The reaction to the book since we posted it last night has been really wonderful! Everyone's had lots of really nice things to say and that's been very flattering and also humbling. In the days and weeks to come I plan to post more things in this space relating to the book (What are plans are for releasing it in print, the reasons we want to keep it available online for free, fun things we think people could do with it and maybe some peeks at the book Nicole is working on now!)
If you haven't downloaded it yet here's the link again:
"The Secret Circus"
Today I thought I'd talk a bit about the creation of the book.
The journey that brings us to where we find ourselves today started around 3 years ago (before Nicole was my "way-out-of-my-league wife" and was just my "way-out-of-my-league girlfriend"). She was just finishing up Art college (where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting). We had several conversations that went pretty much like this:
Nicole: I need a bit of a break from the whole "fine art scene" you know? I think I'd like to try illustrating a children's book.
Me: That sounds cool. You should do it.
Nicole: Why don't you write something and I'll draw it.
Me: Awesome. That would be fun.
I would then proceed to put off starting said project because I seem incapable of liking anything I write or create (I'm getting better) eventually realizing that Nicole was starting to become annoyed and doubt if I was ever going to get off my butt and do the thing I had told her I would do. So, I hastily through together an outline with no story or any of the text that ended up in the story that roughly described what each page would look like. (If I can find that paper I may try to scan it and throw it up here at some point). I took my (not so)handiwork to Nicole seemed genuinely thrilled (in retrospect this was probably due to her being amazed I'd finally done something and less a reflection of the quality of what I'd handed her) and she started painting.
At that point the book (for me) went back to being a very ethereal thing in the back of my mind that once every few months I'd be asked to look at a finished page or help figure out what the next one should look like, but for the most part had very little to do with me. One day nearly 2.5 years later this conversation took place:
Nicole: It's done.
Me: What?
Nicole: The book I've been at for 2.5 years.
Me: Wow. You really do read slow.
Nicole: No, no you moron, the book. OUR book.
Me: Oh! Oh cool! Let's see... wow! looks great, good job.
Nicole: How's the text coming?
Me: ...Oh you know, pretty good...
Nicole: You haven't started it yet have you?
Me: No.
Nicole: Go. Now.
So I did. The next couple evenings saw me sitting in the basement tapping away into notepad and occasionally googling a word to find something that rhymed with it (the word Shadow was a real bugger) and lots of reading of other stories. Somewhere along the way I decided it would be a poem and after that decision was made the writing came very quickly. I'd say the actual writing of the darn thing took up less than 10% of the time I spent banging my head against it. I showed it to Nicole and she seemed to love it (again, possibly because I had actually finished it rather than because it was all that great). A conversation that looked like this followed:
Nicole: I spent nearly 3 years painting this thing.
Me: Yes
Nicole: You probably spent a grand total of 8-10 hours writing it.
Me: *warily* I guess...
Nicole: You suck.
Me: Fair enough.
So there you have it, from idle chatter to finished product (well almost, still need to get it printed). I won't talk about Nicole's process for how she painted it but perhaps she'll write something of her own about it.
A lot has happened in our lives since we started this project; we got engaged, moved into our first house, got married, got a dog, changed hair-styles (well she did, I'm still sporting more or less the same do I've had since the 2nd grade), discovered a love for avocado, started new day jobs, and much more. I'm extremely proud of this book and I can't wait to talk more about it and show it to more people (I'm also greatly looking forward to seeing a child read it or be read it) and I am pretty sure this won't be the last time we create something like this together. Nicole and I have been discussing some other ideas for more stories we'd like to tell and they won't take 3 years to realize this time either.
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