‘The Domino Caper’ – Children’s Book

The DOMINO CAPER—A BLAKE-E MYSTERY

It is early October, 2015, and finally my children’s book is complete.

This project began as an assignment I completed for the online Creative Writing course that I studied, through The Writers Bureau, during 2011 and 2012.

What started as a two-thousand-word introduction for a children’s book is now published on Amazon Kindle. Whilst excited the finished product is out-there, so to speak, for me the completion of any major endeavour always brings a sense of unsettled resignation. More than once I have said: “The destination may well be rewarding, but the journey takes the prize”.

Following positive feedback from my tutor, I developed the plot for a junior novel—turning three chapters into fifteen. During this process, I entertained the notion of producing the illustrations. As I pondered this idea, I decided my protagonist, Blake Edun-Espinoza, would make models to help solve his classroom mystery. As Blake says; “… detectives on TV shows construct whole crime scenes to figure out stuff so cut-outs aren’t a silly idea”.

The task then was to produce a chapter-book, create paper-craft models, and use these in pictures for the finished product. As well as using dedicated writing software to keep track of the plot and chapters, I have endeavoured to master online manuscript editing, a new desktop-publisher, drawing program and photo-shop software. What a buzz!

From countless rewrites and edits to enough cardboard cut-outs to fill a wheelie bin, not to mention lost, unsaved files (DOH) and multi-layered photo-creations, I now understand how the French playwright, Moliere, felt when he said: “Long is the road from conception to completion”.

THE DOMINO CAPER—A BLAKE-E MYSTERY is an early-chapter reader for children aged four to ten years and their parents. Two other BLAKE-E mysteries have been written with illustrations yet to be finalised. “The ALPHABET CAPER” and “The BLLY-BUCK CAPER” will be published in the coming months.

Click on the picture below to investigate my new book in detail along with downloads specifically produced to accompany the story.

Now, I even find myself quoting Blake. My yarns are written in the first person, from Blake’s perspective, and after hours spent working on cardboard ‘Blakes’, Blake actions and Blake responses, it’s little wonder. Sometimes I think I’m morphing into a microcosm of Blake’s school experiences.

Anyway, enough of the waffle.

Please share this page with anyone you think might like to hear about “The DOMINO CAPER”.

 

“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” C S Lewis (1898 –1963) British novelist, poet and academic.

 

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