has plans for a trilogy), talked about their collaboration in writing it and answered audience questions. Then came the signing.

Ms. Funke was a very lovely woman and Mr. Wigram, well to be honest he didn't talk much, but his smile showed warmth and when Ms. Funke read he closed his eyes and you could tell he was being brought back to that place they had met many times in coming up with their tale.

There may have been roughly 25 people/kids there for the signing which was kind of sad but it was made up for by their love of her books, especially the woman in the pink (hot pink... or maybe it was salmon) colored dress. A teacher for the fifth grade and a woman very passionate about reading and writing. Her favorite teaching tool was/is The InkWorld series, especially because of the quotes at the beginning of every chapter from other novels written by other authors. She compared herself to Aunt Elinor because she just loved books and loved to collect them.
I seriously wish I had a teacher like her when I was in school. I really do.

So here is to Ms. Funke, Mr. Wigram, Ms. Funke's Publisher (who made the signing despite canceled flights from Germany) and the teacher. Thank you and best of luck in the future for all and all they do.

PS- While waiting for the signing to begin I got a good chapter and a half edited before getting stuck with the changes I've made... and a dead battery. If only I was lucky enough to have some one to bounce my ideas off of like Ms. Funke was with Mr. Wigram.

Working on it

(The image above is supposed to be an animated .Gif from the anime Chi's Sweet Home- not sure if its going to animate but it's still cute)

I've found with the split of Book 1 there is a lot more I want to explore in the world I have created that I never had a chance to before. The problem with that is the fact that with all this new material Volume 1 of Book 1 is going to be as long as it was before the split of volumes. I don't have a problem with that... The publishers on the other hand *sigh*
None the less I am making progress, not the kind I wish I was making but when you work 12 hours a day, it's the best one can do, aye?

Now you might wonder why I decided to write.
Truth be told I never really planned to be a writer. I liked to make up stories when I was little but they were just stories to pass the time. Now I wish I had kept all the things I had written because I would love to revisit those ideas. I still have some old character drawings I made for them but I can't really recall the plot or characteristics of the main characters, just the setting and who was good and who was not.
My true heart was in other things. If I remember correctly I wanted to be a reporter when I was little. I loved to know everything and tell everyone what was going on, despite the fact I was usually the last to know anything. My dream died when a teacher, rather than approve the idea, shot down my dream, telling me to keep dreaming- it would never happen.
So from there I wanted to do something with music but again when I didn't seem to be making the same improvements as other students I was told I had no future in music. Later years a choir teacher would give me the same impression when he had no choice but to give me a solo and purposely gave me a broken Mic so another student could save the day.
Acting was another big thing for me but I'll just leave it as- as much as I love to act and as much as I would love to be in the film industry, I don't have what it takes. I'm not Hollywood material.

I spent one semester at a private university for art before coming back home. Disillusioned, I spent winter break trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life (honestly I still don't know the answer and at times it can really hurt) and it was then that I saw a movie that inspired my novel. It was a fantasy film based on a book and it was horrid. Sitting there, unable to walk out, I pondered about how I could do better, how I could write a better script. So when I got home I sat down and started to write.

The problem there was the fact I don't know how to write a script/ screenplay so what started as a rough storyboard for something bigger, became a novel- written with love, sweat and tears.
I managed to get 15 pages out before transfering to another university (and then a third) where I would jot down ideas during class and organize them for when I had the time to sort them out, which was not until after I graduated.

JBTM is still a work in progress but I've never been prouder of something I've done and I hope someday to share it and inspire others in some way.

I have other story ideas waiting in the wings as well, one of which was planned to be a web comic but that too, I believe, will be saved for the written word and the imagination of the readers.