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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.

I empathize with mine-goblins in underwear. So what?

For my latest book, "Animated Lives!" I had the leeway to interview whomever the heck I chose. My main criteria for selection was that the animator had to have created work that I found enjoyable, interesting, challenging, important or hopefully all of the above. The first chapter kicks off with Slovenian interviewee, Dusan Kastelic who single-handedly made a strange little CGi film called "Perk" which can best be described as 'An out of work mine-goblin dances around his cave in his underwear to accordion-laced punk rock.'

I can't say honestly that it's all that important of a film. Nor is it really challenging. It wasn't meant to be. I suppose it's interesting, but that's not the word that comes to mind when most folks view it. Mostly it's just pure quirky, blissfully joyous entertainment.

Enjoyable? Heck, yeah! Unabashedly so.

Other chapters feature famed animators such as Suzie Templeton talking about her Academy Award-winning film "Peter and the Wolf", Andrew Jimenez of Pixar talking about "One Man Band" Disney's famed Ward Kimball walking us through "Stop that Tank"... but this little film by Kastelic may strangely be the most representative of the quirky films encountered in this little book.

And yes, strangely is the operative word.

Enjoy! Lord knows I do!

Disney and Bikers and Stammers - Oh My!

There is a lovely new interview that my friend Raychelle did at http://www.raychelle-writes.blogspot.com/2012/01/writers-block-interviews-john-d.html In the interview she touches on the writerly process, inspiration, some of my past works and my current work - "The Missionary and the Brute".

I had tons of fun doing this interview - I can tell by some of the excursions I took along the path of my responses. Any story that combines my trying-to-be-erudite-and-failing-miserably use of fake Latin combined with my experiences regarding Disney and supplanted with tales culled from my blowing harp in a biker band is okay with me! That more or less sums up my existence to be honest. It's fun to read some of my own responses knowing that I could fill mega-blogs by expanding on any one of those brief tales.

Enjoy! And while you're there - check out Raychelle's other interviews and her own writing as well!

The Fiddler on the Hut

There is a certain device that some writers have used wherein they populate an otherwise natural story with a character so unique as to be wholly unreal. The classic case of this is the title character of "The Fiddler on the Roof". The Fiddler plays a very real role as being one of Tevya's village-mates, but yet has a more important role as an otherworldly symbol as well. It is almost as if the Fiddler is the very conscience of the play. What he plays upon his violin, is the pure ethereal thread of hope and light that sustains. Even though it is not a speaking part, it is an essential role - one that is part mime, part soundtrack, part Greek Chorus, and every bit amazing as a unifying element.

There are similar character elements throughout literature - from the Fiddler to Beatrice in Dante's "Il Purgatorio" to Jiminy Cricket.

Welcome!

Saturday morning, 8:17 am

I just finished uploading my novel "The Missionary and the Brute" to CreateSpace's FTP server. In a few days I will receive a proof to view and a few days after that, it will be available for purchase on Amazon.com and other retailers, maybe even in a few bookstores hither and yon. I traditionally have recoiled against self-publishing, because in the context of my past experiences it implied something quite different, something more desperate than what it has evolved into.

This has truly been an interesting process for me, both in the writing and the ego-levelling realization that this book would by its very nature have to go market in a different way than did my previous work. I was truly blessed to have circumstances fall in place so effortlessly for my first two books and all the little films I worked on.

For "The Hand Behind the Mouse: an intimate biography of Ub Iwerks" (Disney Editions, 2001), Roy Disney himself was behind our project from the start (thanks to Leslie Iwerks' connections there) so we didn't have the whole sales process with which to contend. Prior to joining up with Leslie, I was looking at publishing through a South Dakota University Press - which actually would have been fine too.

Plus, the incredibly generous Leonard Maltin - a nicer human being you will never meet - was an early supporter, so we had that going for us.

"Bungee Jumping & Cocoons" was essentially a work for hire - and perhaps the easiest writing/editing/publishing process I have thus encountered. A simple book perhaps and fun, but I knew that my passions ultimately would take me somewhere else - to fiction.

I have a lot of stories a-simmering inside of me that can only be told in fiction form. I am excited to share the dark, complicated, disturbing tale that is "The Missionary and the Brute" with you and to hear what you think of it. It is certainly not for everyone - it is an adult transgressive tale with graphic imagery and complex thoughts. Think of it as Chuck Palahniuk meets Upton Sinclair in Africa. The form itself is challenging and not a little dangerous - but I truly believe it pays the reader back for their efforts.

This blog will be used in the coming weeks to discuss the process of writing "The Missionary and the Brute" and to share news and details of the characters, the settings, books that have influenced me, other works in progress and the business of publishing a work like this in a unique and fully modern way.

Thanks for reading!
J.