I’m told the broadcast is scheduled for Friday, April 15 on channel 12345-Z-Niner. Check your local listings.

You don’t get that channel? My apologies. It’s also playing in-school and will be available online. On the World Wide Web. The Internets. Did you hear that you can get them on computers now? It’s true. We live in truly amazing times.

A big thank you to the 3rd grade teachers and students at Merton! You know who you are.

They’ve been kind enough to carry Michael Marvin Mump, Clean Up This Dump!, and I thank them for that.

Now go support your local bookstore.  Please.  You’ll feel good about it.

READ, ROCK N’ ROLL, DOODZ!

BUY MICHAEL MARVIN MUMP AT AMAZON.COM

BUY MICHAEL MARVIN MUMP AT BN.COM

BUY MICHAEL MARVIN MUMP AT XLIBRIS.COM

The book had subtle differences from the books I had received before.  The colors and paper stock were ever so slightly different.

I was a little confused.

A few minutes later I received an email from Xlibris letting me know that I would be receiving an author proof to review and approve prior to my book being available on Amazon.com, BN.com, other websites and even bookstores.

Wahoo!  The long wait is finally over. Well, it’ll soon be over.  I hope.

I’m not talking about editing.  Editing a current project is important and difficult work.  I’m talking about revisiting a completed project and deciding to rework it based on your current knowledge and current technology.

Watch the “making of” video for Star Wars: A New Hope and you’ll see how hard George Lucas had to fight to bring his vision to cinemas worldwide.  The original films weren’t perfect.  Some of the beauty of the original films is their grit, creativity, sparse technical effects and playfulness.  The films became instant blockbusters.

The problem with the reworked films is George Lucas changed them too much.  He added more special effects.  Where you once saw 3 storm troopers, Lucas added 50 more.  Mos Eisley was originally a desolate outpost, so he added citizens, vehicles, more storm troopers and more space ships.  Worst of all, he fundamentally changed at least one character: he made Greedo fire first, when we all know Han shot first.  So, Lucas erases Han’s murder of Greedo by showing him acting instead in self-defense.  Han is no longer a real anti-hero to Luke’s hero, now he’s just a poser.

Yes, reworking the films was a big mistake.

A finished project should be appreciated for what it is and nothing more.  No tinkering, reworking or messing around with something that’s already complete.  It was created at a special moment in time, and you’ll never be in that moment again.  If you try to rework a project, you’ll bring new experiences, emotions and ideas to it that will warp your original vision.

So, don’t even think about reworking that completed project.

Drop it in the sea like a note in a bottle.

Sure, you can watch it bob in the waves for a while and imagine who’ll find and read the note found inside.

But then go find another empty bottle, write another note and throw it in the sea.

And then do it again.

With shrinking attention spans and an overwhelming flood of information and entertainment constantly available to us, it’s important every so often to turn it all off and find some time to spend with real people, real books and real artistic pursuits.  Otherwise, you risk becoming a chronic consumer rather than a producer.

Not every book needs to be a content-saturated multi-media digital gateway.  No, I’m not some Luddite.  I have no problem with e-books and gadgets like the Kindle, Nook or upcoming iPad.  I believe these gadgets represent the natural progression of books in general.  However, I fear that digital children’s books will be nothing more than little electronic baby-sitters.  The examples of children’s books for the iPad I saw pre-release were gimmicky and similar to Baby Einstein videos.  More recent examples of children’s books for the iPad, like the Alice example, are more promising.

Children’s books aren’t merely books for kids.  Children’s books bring parents and kids together for critical bonding time, and teach kids about reading, writing, life lessons and much more.

Children’s books help build a foundation for life-long learning and discovery.  Children’s books spark the imagination.  And that spark doesn’t necessarily need a rechargeable battery.

I want children’s e-books to become something amazing.  Perhaps as gadgets like the iPad become more commonplace, we’ll see the development of more thoughtful and fantastic children’s e-books.

The traditional path to being a published writer or illustrator is to send your manuscript to far away, faceless and often nameless editors at the big publishing houses and to await a reply.  The reply often takes as little as 6 weeks and as much as 6 months.  And, the reply is typically an impersonal form letter pumped out by a machine.

An entire industry has built up around the publishing process.  You can use much the same path as with the publishing houses to getting picked up by an agent who will then sell you to the big publishing houses and handle all the details of contracts, payments, rights, etc.  Being noticed and picked up by an agent is also an arduous process.  And, a simple search on Amazon for “getting published” or something similar will show you the hundreds and hundreds of guide books available to teach you all about how to get published–how to write an inquiry letter, how to create your manuscript, how to send a book dummy, whether or not to include a self-addressed envelope and so on.

It’s a time-consuming and frustrating process.

The stories of now famous writers being rejected over and over by the big publishers are famous as well.  Dr. Seuss was rejected more than 32 times before he was finally published for the first time.  J.K. Rowling nearly gave up on her dream of being a published writer after receiving nothing but rejections for Harry Potter.

I once read that you’re  not a real writer until you can wallpaper a room in your home (or at least a wall) with your rejection letters.

I tried the traditional route to getting published.  For a few years.  It ate up a lot of time and emotion.  I read the “get published now” books, and the numerous online “get published” resources.  I sent more letters and manuscripts than I can count.  I received more rejection letters than I care to remember.

One day I finally asked myself why I was playing by the traditional rules of getting published when my approach to life has never been to play by someone else’s rules.

The answer was that self-publishing didn’t seem legit.  Pay someone to publish my book?  No way.

So, I stopped trying to get published for a few years.  I shelved my completed stories and hardly worked on new ones.  I also believed I would never self-publish.

Then one day I decided that life is too short to wait for someone else to decide if my book should be published.  Just look at how many professionals passed on publishing Harry Potter!  If I want to get published, then why not do it myself?

So I did.  And I’ll do it again and again and again if necessary.

Do I want to get signed by a big publisher?  Of course!  That would be a dream come true.

Do I want to have an agent?  Yes, of course!  Why not?

But, I want to get there my way.

I recognized a bunch of the artists including S. britt and Julia Sonmi Heglund, a fellow Wisconsinite.  The site features 15 artists who each chose a book to illustrate based on how their interpretation of the text.  Each month will feature new installments from the artists.

I’m looking forward to seeing how each artist will add their own style and imagination to stories that have previously been illustrated by one or more other artists.  In fact, some of the books, like Peter Pan, have spawned countless book versions and movies over the years.  Some of the artists are also including “behind the scenes” views into their process on their own blog.

It’s fascinating that you could give these 15 artists the same book and they would create 15 wildly different artistic interpretations of the text.

I would love to conduct this experiment one day: write a book, invite X number of artists to create the illustrations, and publish all the versions at the same time.  I think it would be an amazing experience.

I’ve always admired the pure creativity and artistic talent of children.  Kids draw and paint without worrying about their art being good or recognizable, because they KNOW it’s good and they know EXACTLY what they created.

Why not have a children’s book illustrated by a child?  And no, not one of those books that sorta looks like it was drawn by a kid when it was actually drawn by a middle-aged professional artist to look like it was drawn by a kid.  I’m talking about a real kid.  My kid.

I can tell you that I will never forget the time we spent together discussing the story and what she needed to illustrate, the process of finalizing the story and drawings, and the moment we received the completed book.  It was amazing.  I plan to have each of my kids illustrate a book.

So, if it looks like a kid illustrated this book… you’re absolutely right.  That’s exactly what I wanted.

Is it because Groundhog Day jumps in right after the crush of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years?

Is Groundhog Day overshadowed (there’s a pun there somewhere) by the Super Bowl and the preceding festivities and media blitz?

Is it because Groundhog Day falls about halfway through a long winter?

Is it because Groundhog Day starts off a month that seems to boast one too many letter Rs and doesn’t have enough days to be a real month?

Is it because the groundhog is a glorified rat?  Or because it’s fat?

Whatever the reason, Groundhog Day deserves much more attention and definitely much more celebration.  Yes, of course, there’s the Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day, but a movie, even a really funny one, isn’t enough.

We need Groundhog Day sales at stores, Groundhog Day groundhog costumes, Groundhog Day parades, Groundhog Day decorations (groundhog-shaped strings of lights, window clings, stickers, buttons, hats, shirts, posters, and furry brown Groundhog Day garland), Groundhog Day greeting cards, a tradition of wearing brown on Groundhog Day (like wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day), Groundhog Day parties, traditional Groundhog Day food, drinks, desserts, Groundhog shaped sugar cookies, and finally, of course, the cherished family tradition where moms and dads everywhere, on Groundhog Day Eve, dress up in their groundhog costume, drink the traditional Groundhog Day drink, dig a hole in the backyard, climb in, and just after sunrise, with the whole family gathered around, jump out and decide whether they see their shadow or not.  (A note to moms and dads in colder climates: you may want to take several servings of your Groundhog Day drink with you in the hole and/or dress in layers.  It’s gonna be a long, cold night.)  If there are 6 more weeks of winter, then the family has a breakfast of cold cereal and milk.  If winter will end soon, then let the Groundhog Day hot breakfast feast begin!

Yes, I’ll admit it… Groundhog Day took me by surprise this year again.  But I won’t let that happen next year.

Groundhog Day 2011 is the beginning of something big.  And brown.  And fun.