What's PRINCESS PRIMROSE all about, anyway?

I spent all day yesterday working on formatting "gremlins" and resizing the artwork in my upcoming PRINCESS PRIMROSE & the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP.  This is the stuff you wish you'd known before you spent a month making museum quality artwork.  Ha. Let's just say, if you can't see it on an i-Phone, it's too detailed for an e-book. For cryin' out loud!

Anyway, since I had to write a description of PRINCESS PRIMROSE before I upload it to Amazon.com, I decided to share it here.  Especially since everybody's been clamoring (OK, a few people asked) to know what it's all about. Here we go!  

Miss Slumberkins to the rescue. She has a unique talent; she can only reverse spells.  Sometimes.

PRINCESS PRIMROSE and the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP is a comedy fairy tale detective caper, suitable for all ages.


Moribunda McEvil (a wicked witch) is furious when she learns from Snitch, a tattle-tale fairy, that she has a beautiful niece (Princess Primrose) that she's never seen.  With the help of her sidekick Eargore (a spell gone really, really wrong), she quickly sets out to ruin Primrose's life by putting a sleeping curse on her.

In a fit of remorse, Snitch runs to the palace to warn Queen Floribunda and King Rosario about the curse (otherwise known as BLABBING), but in his hurry he misunderstands and gets everything wrong. 

The Queen hires S. White & R. Rapunzel, Inquiry Agents, to help.  But by the time they get to the palace, it's too late--Princess Primrose has had an accident and fallen into a Big Sleep. The case is dire!

With the assistance of their seven elven sidekicks (Nosy, Snoops, Sherlock, Stealthy, Creeper, Gumshoe and Marlowe), and a young witch who can only reverse spells (Miss Slumberkins), Snow White and Rapunzel Rapunzel search the kingdom for a Prince. What they end up with is a an enchanted frog who's afraid of germs (Prince Thaddeus A. Pole, AKA “Tad”), a motley assortment of enchanted creatures and Weasel the Wizard, who makes a bargain with the detectives for an essential potion that will save the day.

Filled with fun word play, misunderstandings and hilarious dialogue (and a happy, yet twisted ending), this story will delight anyone who still believes in magic.  No matter how old you are!

You'll never look at a frog the same way again.

Happy trails!

bobbi c.

Introducing Thaddeus A. Pole, AKA Tad

Here's the newest from Grackle Stew Studio--Thaddeus A. Pole (AKA Tad), the enchanted frog prince!  He's having a bit of a hop today.  He's a tricksey fellow who was quite reluctant to show his little face around here.

From my upcoming illustrated novel for middle grades/tweens/young adults and adults who like crazy mixed-up fairy tale funny stuff---PRINCESS PRIMROSE & the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP---based on my award-winning play by the same title.

Stay tuned for more art and big big news!

Thaddeus A. Pole, AKA "Tad"---an enchanted prince/frog

BROP!

bobbi c.

Sneak Peek! Cover Art for PRINCESS PRIMROSE & the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP

Dear friends,

This is the third cover I've done for my upcoming middle grade/'tweens book---PRINCESS PRIMROSE & the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP--From the Case Files of R. Rapunzel & S. White, In Service to Her Majesty, the Queen.

Yes, I should win an award for the longest titles in the world!  LOL.

The book is the novelization of one of my award-winning plays that I wrote a couple of years ago.  I couldn't leave those two crazy gals behind, so decided to turn the play into a series of books.  This is the first in the series.

 The artwork has morphed from showing a boring brown office door to a much brighter, colorful illustration featuring the two sleuths---S. White and R. Rapunzel.  In general, I probably need to flip them since I use Rapunzel's name first, but this is just a rough draft of the finished cover.

I can't decide if I love it or not enough to actually use it on the published book.  I'll have to ponder it a bit.  The thing about publishing e-books is that you need a color "cover" that's basically just an image that's used online.  It also has to show up well in black and white, which this one does.

 I'll probably go with this one, maybe with a few tweaks.  Once the cover is finalized, I have a few more edits to do on the text.  I also want to do some black and white line drawings for the inside, basically making it an illustrated chapter book.

From there,  it will go through my publishing committee (which consists of Me, Myself and I).  Bottom line---the book should be available for sale by the end of September, if not before.  I have to brush up (heh) on drawing witches, frogs, elves and other motley creatures.  :-D

Happy trails!

bobbi c.

Don't you hate it when this happens? Dreamus Interruptus!

Peeps!

So, I dreamed that I was in some sort of week-long camp of some kind with a lot of girlfriends.  I'm not sure where it was, but the Queen was supposed to make an appearance, and she invited me to have tea with her.  Not only once, but TWICE in one day.  Of course, this set me all a-flutter with anticipation.

Alas, Husband woke me up before I could actually do that, but I did catch a glimpse of her across the way.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  I call it "dreamus interruptus."  Turns out, it was Queen Floribunda, from my work-in-progress.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't THE Queen. Because well, um, they look a bit different.  I'm pretty sure Queen Floribunda's hat is pointy at the top, and THE Queen's isn't.

So, what brought this on, you might ask?  Well, I'll tell ya.  Yesterday I got one of my Wild Hairs that I often get, and decided that I wanted to not only do the cover for my upcoming PRINCESS PRIMROSE & the CURSE OF THE BIG SLEEP middle grade novel, but I also wanted to do some inside illustrations. In essence, it would be turning it into an illustrated chapter book instead of just a book with a color cover.  I spent hours looking at book covers online, working through a  few cartoon tutorials and learned how to draw a puppy, alien, and zombie.  All much needed skills.

This isn't totally outrageous, since I do have an (mostly unused) art degree.  But two years ago I announced that I was retiring from art.  It often takes me a while to process things, and to "get it."  I finally "got it."  I was doing a lot of really different and crazy drawings back then, using simple things like marker and ink, then decided to turn them into ginormous paintings.  That's where I took a wrong turn.  I should have stuck to the drawings, because that's where my absurd sense of humor really comes out.  The paintings were interesting, and colorful, but how many of these can one person really hang in a very small house?  You get the picture.  Yes, I sold a few of them to creative types who appreciate an absurd sense of humor.  (Thank you again, Little Sister!)

So, here's one of them. Yeah, I know it's a crappy photo.  Deal with it.  The point is---aren't those strange?  In an endearing sort of way?   I think at the time I was fighting an infestation of squash beetles in my Earthly Garden. 

So....the point to this is, maybe I can do the drawings for my book.  The cover is the hardest part, because it needs to appeal to adults with money, and the kids who will be reading the book.   (And practically, it has to look good in teeny-tiny size because it'll be an e-book at first.)  But if I can pull this off, well, heck, the sky's the limit. 

Because in those old sketchbooks I also  have a parade of crazy clowns, a whole lot of punkin head creatures, witches, cats with wings, strange and wonderful characters of all sorts who would just LOVE to get out and cavort around in a story of their own.

BTW, PRINCESS PRIMROSE is the novelization of my award-winning play I wrote back a few years ago. It's a hilarious mash-up fairy tale spoof featuring my series sleuths--R. Rapunzel & S. White, In Service to her Majesty the Queen.

Stay 'tooned for further developments.

Happy trails from la-la land!

bobbi c.