A lot of great things all happening at once.
The first is that I got a really insightful review of "The Missionary and the Brute" on Amazon. The description and understanding of the novel are really dead on for me. Way cool. Read the review here.
The next is that my friend Floyd Norman (animation legend from Disney/Pixar/Tom Carter, etc.) did a mini-interview for my next novel, "The Blue Man". Floyd is sometimes referenced as the first African American animator in the industry and he did an awesome job answering questions from a fictional character (faux animation historian, Alwyn Ross). When Leslie Iwerks and I did a booksigning at Disneyland in 2001 for "The Hand Behind the Mouse", Floyd drove down and stood behind my chair the entire time telling me tales and keeping me company. It was so ironic that all these hardcore Disney fans were eating up Leslie and my signatures but it was FLOYD's they should really have sought. It was such a cool thing to have him there. I get choked up thinking about the kindness of that gesture to this day.
The next cool thing is that "Animated Lives!" is now available for Kindle! To celebrate that release, I am offering free downloads for Saturday and Sunday so get yours this weekend. If you like it please consider writing a review or ranking it or liking it or whathaveyou. It is much appreciated. Or if you can't wait, get it now!
"Animated Lives!" is a strange hybrid. Just as Floyd Norman was interviewed for a small section of "The Blue Man", real animators are interviewed by Alwyn Ross in separate chapters of this quirky little book. Each chapter features an animator working in short film. Some are famous, some are infamous, some are quiet little geniuses working alone for their art.
Gitanjali Rao was one of my favorites of these interviews. Her work, "Painted Rainbow" is a sensitive and sensitively-rendered work that embodies a visceral sense of loneliness and joy. Ostensibly it is the story of us all - escaping our pain through imaginations that set us free. Here is the film upon which her chapter is based.
1 comment:
Really enjoyed this...so much emotion in just a few minutes... so glad I saw this, heard it, felt it..
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