Cay Mayo writes

I still have lots of PBs arriving almost daily at the library. I’m closing in on the read a hundred books advice. But I don’t think I’ll stop once I hit it. They are simply too much fun to read

And, Eureka! I have finally seen, felt and come to understand the difference between PBs (picture books) and PSBs (picture story books). One lesson learned, six-five gazillion more to go.

Boy, am I on a roll or what?

And, after re-reading the article on how to create a PB/PBS dummy book, I created one; even stitched the thirty-two folded blank pages together like a real (ugly) book.

The funny thing is I made the dummy book about a week ago but couldn’t bring myself to put my words in it. I was afraid to try my story on the pages. What if it didn’t fit? What if it stunk? What if I discovered I’d been wasting my time thinking I could write a PSB?

Yeah, the monkey mind was having a picnic upstairs, and isn’t it funny how one can wander around in la-la land without clueing in? I guess that’s why they call it la-la land eh?

Two days ago, while wasting time playing a game of spider solitaire on the computer my eyes drifted to the cork board behind the monitor and locked onto a small sticky note with the words, How’s it working for ya written on it.

It wasn’t.

DING.

I suddenly realized what I’d been doing.

Nothing.

Again.

And that’s when I took ownership of the ‘suck it up’ mentality and attacked my story with a pair of scissors and cut/paste lust in my heart.

Too, too freaking cool—It actually feels like a real PSB now and not just a story on paper (okay, it still is just a story on paper ) but suddenly I am visualizing the pictures between the sentences and those pictures are showing me where more sparkle is needed and where I need to dim the switch a tad. It’s amazing!

Which leads me to a brand new problem. I know I recently said I was leaving the illustrating to the professionals—but oh my lord—I so want to draw the pictures in my head. I can almost taste them I want to do it so bad.

At least that’s what the right side of my brain is saying. The left side is telling me that I need to get more of my work out again quickly and to forget what the other half is saying.

So who do I believe? Me here or me there?