From the Land of Twitter

When I get an idea in my head, or I'm nursing a story, I'll either jot it in one of my journals or I'll rant about it in a series of tweets (or lately, in a Twitter 'thread'). Here's my latest rant expanded so there's more here than on my Twitter timeline.

I seem to take a lot of influence from the story Country Mouse, City Mouse. That theme became my canine Mafia furry historical stories. Yet, lately, I ended up thinking about an old idea remade into a graphic novelette. Will revise old drawings accordingly before I draft the scenes.

I already have a squirrel and a rat characters. And no, the rat isn't a bad guy but a love interest. I'm so sick and tired of certain animals being demonized in stories. Such tales have real-world impacts. Right now, wolves are still hated and feared globally. And sharks are thought of as continuous eating machines.

My influences with Romance will come from Harlequin and Avon. I'll use regional ecology where my main characters are indigenous animals to a given area.

In this case, my squirrel will be from the  Midwest and my rat will be from the Northeast. Both characters will be urban beings but have early ancestral roots in a rural past. And I'll say no more.

When I start to draft these scenes, I'll post on my Instagram. I'm also struggling to find a publisher for these ideas. Where can one get short comic stories published? And at my own pace? I'm not good with deadlines, and even worse when it comes to artwork. In the meantime, stay tuned, Dear Readers.

Early influences..Part 2

I've wanted to read "The Secret of NiMH" since I watched the Don Bluth animated feature back in 1985.

When I lived in Jamaica for a couple of years with relatives, the film had captured most of my schoolmates' imagination as well as their parents' pocketbooks - at the time, a graphic novel based on the animation sold like hot cakes on the island. When I borrowed a classmate's, I was a little disappointed by the illustrations, even noting that characters were often disproportionate to their portrayal on film.

Mind you, 8-year-old me didn't think this, it just seemed off, but then age and experience made me realize what I just told you.

I feel blessed that often, many of the animated features I watched as a child, I later read the book.
For example, "The Last Unicorn", "Watership Down", "The Return of the King", and "The Hobbit".

Right now, in my 30s, I made it a point to read "The Secret of NiMH" which is actually "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NiMH" (the original title!).

And get this: Author Robert C. O' Brien, who wrote the original book, his daughter, Author Jane Leslie Conly, ended up creating two books based on the first!
So I ended up reading her "Racso and the Rats of NiMH" and "R.T., Margaret and the Rats of NiMH" before reading the original story!

This story helped to perceive animal stories as true literature, and not simply as 'kiddie fiction', though there is nothing wrong with that as long as the story is written with the best of intentions.