Aug. 3, 2025 - Scary Creatures!

Today I focused on overcoming challenges. So much for taking a day off!

Many, many moons ago - I wrote a book called "Genealogy for Children" that was published by Corel Corporation as an accompaniment to their genealogy software. They saw it as support materials to be given away with their package. As a teacher, I'd been running an afterschool genealogy club for about 10 years. I'd invited parents to join in with their children. One of the parents was a vice president at Corel Corporation. The club grew spontaneously out of an integrated studies unit I'd created while teaching the junior grades (4,5,6). The book was meant to be a guide for teachers, parents and grandparents who wanted to pursue the hobby of genealogy with the children in their lives. Unfortunately, Corel sold that genealogy software to a company in California and the deal fell apart.

At one point, I pitched the program and book to the Ontario Genealogical Society. The theme behind the program was fantasy - dragons, wizards, fairies, castles - things that appealed to kids that age. They loved to program but wanted to change the theme to children of different races and give it a multicultural these. I wasn't interested so the deal fell apart. So, I have about 100 copies sitting on a shelf collecting dust!

One of the creatures I created for the genealogy program was "Phildor the Dragon". Now, years later (about 2 decades if I'm being honest!) I've decided to use the creature in a children's picture book I've written.

In the beginning he had scary teeth and claws! This picture book is being geared to children ages 3 to 8. He had to be more "age appropriate" First, I reimagined the character Phildor the Dragon Bear as a teddy bear type elemental and gave him wings! That meant creating a new drawing and adding wings to the “baby” character, so his wings are small. More about that another day.

Then I began to work on the title page correcting some of the elements I wasn’t happy with. I moved Phildor to a lower, further right position on the page. I shifted all images on the page further to the left.

It’s beginning to come together better now. I still have the border to create. I’ll save some of the previous tangles but add new ones as well.

Later I began to watch YouTube videos on creating epic fantasies.

It was a quieter, less stressful day. I hope you had a good one too!

Best wishes always...

P.S. Welcome to my blog! My intention is to keep followers up to date on my latest writing adventures. My current focus is on fiction genres including children's picture books and YA/NA historical romanticises. I'm also preparing to write an epic fantasy for the young adult audience. As a debut author I face all the challenges of breaking into the traditional publishing market. I need your interest and support to do so! Please consider following me here and on other social media platforms, which you can access on the Home page of my author's web site. I'll be adding more in the weeks to come so please check back from time to time. Thank you so much, in advance, for following my blog. You are potentially helping me enrich the lives of future readers. I just need this break to attract my first agent representation! Your efforts will make all the difference! Thank you once again.