How big is YOUR imagination? Penny from Cowgirls Don't Ride Zebras knows how to stretch her imagination to have tons of fun! And now that it's summer and school is out, what are ways you can stretch and strengthen your child's (and your own) imagination, and have a BLAST?

​Yes, it’s summer, but books, like bowties and fezzes, are very cool. Try one you didn’t know existed. Did you know there are 14 books about the Land of Oz? Or, grab one that’s been on your shelf for years, but you just haven’t gotten to it!

​My son, Jack, loves these Create a Story Cards. Come up with your own story based only on the pictures of the cards. Shuffle the cards and the story completely changes! Take turns adding to the story, or let one person take center stage.

​The zoo! The characters of Cowgirls Don’t Ride Zebras travelled there for inspiration, why don’t you? Ask an employee questions and actually read all those things posted about the animals.

​Bust out the headphones and listen to some Mozart, Beethoven, Philip Glass, Danny Elfman, Ludovico Einaudi, Hans Zimmer, or your favorite film score. Make sure it’s instrumental. What do you hear? What patterns? What themes? How does it make you feel?

​Yes, I am advocating for writing fan fiction! Did you just see a big, summer blockbuster? Why not test your skills and write the sequel? What happens next? Who do the characters meet? 

Penny's friend Cassandra made a cowgirl hat out of newspaper. Dig out some old clothes and put together a fun, silly outfit! Find a paper bag and some construction paper and become your favorite animal! 

​Paint, draw, just create some art! Sidewalk chalk? Yes, please! Do you have a whole bunch of magazines or newspapers to get rid of? It’s collage time! Cut them up and make something interesting!

​Take a walk, pull out your phone or your camera, and shoot some pictures. Take some close ups, take shots of walls and patterns you see, take some action shots, and see your neighborhood or city from a new perspective.

M​ove to the music! Dance like no one is watching! Can you move slow? Can you move fast? Can you dance with just your arms? Just your hands? Can you dance like an animal? How does a polar bear dance? Are there dance classes in your area?

​Live theatre hits you on so many different levels. There’s nothing like it. Check out a theatre for families and young audiences in your area. See what your local theatres are doing and go!

​Change is upon my family. I got a new day job. My wife got a new day job. My son starts preschool in under two weeks. Change is very, very much upon us. And it’s okay. Things are going really well. 

Work continues on Cowgirls Don’t Ride Zebras, in fact, I can announce that all the artwork for the book is finished! Here’s the proof!

I only need to create a cover image and work on the layout. I may also go in and make some edits to the text as well. Every time I am removed from the text for a time, I return to it and seem to cut and refine it more and more. That’s not a bad thing by any means. It’s evolving. It’s the first time I’ve created a children’s book, so I’m learning as I go. The idea for the book started very, very simply. There was very little narrative. When it became a play, I needed to flesh out the narrative. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with the narrative and the dialogue and the characterizations from the play, but they all can’t fit in the form of the children’s book. I’ve cut a lot out as I’ve turned the play into the children’s book. It’s getting closer and closer to the simple, non-narrative version from before. I may create a version of the book that is fully the early version and see what happens. Will I like it? I’m not sure. But I can try it.

I’ve been having an amazingly satisfying and frustrating time getting my artist hand back. I even had an injured shoulder from drawing... I was sitting on the couch, drawing for far too long in a position I shouldn’t have been drawing in. But I’m fine. The shoulder’s fine. I found my workflow, which was basically figuring out what apps and settings and brushes and colors I wanted to use. In the end, I chose Procreate, which allowed for the precise HEX colors for the characters, saving the color palette, and for easy rotation of the drawings as I went. It was perfect for “inking.” I still created the sketches in the app Sketches Pro. I just like the ease of it for getting an idea out onto the page. It feels most like my drawing book and less like an app. The less I put between myself and the creation, the better. The same can be said for writing apps. I have a hard enough time with writing, I don’t need an app to get in my way. That’s why I use Highland for my playwriting. It’s about getting text onto my computer. It’s clean and simple. And they didn’t pay me to say that.

I’m looking forward to finishing up Cowgirls, so I can concentrate on my musical. I want to get back into telling complicated stories and figuring out the story puzzle. It’s been wonderful to be so immersed in art, but my playwright self is really chomping at the bit.

In other news, auditions for the play version of Cowgirls Don’t Ride Zebras are taking place in Columbus in a couple of weeks!

Keep working and, as always, be excellent to each other.