One of the kids I used to work with loved stories, not the book kind, but the kind you just made up on the spot. I happen to be decently good at this (no lack of crazy imagination that appeals to kids), and one day he said, you should make a book from this idea. And I thought, I really should! But I can’t draw, yet I know someone who can.
This goal is time-consuming, but so exciting. I have put in hours of research now that the story is done while my cousin works on the illustrations. We think we have an original, amazing story that has the potential to become classic. It all came about easily since we both needed a new creative outlet, and inspired the best in each other. Next step is query letters, which I hope to have all out by mid-January, followed by the creation of our storyboard and sending them to the publishers we feel will work best with, and for us. The picture is a peek of the first illustration we did. We have since completed this one, and four others. My cousin, Aaron, is truly a brilliant artist. He made my words and what I imagined illustration-wise come to life. I drew up rough sketches (really really rough as I am not good at much more than stick figures.)
The ultimate goal, is to published, or well on the way to being published in March of 2005. If we don’t find a deal we are comfortable in the publishing world, we have recently had an offer of someone who is willing to financially back us to self-publish. I am very interested in going this route no matter what, as it would be exciting to turn it into our own business where we called the shots and have a bit more creative freedom. Also, it is not often that a writer provides their own illustrator, most of the time a publisher assigns one of their own illustrators to do the job, but I don’t want anyone’s illustrations but my cousin’s. Nor can I see anyone who would do them as well as he can, we have known each other a lifetime. However, we will have to be very good about getting it critiqued beforehand and edited by people with excellent literary skills. I already have my first beta tester who will also be helping us set up a blog site for progress and to generate interest before publishing.
