hugs across the universe™

The Writing Life

"Hatu" by my boy, age 6

I'm just finishing up the book dummy for book 2 today, which is actually the first book I wrote. I'll be making copies of it and pasting it up on bristol board in a picturebook format and then half of this endeavor will be done. It feels great to get it out of me but with the excitement also comes the fear, that soon this book will leave the nest and have to stand on it's own two feet without my help. I've done all I could to nurture it and fill it with emotion and love and hopefully skill and a dash of talent, and now it has to do the rest. Good luck, my baby. At least I can say that this is a book for all ages and something I would have gladly welcomed at any point on my journey. I guess that's why I felt it needed to be written and hopefully others will get something out of it too.

The writer's life can get a little weary though. I feel like I've been sequestered for days on end with not enough time in the sun. The writer's life means you have to go inside yourself and deeply. Picture all those writers who go off with their typewriters to cabins in the woods for months. I'm getting ready to come out of my cave--soon. Good news is I know for sure I'll make my deadline. March is still a month away and I can't believe I actually pulled this outta my hat, two of them at that!  I've come a long way since I first sat down at my desk full of procrastination and doubt and all the years I fiddled around with the concepts.

 I pulled out my old book dummy of Snowbear today and the copyright on it is 2001--when I wrote it. It finally came out in 2004. If these books get picked up, you probably won't see them until 2011, 2012. It's still a long road ahead. That's why you gotta love what you do. Only time will tell what is to become of all this.

Life imitates Art and Vice a Versa

Yesterday after I wrote my post, I went for a walk through the neighborhood with Roo. It was a beautiful sunny day and warm. I was feeling very light-hearted and content as I felt I had solved yet another puzzle in this thing called life and was able to move forward.  It felt good and I felt hopeful and grateful.

Then out of nowhere a big colorful butterfly came out of the sky and fluttered about my face--and if I hadn't been so shocked and startled and didn't let out a little squeal and act defensively; I do believe it was about to land on my nose. So it fluttered about my face for a moment and then flew away. I had to laugh aloud in astonishment with a knowing that the universe had just made itself known to me. And just then, at that very moment, a song came up on my CD player that I was wearing. I was listening to my Celine Dion CD (I know, I know) but Because I Loved You came on and well, that was Johnny--I just know it and that song sorta inspired the whole other book I ended up writing. I do believe he came by to tell me I was right about some things. I think he looks after me in the other world just as I looked after him in this one.

Listen to your own heart speak

The color on this spread is going to be something, I should think.
:-)
Please excuse the paste-up job; my scanner is just too small to handle the size of this ~

oh, and about the music, something wierd has got a hold of me - that's all I can say about that. Blame it on my heart.
And that's the way it is.

The Tao of Kung Fu

Remember this show? I always liked it as a kid and there is a lot of wisdom to be found in it. This one below I especially found quite humorous. Don't forget to turn off the music player to the right!
;-)

Unplugged

The path of the hero

I've been spending some time watching "The Power of Myth" Dvds with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyer. A refresher course for me. Good stuff.

And here we have a brake down of my favorite movie based on the mythic structure.

Alchemy

The drawings I've been posting have been like a storyboard to me. For this book I let the images come first and now I am working on the text using those images to guide me along for the words that come with them. They are just a blueprint for the story and I'll be making some changes and discarding some and adding others. They were just a starting point for me. I work back and forth from images to text and text to images--like a sculptor--molding and shaping as I go. I've gotten to know these characters so much better than when I first started--I already have to make changes to the first book because I know them so much better now. But this is the process, a leaping off from one stepping stone to the other and letting it grow and change as I go along. Luckily for me, I absolutely love working on this project and I already know I will never want to say goodbye to these creations. It's very exciting and challenging work.

I am following my bliss; in other words, following my heart.

I know you go on

grief

"when we meet what we're afraid of, we find out what we're made of...."

hedgehog in the fog

Happy New Year!!! Wishing many good things for us all in the new year! Along with a list of resolutions and goals there should also be a list of things to leave behind and let go of. I'll be thinking about that today.  Here is one of my favorite animations of all time by the great Russian animator Yuri Norstein. I first saw it in my college days at Rhode Island School of Design and what a pleasure to see it on utube with translation. I never knew exactly what it all meant back then. It's definately as much of an inspiration to me now as it was when I first saw it.
Enjoy!