Dance of the Butterfly

The idea for this story began, as many of my tales do, from my dreams, two in particular, though a third joined at a later date.  I wrote them down, then left them alone for some time.  I was later having a conversation with my son about comic and anime conventions.  We expressed an interest in going, but neither of us are close to expert in either category.  We enjoy things in those vast genres, of course, but our knowledge was far from complete.  We also wanted to see what offerings may be had at a convention as well as viewing all the wonderfully crafted outfits made by cosplayers.  I have a particular appreciation for the amazingly well done costumes.  I can only imagine the amount of effort that goes into them.

This got us talking of garb for ourselves.  We both mentioned we’d prefer to go dressed up, but we really had no idea what characters to choose or how to go about it.  I even mentioned buying costumes or even having them commissioned.  I then made mention of how funny it would be if there were a comic or graphic novel that had characters based on us, then dressing up for a convention would be all the easier.  We had a nice laugh at this, but it got the wheels to turning.

I re-visited the idea from my dreams, seeing how easily I could craft it into something that drew similarities from my son and myself.  I did some research on comic script writing, as I had never tried this before, and I got to work.  It did not go well.  I found the conceptualization and formatting got in the way of my flow, and I was only able to write one chapter before the effort was put aside.  On another visit, I realized that writing novels was obviously more my thing, so I decided to attempt to first write it as such, then see about a comic script at a later date.  I got a bit further, but the effort still faltered.

Then I met someone to whom I owe much of the success of writing the novel.  She helped me in an unwitting fashion, re-igniting the flame of interest and inspiration for the idea.  I modified the concept and story a bit, moved the already written scene to open the second book (which has now been completed), and began in earnest.  She offered me consultation from her own experience as well as encouragement, ideas, beta-reading, editing, you name it.  She helped me to lend a great deal of realism to certain parts as well as offering a female perspective to the crafting of the central character.  Invaluable.  I don’t think it would have happened without her, and if it had, it would not have been as well done.

So, there it is.  That is how the story came about and then how it was further developed and written.  It was an incredibly fun journey, and though the start took a long time, once into it, I wrote the novel in record time.  Book Two was the same.  Though polishing is still in the works, both were written in a year.  I have never been so productive.

I offer endless thanks to my friend, though being humble, she often discounts the real impact of her contribution.  I hope you all enjoy the story.