Well almost two weeks have passed, but I have been working on something new...yup the second draft of the story is on the back burner like the first. No one said that writing is easy! My US agents were again constructive and diplomatic in their comments. As always I'm not deterred. I can see that my time at present can be more constructively employed, and as for the story, well that is going to be an ongoing personal project when time allows.
So what have I been doing...? Well I've been told that my alphabet animals are seen as having potential. With that in mind my agent has asked me to concentrate on working up this animal theme into a series of sequential artwork showing I can handle a character through a story. I couldn't help myself once I got started. I want to practice the discipline of working within the 32 page children's picture book framework so... a few sequential spreads turned into a 32 page picture book! Furthermore I really need to be telling stories with human characters so I wove some inuit (or is eskimo a PC term as Stephen Fry said on QI...?) into the narrative. Is that inuit or inuit's...? I wonder is there a collective term for a group of inuit/s or eskimo/s ...a frost of... a blizzard of...? Anyway I digress...
Here is the storyboard for the animal tale...nothing to complex storywise, this is very much for younger readers, arround 3-4yrs. A mother polar bear goes in search of her missing cub. Along the way she finds various other youngsters safe with their mothers. Just when the whole thing starts to get on top of her we find out the cub wasn't missing, but had been along for the ride, sleeping in the warmth of her fur coat all along!
I learnt a new word while reading up on polar bears; "pisugtook" which, according to a photography book I have, is "great wanderer" in the inuit language. I googled pisugtook and the only hits I got were this photography book (in fact it was almost a googlewack...google that word if you don't know what I mean...?!) and a character name from a French children's book called "Samik and the Polar Bear". I don't know if pisugtook is the correct word but I like the sound of it, so for now the working title of the story is "pisugtook".
PS. if anyone is wondering where page 1 is, that's going to be a half title page opposite the inside front cover.
PPS. does anyone else find blogger really buggy when used on a Mac...16 images to attach (and attached over again!!!) takes seemingly forever...phew done!
2 comments:
Lovely Stuff! (not my words, the word of Shakin' Stevens!)
I really like this. Cute story, lovely characters.
I wonder whether you need to show the hair so roughly on the mother's back throughout the story though...
Might also be nice to view the final page through the "igloo" hole, kind of like a fade-out circle from an old movie or cartoon - might be a bit more cosy!
But that really is nit-picking.
I really hope your agents go for this, 'cos I think it such a strong and well executed concept.
Nice work, strong characters and a warm, really easy to follow story. Can't wait to see it develop. I especially like the whales.
I agree with Kev about having a suggestion of the cub on the mothers back during the the story, not too much, but enough to look back over and go "ahh, yeah, I see now".
I have a nic-pic to, the ice on pages 16 and 17, might benifit from being more natural looking, just a thought, I'm sure you've got it all in hand/paw.
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