The Genesis "Have you Ever Met a Giggly Goo?" The Moogy Roo Series.
Post 2 / February18th 2020
This Blog will be a retrospective look back on my self publishing journey which took just on 12 months from the day I decided to publish my first story, mid January 2019 to finally collecting my first 534 copies from customs at Brisbane Wharf January 2020.
Have you Ever Met a Giggly Goo evolved from wanting to make my daughter laugh, and as all parents know, tickling is definitely the quickest and easy way to get kids to laugh, and not just loud, but also right up to the point of them not being able to breath before they have to tap out. Sounds almost cruel, I know right! But what parent doesn't like taking them to that point?
My daughter 'Moogs' is by nature, a bit of a prankster, "Wonder where she gets that from? Anyway with this inherent trait between father and daughter, we would always be trying to out prank each other, whether that was the standard jumping out from behind a door or more dastardly application of a prank like pouring salt in my beer whilst up ordering a counter meal snitzs at the local pub recently... though her glory was short lived because whilst again at the bar getting her another pink lemonade I instinctively seized upon the opportunity to exact my revenge by dunking the wet end of her straw repeatedly into one of those little complimentary packets of salt ... it works a treat, and oh how revenge was sweet, actually extremely bitter by the immediate twisted expression of a kid who also knew she had been cleverly out pranked by the master as her taste buds rose in rebellion with a face that will be etched in my memory forever ... and still laughing at.
Essentially the genesis of "Have You Ever Met a Giggly Goo?" is from another prank played out on Moogs just so I could tickle her without her suspecting, however the character I made up at the time to help prank her was actually called the 'Boogly Boo' who now happens to be the sinister main character in one of my other future books I have called "Have You Ever Met a Boogly Boo?" Anyway I asked Moogs if she wanted to meet the Boogly Boo? She nodded and agreed, however I told her she would have to pass a test, which was to follow all of my instructions ; she agreed, so firstly I made sure her eyes were closed whilst being absolutely quiet and still otherwise the Boogly Boo wouldn't appear, but most importantly, I had to make sure she was relaxed. I then made her imagine what the Boogly Boo looks like to further build suspense right before I said with fingers like worms ready to burrow into her ribs "Because the Boogly Boo is about to appear and ....... "TICKLE YOUUUU"
A quick simple story that not only took a couple of re-writes to come together but I would still end up changing through the illustration process, like adding a better character description of Giggly Goo inspired by the drawings of characters and scenes I would have to review from my talented Illustrator Jan Pimping before signing off. However I would not recommend doing this unless absolutely critical to the story as any changes outside the scope of works of the design agreement will understandably incur additional costs. Writing should actually be called re-writing because you do spend a lot of time re-writing, in my case I tend to want to get all my thoughts down at once, which then takes time to decipher and re-construct. I'm also easily distracted from the actual physical writing process which doesn't help, but then again, we all have our own methods of accomplishment, it just may take longer. There are obviously naturally gifted writers with exceptional grasp of diction and story, however I do believe anyone can essentially write, it just takes a story wanting to be told and the application of time and effort to re-write it. Unbeknown to all those closest to me is that over a 10 year period from 2004 I quietly wrote on and off a screen play for an animated children's movie that I felt inspired to write but have kept locked away in computer folder.
So I now have this story, but Is it any good? Would anyone want to read it? Is it too short? I'm too old to be writing children's books? Dreaded self doubt took aver and I became crippled with fear of the unknown, the judgement... accentuated by the fact I don't consider myself a natural writer nor have any background in writing so I just sat on it for twelve months whilst I took time off and adjusted to my new life circumstances, though I did also complete other stories to help boost my confidence before I finally built up the courage and committment to publish. A journey that will continue in my next blog on Thursday. I will be posting twice a week, every Tuesday and Wednesday and would love your feedback, comments and questions along the way. Thanks for your support.
