Tuesday February 23. Day 3.

Let's get down to brass tacks here.

Now, I'm not writing a "kids book" per se, even though the main characters are animals, yet it is a novel aimed at kids, of all ages. "In The Thicket" is not an 'I Can Read' deal, YA novel or even a picture book. Sure it'll be compared to "Harry Potter" and the dreaded "Twilight" stuff, only because of the sheer size and language. The subject matter is quite far removed from said success stories. This is the stuff that I see in my mind for the most part: Furry woodland creatures.

Essentially the story revolves around five friends, a squirrel, beaver, elk, rabbit and fox, that possess more cunning and imagination than most of the others in their home of the Woodland. Sort of like a "Freaks and Geeks" of the forest. Now, I don't want to give too much away, but the Bears, who essentially "govern" the Woodland, made a deal with the Owls, who want nothing but to rule outside of the Order of Birds, and a rift has been made.

Then you have the magic spring that resides deep in the Ant colony, which has been hidden for eons, yet recently discovered by some rogue Moose which changes them into muscle bound freaks. More problems. Plus, those pesky Mountain Lions want in on the action so they side with the bears and become like this sort of security. This does not go over very well. Not to mention the Snakes, who, like the Owls, want power so they get in on the action too. Ugh. So annoying!

Anyway, while the rest of the Woodland does their daily chores, hunt, gather, make homes and live in essential ignorance, our friends set out to make things right. But how? With some help of other like minded inhabitants and a push here and there from the Almighty.

Now, this isn't a religious book, by any means, but I do love theology as much as mythology and to put those two together in a fun series of books has become not only my biggest joy (outside of my lady She-Ra and Heavy Metal) but my biggest obsession.

This is intricate stuff here kids. I'm not farting around. Like when I say I wrote 2 or 3 pages, it took me quite a while to get there. 200 pages in and I am now in the home stretch. By late March / early April I should be finished with book 1. Then I have to find someone that believes in the project and get these things published. Then it's off to the next one. So far I have 5 books outlined. Dude...I so can't wait!

So that's the gist of the gist. Like I said, "In The Thicket" is something that you just have to get into; squawking about it in this here blog, on Facebook or wherever, and chatting about it to you in person just doesn't cut it. It's meant to be written so you can draw your own conclusions and, forbid!, use your own imagination. That is something I miss about reading kids books these days...they do most of the work for you.

Beyond that, Tuesday was pretty quiet for me. Work was slow, I edited a bit and did some story outlining, cruised around the internet and eventually got into some bad TV and cocktails and then it was nighty night.

And I dreamt of furry woodland creatures. As always.

Let's recap!

Food: Breakfast - English muffin made into two small cheese and basil pizzas. Lunch - veggie wrap. Snack - small cucumber and tomato sandwich. Dinner - fresh vegetables with a garlic and plum tomato puree sauce over organic spinach pasta.

Booze: Some beers and a vodka cocktail.

Movies: "I Love You Man" right after "RuPaul's Drag Race" on VH1.

Mood: Content.

# of pages written: 0, but did some editing and outlining, so...sort of wrote.