The Moon as a Character (or it's Friday, again?)

Hello, again, my lovely readers! It's Friday. And that means another blog post. Sometimes I have a lot to talk about and know exactly what I'm going to say and sometimes...not so much. Today is one of those days. So, let's review...

Books in the Pipeline

The third book in the Little Brown Spider series is coming out in a couple of weeks. I'm super excited about this book as I think it's the one Cristian and I really hit our stride on. Not that the first two books didn't accomplish what we wanted or that I'm not completely happy with them. Not at all. But with this book, we have a better understanding of each other's style and approach and what's needed to bring the adventures of the able arachnid to life. I've written a lot about this book over the last few weeks and months, so nothing new to share right now.

The World's Longest Dragon is in active development with the very talented and impressive chameleon-like abilities of Janette Hill. Nothing to share yet outside of the fact that we finalized the look and color of the dragon. And, yeah, it's awesome! I'll be talking more about this story in the not-too-distant-future.

Bus Driver! Bus Driver!, the inaugural book in the Little Brown Spider Presents series, and one I've talked about in length on this blog, is in the final stages of production. Illustrator Anchi Nguyen, a young and expressive artist with a wonderful, quirky style, is finalizing the coloring now. I'll have a couple additional posts about Bus Driver! Bus Driver! in the very near future.

A Moonshot

So that leaves me with a bit of a post desert. What do I talk about today? My dogs? My musical tastes? My comic book collection? Nah, don't feel like any of that. Well, as it turns out, a bit of divine intervention, or, perhaps, serendipity handed me inspiration from my...browser.

As I fired up Microsoft Edge and checked out Bing yesterday morning (yes, I use Edge and Bing; Microsoft zealot, here) I was greeted with the fact that on that day - September 1st - back in 1902 the influential movie A Trip to the Moon was first screened. If you don't know the movie, you've probably seen or are familiar with its iconic image. As soon as I saw the image, my wheels started to turn.

A Boy. A Moon. A Book.

I'll be publishing a story by the end of the year or early next year that includes the moon as a central character. It's easily one of my favorites and for many reasons. Born out of the trials and difficulties of life and combined with a message of perseverance, it's a story close to my heart.

I was lucky enough to team up with the super talented illustrator, mushroom connoisseur, and abundantly awesome Jessica Warrick to get this story done. Not going to show or talk too much more about it now, but the book is about 90% finished. We're working on some final updates now to get it just right.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye like a Big Pizza Pie

The movie. The book. No real connection outside of one of the central characters being the moon. I'm certainly not implying in any way that the two works are similar or in the same league. It was just a happy coincidence that I was looking for something to write about when I came across the movie's original release date, while at the same time working on the "Moonboy" book.

And so, I was thankfully rescued from the blog post desert just in time.

Well, that's it for this Friday. Thanks for reading and see you next time!

- DennisD.

SpiderWriter