Friday, July 20, 2007

Freaky Friday

I am watching Dr. Who and reading the paper with the calico on the lap, when she darts off into the other room. Next commercial I peak in and see her sitting there by the staircase but I am not seeing anything. I go to the kitchen to get me a drink of water and head back to the couch to witness her chasing this gargantuan spider! I grab her and the spider escapes behind a guitar amp up next to our over-sized stuffed chair, as it was a speedy little devil too.

Needless to say, I missed the last half of Dr. Who and spent the rest of the evening crouched on my couch staring at the chair. I know it is still there, growing even bigger, watching me, mocking me, lurking around in the middle of the night staring at me in my sleep planning my demise.

I know a story exist here somewhere, and if it didn’t give me the heebie jeebies, I would look for it to start writing, but it does, so I won’t.

Spider
Desperately trying to find my happy place.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Vampire Wings

Trixi KittyAs I have said before, I try not to analyze how my mind works, but as I am making my afternoon latte the vampire illustration pops into my head. My sister had sent me the sketch and color key a week ago, and let me stop right here to say, I need to write several more stories with vampires because my sister rocks when illying the fanged-one. However, I remember her telling me several weeks earlier how she was going to do the wings to tie into a couple of previous illys in the book. I thought her idea was brilliant, yet, she did not do that on the sketch. Until now, I had forgotten about her original idea. The question was, had she forgotten too, or did she just change her mind. I liked what she had did for the wings, but I thought the other idea was cute too. Bigger question, how do I tactfully bring this up, especially after the whole slope incident?

I swear not an hour later she calls me from her sister-in-law’s (she had a little high school reunion venting building up inside that she needed to release). In a lot of our discussions it would not have been hard to work the illy question in...”oh, speaking of the undead.” However, I could tell this was not going to be one of those conversations so I just had to come out and ask. Turns out she had forgotten too. We are usually pretty good about writing down our ideas, but sometimes it is just hard to keep up when the Jetsam and Flotsam starts flowing. I have asked the calico if she would take minutes at our business meetings, but she does not feel that falls under the CFO’s duties (Chief Feline Officer).

Any hoo, back on track with our vampire wings for Willow May.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Illustration Withdrawals

My sister headed to Wisconsin today with her husband for his high school reunion. She packed up all her sketchpads and watercolors to continue to work on Willow May’s illustrations while staying at his sister’s house. She won’t though have the computer access to send me sketches or color keys until she gets back next week. The anticipation for the last few sketches may kill me and if it doesn’t, I am sure the HUGE sister email withdrawal I am going through right now will. Only three more preliminary sketches to go (whoo hoo!!); however, I am at my night job, filming a popular Denver psychedelic blues band, Jakobz Laddr, when during one of their jams, I think to myself, did I tell Pam on sketch 30 the path was downhill, because it should be uphill. Originally the path sloped down but in the latest revision we are traveling up the path. I knew she going to work on that sketch driving up, but no way to stop what I was doing to give her a quick call. Excuse me every body, could we stop the music, sorry to interrupt but I need to make an emergency phone call concerning hill slopes. I promise I won’t be long, talk amongst yourselves.

On top of that she was already in a stellar mood getting to traveling 16 hours in a car to go to her husband’s high school reunion. Of course up until this point, we have not had what I would call a misfire on any of the sketches. Yes, we have had tweaks on them, but never having to redo the majority of the sketch. And not because of creative differences or visions, just because that darn path is now going up versus down. I know this would have also been frustrating had this happened on the 3rd sketch vs. the 30th, but since we are in crunch time, the frustration seems exponential. Hopefully after a week’s time and the 16-hour road trip back home, she will have forgiven me...but I doubt it.

P.S. Lucked out and she did the illustration to where the slope was a mute point...she is so good.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline

Pam forwarded an email to me listing two recent books from Neil Gaiman. Pam hooked me on him last December with Neverwhere, and then I read the Anansi Boys. In the few books of his I have read, his openings seem so effortless, casually leading you in and then before you know it, he has you locked in his world. I love how he does that. The new books were InterWorld and M is for Magic. I went online to see if the library had them available. No such luck on InterWorld, but they did have M is for Magic. I am 8th on the waiting list. As long as I was online I perused some of his other titles. They had Coraline available, and my sister had suggested that book to me a while back as a great guideline for darkness level in children’s books. I checked it out along with a couple of his children’s picture books, The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Gold Fish and The Wolves in the Walls (cool titles!), and then Smoke and Mirrors, Short Fictions and Illusions. Side note: I LOVE the Douglas County’s Library system. I go online, check out my books, they let me know by email when they are ready to pick up, I drive to the library, walk right inside the door to a shelf, grab my books, go through their super easy electronic checkout, and I am on my way to Starbucks...pretty sweet deal.

Okay back to Coraline, which was fantastically fiendish. Like his other books I have read, he lured me in and next thing I know, I can’t put the book down until the end. Since I have started writing again, I have discovered how good writing inspires writing. A story has been milling around in my head for the past month. Similar to his book with a little girl who finds a locked door in her apartment leading to another dimension, the one that keeps coming to me has two sisters who find a hidden door in a cemetery leading to another dimension. The premise is quite vague (i.e., really hasn’t been formed yet), but more details and a few random scenes have started to materialize to me, I decided I better start jotting them down before they become another fatal victim to the bright and shiny object syndrome that plagues my mind. Not sure how the dots will connect together or if they even will connect. I have two other writings that are nearer completion I would rather be working on, but they do not seem to be cooperating at the moment.

Any hoo, I highly recommend Coraline, in fact it is now a must to add to my own personal library.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Ringmaster

It wasn’t without a fight, and he gave a mighty battle, but the Ringmaster is now named.