Last week the illustrator from my publishing house contacted me. I went immediately into giddy mode. For this meant the next stage to getting my book published and in the stores. I needed to confirm which spider monkey my character Charlie was. For those who don’t know this, there are quite a few. But the image I had in my mind I passed along to Kim.

It was Jasper’s turn. Not just any yellow cheek Amazon would do. I wanted the company to capture the essence of my bird on the book cover and jacket. She told me what kind of poses she was looking for. I immediately started to plan in my head to take endless pictures of him in the coming days. Why I do not know. There are more pictures of Jasper in my computer then I have of some of my family members. Yes he has made that leap. Going over the endless folders I came up with a small arrangement for her to look over. I did warn her that there were going to be a lot, it ranged between 50-60 pictures. I was not taking any chances. But in case those did not work I sent her seven videos I had of my bird. From those she should be able to come up with something that says Jasper that I am happy with. This bird inspired this book and his personality wrote it. I was just the instrument that he used.

The various emails got sent. Sitting back in my chair a smile formed on my face. This was really happening. The hard work and time put into this venture was unfolding even more. Every step getting me closer to the release of my book. It does not get old, the excitement I feel every time I get more news from the publishing house. I can’t even imagine when the release date is upon me. I am sure you will all hear me from wherever you live. Until then I continue to write. It is what we all do as authors, write.