Espejos y Sombreros

It all started with a dream. I was sitting on the passengers seat of my grandfather's car. 

The streets were deserted. There was no wind; not even a breeze. Nothing was moving except for us.  

Without saying a word he turned to me and pointed at my jacket.  I noticed I was wearing a jean jacket. In my dream I knew I was dreaming, and I wished he would talk to me.

I miss him. 

I looked inside the inner pocket and found one of those half used hotel notepads and a beaten, maybe even chewed up,  blue "bic" pen.  

He stopped the car and made a sign for me to get out. I opened the door and stood outside while the car and my grandfather got gradually smaller until they were finally swallowed by the horizon. 

I immediately woke up and the first thing I did was write. 

I didn't stop until it was finished.  

Out of the original 13 stories, only 11 made it to print.  They are written in rhyme in Spanish. They are stories of adventures and fantasies, of ghosts, invisible friends, magic trains, fires and witches, cook books and aliens and so much more.   They are stories that remind you  that imagination is the beginning of all things; that imagination is a real power  that we should believe in, because if we do, we'll see that the "impossible" can actually happen and that our thoughts and beliefs are the main factor in giving shape to our lives.

Do what you want to do. 

It's the single most logical yet, at the same time, probably the hardest thing to do.

I think of this little accomplishment as a work of love. It was written on the summer of 2007 and it's finally out on 2011. It's currently out only on selected bookstores, being "Dark Delicacies" in Burbank, CA, my favorite of them all. I do not have a distributor and not knowing agents, editors and the like has definitively made it harder. 

Nevertheless it's slowly, but steadily finding new homes. 

I don't intend to make a huge profit out of it, but I'd love to make enough to keep the machine moving that can allow me to print more. A full novel is next. I hope this little book will help it "happen"!!!

If you are curious about the animation. It was made by individual hand/pencil drawings. Each panel is a different one and the background is a paper cut out.  It took quite a bit of time but as with most things, you wonder what the heck you are doing until you are done and once it's done it feels good. I wanted an animation for a little promo that could show the mood of what you read. It's innocent and almost naive but there's a lot more than just that. 

If you would like a copy of the book, please let me know.. They go for only USD $15, which is the price of one drink in a lot of bars !!!!  I'm somewhat technology illiterate, but I'm working on setting up ways of making it more accessible. If you have comments and suggestions, please share them. I'd love to hear them.   

(spanish version of this post next).

La imaginación tiene poder.... real.  

Sol

Mi abuelo estuvo en mi último sueño.

Yo me sentaba en el asiento de acompañante mientras él manejaba.

Me hizo fijarme en el bolsillo interno de mi campera. Había una libreta de esas de hotel y una lapicera de tinta azul con  el plástico opacado de tanto uso.

Frenó y me hizo bajar. Vi como el auto se hacía cada vez más chiquito hasta desaparecer.

Cuando abrí los ojos lo primero que hice fue escribir.