Blue Beach Cap
An illustrated story of transitions.
Like my favorite stories, Blue Beach Cap is fun for both children and adults.
It was in my head for 15 or more years before it took a form I could write.
The core idea: having a repeated dream at night that gradually becomes more real than your waking life, until you live in the dream and don’t return. Then, having a new and different dream about an altogether different place, which becomes your next real world.
People say that readers become writers.
From the time I could read, stories absorbed me.
In time, I formed a sense of a story I couldn’t find anywhere.
I dreamed of a cabin in the woods where I could write that story without distractions.
That never happened.
Instead, amidst a life filled with distractions, stories came to find me from time to time.
I love this story just all by itself. It could be presented in black type on a white background and I would be happy to share it.
These beautiful illustrations give the story a presence it doesn’t have just in type.
When we approach illustrating a new story, Julie always asks, “What do you want?” and I always say, “I want you to illustrate what comes to mind when you read the story.”
Whenever I work with an artist or graphic designer, they always produce something better than whatever I thought to ask. Working with Julie, I just let her start with her own ideas, and I always love the results!
One of her ideas with this story is a separate story-within-the-story that plays out on the right-facing text page (the restrictions of ebook formatting haven’t allowed us to include them there).
The illustrations on the Chapter pages come from Michael Grimes’ interpretation of my fondness for carpet pages in Medieval books. Michael found elements from each Chapter’s illustrations to use as a theme for a repeating pattern. I love them, too!
I hope you enjoy the story in its entirety, and that you think about the transitions in your life – past, present, and yet to come.
I hope you enjoy the book.