I'M BAAAACK! ...AS A NEW FORM OF STORYTELLER

Hi Kids
Back to being myself, fully replenished in foodstuff and other substances lacking in the recent days and weeks, namely health , but also cultural resources not readily available in the southwest and to which I was habituated since childhood. So as of this morning I really feel like the tiger on the cereal box. I am posting this because I feel i owe you an explanation since we do spend a lot of time together, but mostly because we share a lot of common interests and means to help each other out in our
daily life.

WRITING
First that Scientific American magazine is precious (see titles on cover below) for many articles that provide answers and
suggestions. The article on writing explains how the brain responds to storytelling so well, more so when all parts are brought together. Giving emotional clues of where the characters are in a story is as important as describing a physical location. Both help the reader get a 'full brain' experience. The article will make you very proud to be readers or writers.

WORKING WITH YOUR HANDS
I dont know if 'typing' or 'using a mouse' in photoshop is considered as 'working with your hands', but one article describes the powerful satisfaction of knitting, building things, as opposed to pushing buttons. We are antique creatures that get depressed in modern times for not having to plow fields and stoke a fire to make a coffee pot. Apparently using a microwave can be debilitating unless we have a hobby with our hands to make up for it. I think Nikki and I ought to make scupltures or build a rooftop addition...or maybe just play the piano with FOUR HANDS...(hehe)

HANGING OUT WITH TEENS
The secret to longevity with fruit flies in a lab. Can add years to our life...Where do we find teens??? Then I thought In my own family there will be a bunch of teens in just a few years!

SLEEPING
How sleep solves problems...fully developed explanations. Cant wait to sleep long hours. Its just too hot here, especially with Lucille's flannel bedsheets. Why is it that Mexico is cooler than Canada?

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
Apparently the more the merryer. Let's make a lot of mistakes.

CANCER
Was on the phone with Diane last night, my first wife in the 60's. Her 50 yr old sister had lung cancer. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy and six months later, no more tumors in her lungs, she grows fat again and happy. Last week they found 5-6 metastasis in her brain. 'No problem' the doc says. We zap them happily. You'll be confused for a few days'. I'm very impressed with the health care (free) in Canada. I am now lighting another Malboro at $8.35 a pack.

FRIENDS
I am measuring whom I should call and whom I should just drop. Talking with people is NOT my major need in life. Having you readers and commenters is a real source of satisfaction. And what has brought me a lot of contentment recently was actually on Canadian TV:

A BRAZILIAN MOVIE
A quaint gang warfare story filmed in the favelas of Rio was an astounding masterpiece of cinematography, shown on Radio-Canada 'Cine-Club'. If I coud see one of those each month I would be a happier camper. I am considering a NetFlix subscription with Nikki and Camille, getting those in the mail for one month and trading.

COMIC STRIPS
Last night in French (read 'France') TV5 that I use to have in New Mex and Louisiana but cannot get in MEX or San Diego, an amazing movie on the Belgian Comic strips of the 40's and 50's, Tintin, Blake and Mortimer, etc...I need to get back doing comic strips since I was raised on them, those wonderful adventures that gave me so much.

IMMEDIATE PROJECT
So I woke up after dreaming out my life of the next year or so: I was doing 3D Software (Bryce) renderings of buildings used in a comic strip I was designing for teenagers, full of terrrific storytelling and mystery and capable of lighting up the bulb of young boys (and girsl too). I realized first hand that my nephews and their friends just adore my 'gramophone' game and are fascinated by what I do on the computer. What motivation. Thursday night I will have dinner with Josee, Toma, Jordan and Tania + Michelle. I was working on a pirate story for Toma, but now I know what I want to create:

MORE WORDS and LESS DRAWINGS, just a few high definition pictures of key moments, done lovingly in Bryce. Toma who is just eight years old is reading books with very few pictures. The 'Life of Ghenjis Khan' is his current book and he knows the antique name for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Mongolia. No need to do many illustrations in these stories when their imagination is wild enough to post internal pictures in tehir own brain.His little Brazilian friends that live in Oregon (the Brazil wife is back with hubby Yanick who owns a software company in Bent OR) are 'future customers' of these adventure stories. By the way, presentation could be VOICE over slow panning over a series of truly high class illustrations. This way they could really 'fly' on the Internet. More interestingly, each tableau will be Flash-based and tricked: the reader needs to unlock something moveable to go further in the story, possibly in alternate directions. Just like the gramophone puzzle seen HERE .

NEW STORYTELLING
Actually this is not so new as the very successful MYST game demonstrated almost 10 years ago. What is new is that thanks to the tools I am using (FLASH CS3 programming, etc), these stories will live on the Internet with huge viral properties. For instance, the readers will have ro resolve clues presented in the lyrics of a song played on that gramophone and fed through an MP3 format piped in without loading up the story software. The power is just too astounding for words. Texts will pe piped in through a similar side door to feed the action and orient hte reader. A combination game and adventure story cannot miss the mark, but the quality of the story will depend on this storyteller, assumedly the best in the techno-thriller vein (modesty is something I tried hard to get rid off lately and I am proud to announce my modest success)

THE YOUTH READER MARKET
The youth market of new readers has exploded thanks to Harry Potter. These kids are starving for quality material with so much crap on TV. And they want interactive, to control their stories to some extent. I was lucky enough to be raised on the BEST illustrated adventure books for boys, the Tintin series. It's certainly high time to give back...and most likely make some money in the process, a nice afterthought! These 5 boys will be teenagers in 4 years and constitute the ready-made startup base of a public for this new-style storytelling. In 4 years there will be thousands reading those VERY SPECIAL stories. Americans need something to thelp them rise above their depressing two-party political system. Kids need an alternate world with different value systems. Mine!

ARCHITECTURE
I will go see Louise as a friend, not as an architect partner. I dont know about working 'the Building Trade'. What i can do is too precious to waste on a Shell stations. I am postponing the rotating solar house for when the political situation in the US is more clear and when I have more bucks in a better economy. The only stock that keeps soaring is GAMESTOP, as if kids , my public, always seems to have money for new games. Besides I have enough photos, 'unfinished' illustrations, 3D projects in Bryce to fill a few albums of boy adventures with little to add but characters and mood.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS
That's the crucible into which we operate. The two writers Nikki and Camille have inspired me so much to get my act together. Being more disorganized is no excuse to not get it done now. It's a bloody miracle that in the span of just a few days I could be fed with all those powerful tools and messages. This goes beyond random, a kind of magic that is really hard to explain...so i'll just call it THE POWER OF LOVE for simplicity.

My friend Pierre that took me sailing Sunday has a wonderfully organized life and adventure systems, another inspiration with his fanciful and pretty wife Lisa, owner of the sailboat. (Pierre's new boat is a monster catamaran that I will show here soon). As a source of international information and classy credibility for my stories. Pierre will be cast as a hero in my first story since I can draw his face with my eyes closed. These friends are worth a lot to me.
My energetic sister Yvette was so instrumental in resetting my clock and I am still eating that gallon and a half of frozen zucchini soup she cooked for me. AHA, maybe that is the source of the clarity of my soul, that humble legume. I think I'll put her in a story as an hyperactive benevolent witch.
All others wanting to be integrated, albeit in disguised form, will need to pay me $5. PayPal and send a photo for application. Acceptance not guaranteed.

Love You All and Stay healthy
Post your comments and you might just
get a place in the stories