Daisy Chains
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Daisy Dreamer in Thailand
The March issue of Chickadee magazine is out!
The theme for this issue is art, and the Daisy Dreamer comic takes place in Thailand. Daisy and her pals are visiting an elephant park, where the elephants make art.
I based the idea for the story on some real places where elephants create art. They run with help from the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project. For years, loggers in Thailand have used elephants to help them in their work. Just like loggers in North America once used horses and oxen to pull logs out of the woods, in Thailand people used elephants to help move lumber.
But what happens to those elephants when they can't work any more? There are elephant conservation areas in Thailand where these elephants can live comfortable lives. The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project allows elephants to create artwork. The money they raise from selling the paintings goes towards helping to care for the elephants.
You can see some of the paintings by the elephants here.
The theme for this issue is art, and the Daisy Dreamer comic takes place in Thailand. Daisy and her pals are visiting an elephant park, where the elephants make art.
I based the idea for the story on some real places where elephants create art. They run with help from the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project. For years, loggers in Thailand have used elephants to help them in their work. Just like loggers in North America once used horses and oxen to pull logs out of the woods, in Thailand people used elephants to help move lumber.
But what happens to those elephants when they can't work any more? There are elephant conservation areas in Thailand where these elephants can live comfortable lives. The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project allows elephants to create artwork. The money they raise from selling the paintings goes towards helping to care for the elephants.
You can see some of the paintings by the elephants here.
Labels: Art, Daisy Dreamer, Elephants, Neat stuff
¶ 10:24 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Summer!
Yes, the ground may be covered in snow, and our driveway iced over, but it is time to think about summer. I like writing the summer Daisy Dreamer comic in the middle of winter. It makes me feel like winter is almost over.
The summer story is also fun because it is different: more panels, more adventure -- even more animals sometimes! In summer sometimes Daisy gets to turn into more than one animal for the story. More animals = more fun, I think. ¶ 3:12 PM 0 comments
The summer story is also fun because it is different: more panels, more adventure -- even more animals sometimes! In summer sometimes Daisy gets to turn into more than one animal for the story. More animals = more fun, I think. ¶ 3:12 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Upper Musquodoboit Consolidated School
I spent the day yesterday at Uper Musquodoboit Consolidated School talking about Daisy Dreamer and writing comics. (Maybe we should have a pronunciation test on the name.)
It was a great school. It had 60 kids, and every single one of them knew about Daisy Dreamer and had read some of the comics. They had fantastic questions.
One of the things I love most about visiting schools is answering questions. There are some questions that come up almost every single time. But at UMCS, I heard some new ones. A girl in grade 6 wanted advice on where to look for publishing opportunities, because she loves to write. And a boy asked me if I could write a Daisy that involves zombies. Maybe she could become a zombie, or fight zombies.
I often get requests for animals Daisy should turn into. But zombies? That was the first time I'd heard that suggestion. Of course, I answered that zombies weren't really appropriate for the comic. But afterwards, one of my kids said that maybe we could gently work a kid dressed as a zombie into the next Halloween comic. But I still think that might be too scary for the younger readers.
It was a great school. It had 60 kids, and every single one of them knew about Daisy Dreamer and had read some of the comics. They had fantastic questions.
One of the things I love most about visiting schools is answering questions. There are some questions that come up almost every single time. But at UMCS, I heard some new ones. A girl in grade 6 wanted advice on where to look for publishing opportunities, because she loves to write. And a boy asked me if I could write a Daisy that involves zombies. Maybe she could become a zombie, or fight zombies.
I often get requests for animals Daisy should turn into. But zombies? That was the first time I'd heard that suggestion. Of course, I answered that zombies weren't really appropriate for the comic. But afterwards, one of my kids said that maybe we could gently work a kid dressed as a zombie into the next Halloween comic. But I still think that might be too scary for the younger readers.
Labels: Daisy Dreamer, Writers in Schools, Writing Comics
¶ 10:32 AM 0 comments