Hi everyone,
I’m new at this, so I thought I’d introduce myself this way.
My background is in corporate graphic design as well as writing and during a career of over four decades, I have, at various times and in no particular order, owned a design studio, a typesetting company, an advertising agency and now enjoy a home-based business offering creative solutions in writing and design focused on branding and marketing support materials.
I’ve partially written three fiction novels and never finished any of them, so it’s fair to say my track record regarding completed literary projects, while consistent, is not particularly promising.
One day my wife called from the kitchen, saying, “Don’t you remember those stories you used to tell Jamie when you put him to bed, why don’t you write them?”
So I did.
I wrote five of Jamie’s stories in a week. Here’s the dedication that will go in each book as I think it explains the reason for this improbable venture.
The Dedication for the Title Page of book.
When our son Jamie was very young, we moved into a large house in Toronto fronting on Lawrence Avenue near Ledbury Street.
Along one side of this street was a park, also called Ledbury, in which Jamie had many adventures—as all boys do.
Young boys are inquisitive, imaginative and fearless.
It was down a very steep hill in this park that he took his very first unassisted ride on a two-wheeler bicycle and disappeared out of the sight of his frantic mother, only to end up sprawled, laughing on the grass at the bottom.
I made-up these stories to read to our son when we put him to bed. “Tell me another story, Dad…tell me another story…”
For Jamie, who started it all, and for Jeanie who never lost faith.
You probably figured out, correctly, that Jeanie is my wife who called to me from the kitchen well over four years ago.
Did I mention I wrote five children’s books in a week?
I think I did, and misled by this accomplishment, I explained to my ever-patient wife that I was going to write a series of 20 books.
Then she said, “Aren’t you going to do the illustrations yourself.”
This would bring about the second of my first two major errors.
My first mistake was not taking into account the rewriting, editing, pagination, then more writing and editing of the five books—writing them is easy, getting them right isn’t. I also wrote outlines for five more books.
My second error was the illustration thing. I had told my still-patient wife, Jeanie, that I wanted to do them in acrylic paint and pencil crayon. Mixed media, it has a nice ring to it. What I didn’t consider however is that I haven’t done any painting, much less book illustrations, in over 40 years, having been chained to (many of you would say liberated by) a computer for much of that time.
But of course, I persevered and will now present the Jamie Lord of Ledbury series, the first book of which is titled, The Fork in the Road. And it’d be great if you’d accompany me on this adventure. I’m here to learn, listen and get all the advice that I can.
Cheers,
For more information on the Jamie Lord of Ledury series please go to:
http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/jay-kerr/15/687/b99