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.
