someone my mother would be proud of

Writing a children’s book is a lot tougher than I thought it would be.  My dad received this email from some magazine about children’s books, and apparently they are holding a writing contest for those interested in writing a story about exploration for Kindergarten level readers. With a $500 first prize, I figured it would be worth a shot, but I didn’t realize how much that limited the usable vocabulary! Since I obviously haven’t read anything of that nature in a while, this is turning out to be much more of a challenge than I’d thought. And with a 150 word limit, it’s kind of hard to fit any story in that many words. This isn’t going to be some sort of walk in the park like I was expecting; my work is cut out for me (This paragraph was 137 words, for the record (not including these add-on parentheses (but over 150 words if you include them))).

I read the book “Love You Forever” again for some inspiration in writing this children’s book, and while it didn’t really give me exactly what I was looking for, it’s still one of my favorite books. It’s a story that you understand more and more as you grow up and gain perspective on life. While the story is somewhat simple, the emotions it can still somehow provoke aren’t. It makes me realize that, as cliché as the stages in the story are; they are eerily relatable. I guess that's what makes them cliché, right? Because they are true? The scary part, for me, is the end, probably because I haven’t lived that part yet, but also because the end of the book also signifies the end of a life cycle, which is pretty god damn deep for a children’s book, if you ask me. If anyone out there has a son, you should read this story to them so that they can realize how important their mother is, and just how vital it is that they someday become a father that their mothers would be proud of.

In a complete change of mood and topic, the De-Pixilated series on GameTrailers.com is an awesome series; the Super Smash Bros. video in particular is very well done. The writer and director, Ben Moody, does an awesome job of setting up the characters in a way that feels new and realistic, while paying homage to the game in a special way. The Streets of Rage video was also a lot of fun to watch; from the funky music, to the plate of chicken hidden under a trash can. I definitely recommend these to anyone who is a fan of video games, really. They have videos based on a wide spectrum of games, so I’m sure they have something for everyone.

Speaking of video games, I wanted to touch on the subject of my fiction story on relyonhorror.com, The Fall of Leon S. Kennedy; I will be posting the next section in roughly 12 days. Things have been sort of crazy on the site, what with E3 dropping a load of news on the gaming world, so we didn’t want the fiction stories (check out the Arklay Horror series as well) to get buried under everything that was coming in. I’m pretty excited about where this next chapter leads, as it shows us just how trapped Leon really is; he’s realizing that every little detail of his survival has already been mapped out, like a script. He really has no choice but to follow it, or die.

                Well, I have get back to writing this story, so I’m going to keep this blog short tonight. I just wanted to get some of these thoughts out of my head and onto the blog. I’m going to leave the link to that story, if anyone is interested in checking it out. Also, I’d love to hear some feedback!

BC