A Trip to the World's Largest Bathtub

Cheri Rocks!

Today is my new picture book's BIRTHDAY! So, that means I'll be doing my best this month to market the little fella, so that lots of families can experience the joy of Micha Archer's beautiful illustrations (while they tolerate my humble prose).

See how happy I was when the book first arrived on my doorstep?

In addition to shameless self-promotion, I would also like to spend some of my time showing my gratitude to the many people who made this book come to life.

And the first person I'd like to begin this gratitude express is my wife, Cheri Bradford.

As fate would have it, it was HER birthday yesterday. She has given me a constant flow of encouragement not to mention courage, and she's been doing it for almost thirty years of my life. So, since she has given me so many positive words... I wanted to give her some words as well... words set in stone.

For a while now, Cheri has been honoring the New Year by choosing a word... or does the word choose her? The word becomes a theme for the next 365 days. So I've kept track of her words: 

• Dream
• Health
• Journey
• Reach
• Light

And thanks to the magic of the internet I ordered them in rock form, so that Cheri can put them somewhere in her garden.

Well, gotta cut this blog short. We're going to the beach... the classic way to take a bath! 

The Magic of Letting Go

Most of my writing career has been a GRIND. I sit down and force drafts out of me. That's when I'm successful. On my off days, like most of this month, I tinker with things until they peter out and then they remain unfinished, unloved.

But sometimes, I give myself permission to let go of my expectations... I don't always listen to myself when I do this. But there are times, when I let go of the reins... And some great things happen.

Three days ago, I wrote a funny little poem based on an idea I had kicked around for years. It might be doggerel, but who knows, it could turn into something that my agent likes enough to send out as a picture book. Even if nothing happens to it, I finished it! (Unlike so many other projects this summer.)

I've also made good progress with the island-themed play I'm co-writing. We have a very rough draft of Act One, Still lots of work ahead, but we had a read-thru with the comedy troupe, and they seemed to enjoy it.

Irons in the Fire

(I wrote this on June, 9th...)

 What have I been doing lately? Let me try to work backwards... yesterday (June 8th) was Thursday. I picked up Mom, and mother-in-law as well as brother-in-law at the Burbank airport. 

Then, sister and niece (all the way from Alaska) came over to the house. They went shopping for party food. Then, Cori fried up some halibut. It was delicious! Oh, and earlier in the morning, Mackenzie, Emily, Cheri, and I went to the Senior Breakfast at SCVi. The best part of the morning was the Clap Out, when the grads walk between two lines of kids. 

The student body, from the juniors all the way down to the 1st grade. It was very sweet. Oh, in the evening, we all went to Mountasia for ice cream and a Go-Cart Race. Ashley won be a mile. 

The day before (June 7th) was Wednesday. We worked at home, doing some final cleanings, including mopping the kitchen floor. Emily performed in her Drag Queen / King show. They had a small but appreciative turn out, and we sat at the very front row. It was a lot of fun. Emily lip synced to Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

I think that about catches things up as far as the calendar goes. Right now, I am sitting in shaded parking space at the Higher Learning Church while Mackenzie is attending the graduation rehearsal. The is the second rehearsal. How much practice do they need? Tonight we'll be attending the ceremony and then we'll take the family out to California Pizza Kitchen. 

I've got a lot of irons in the fire... Lots of half baked, unfinished things... Hopefully I will get bored enough that I'll actually settle in and finish some of these projects. Lately my strategy has been to start something, and if it gies smoothly I don't stop until it's done... But if I hit some kind of a road block, usually because there is something problematic about the project, I stop and cast it aside until I'm ready to solve whatever problem there was... 

So, now I've got a lot of unfinished, half-baked projects... 


Glowdark -- fantasy middle grade

Kinderdragon -- the original submission failed... Rewrite?

Mean Squirrels... Whether I tinker with the chapter book version, or the picture book version, the moral dilemma of bullying in school keeps happening. How can I write about squirrels who are mean without turning it into a moral drama??? 

All Inclusive -- the new play I'm writing with Chris

Simple Machines -- picture book

How Not to Time Travel -- a middle grade / chapter book 

Cleaning, Puttering, & Tinkering

My eldest daughter will be graduating in less than a week. Relatives will be coming into town, so that means we must clean up our filth-hole of a house. On Saturday we concentrated on the inside, lots of dusting, sweeping, and window washing. On Sunday, we focused on the outdoors. Most of our yard is dead... Like zombie dead three times over. But we do have trees, bushes, and lots of potted flowers that are still alive. We went to Home Depot and got some more to add to the garden. Hopefully, the will outlive the summer heat.

I have done very little writing in the last two day. I did tinker with a new picture book idea, but I didn't get far. Today, the wasn't much house work on the agenda, but there was a lot of transportation tasks. I never imagined that when I became a father of two teenagers that *poof* I would magically turn into a cab driver... Who works for free, no less.

I did accomplish something worthwhile, creatively speaking. My agent and I went iver some edits gpfor my latest project. It should be ready to head out into the world this week. Fingers crossed!

Curse You, Frank Underwood!

Why do I watch House of Cards? It's nothing but terrible people doing terrible things to others. Kevin Spacey's President Frank Underwood is a modern day Richard the Third, and as with Shakespeare's historical villain, the Anti-Hero of House of Cards talks directly to us, the audience. We become co-conspirators.

For the first time in the series, Robyn Wright's equally megamaniacal Vice President speaks directly to the audience. She says something along the lines of, "It's not that I don't know you're there... It's that I don't trust your intentions." And that really made me question, Why do I watch this stuff? I think part of the answer is because I want to see the bad guys punished. I want to the anti-hero fall apart, in the tradition of Richard III and Macbeth. But is that the only reason for binge watching a show like this?

I once attended a homeschooling seminar in which the speaker bemoaned many of the stories within pop-culture that focused on anti-heroes. He called them "bent" stories. If I remember the definition correctly, a "bent" story is when the values of the characters are warped and twisted -- the virtues of the story are ot in line with the virtues of a benevolent civilzation. A bent story would have characters doing bad things, and good things result from those bad actions. Basically, vice is celebrated.

Now, I'm not prudish enough to suggest that people shouldn't be writing "bent" stories. In fact, something like House of Cards offers us a window into current and past administrations -- by telling a bent story, it offers criticism of the real world. Yet, there is something more worth noting. I think that many people cheer for these anti-heroes, and see themselves within them... Even if they would never do anything similar in action... in their thoughts, viewers can vicariously experience what it is like to plunder and pillage, and commit all kinds of atrocious acts.

The original Richard III has a five act structure. The king is vanquished by Act Five. The original House of Cards, a BBC production, seems to follow a more modern the act structure. And although I don't like giving spoilers, I will say that a certain tyrant meets his maker by the end of Act Three.

The American House of Cards is now Five Seasons in... And it might keep going for another five. I have this terrible feeling that Frank Underwood won't be getting his comeuppance, and that fans of this anti-hero will take his message of power by any means necessary to heart.

Pop culture rant over. Now back to work, writing children's stories to combat the bent stories.

Resolution Check-In: June Edition

We're quickly approaching the halfway mark of 2017. Let's see how I'm doing with my New Year's Resolution.

1) Take More Photos (at least two a week)
I took 36 snapshots over the last thirty days. Nothing spectacular, but I did get some family photos at several places:

• Foster's Freeze
• Hogwarts / Universal Studios
• the Renaissance Faire
• the local Duck Pond
• and... the Pantages Theatre

ACHIEVEMENT: 41.5% Complete

2) Write / Sell a New Picture Book

I signed the contract this month! The book will hopefully be released mid-2018.

I have also written a new picture book... so far I'm enjoying the drafting process!

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. 

3) Generate Idea for Next Big Project (Complete 25% of it)

This one is still in a bit of limbo... I stalled on one project about two months ago, but I've started something new that might take off. I'll know by the end of June whether or not it'll lead anywhere. 

ACHIEVEMENT: 20% Complete. 

4) Work on a Creative Project with my Daughters. 

Kenzie and I still make mini-recordings. It might turn into a podcast someday. 

ACHIEVEMENT: Pending...(We're going to VidCon this month!)

5) Show my appreciation more often / strengthen relationships and communication

Ugh-- I still suck at this one! And now I don't have the excuse of school anymore, since I'm two weeks into summer vacation. 

ACHIEVEMENT: 7.5% Complete

6) Lose ten pounds. 

This month I've been weighing in between 161 and 165 pounds... so everything is still good in this department.

ACHIEVEMENT: Unlocked.