From the Pages of Mini-Di: First Work of Fiction

 

And here she is, folks. My first protagonist, created and lovingly illustrated when I was six – twenty-seven years ago. (The rough draft is dated Nov. ’84.)  Big thanks to my dad, for saving these pages for all this time, and then scanning them for me with such care.

I give you…

Rainy Day Cindy.

This is the front and back cover.

I was very disappointed when my mom told me it was the publisher who is supposed to write the blurb on the back of the book. I thought this dynamic hook was the best part! Who could possibly resist reading this now?? And hey – I’ve redeemed my six-year-old self: I AM the publisher.

Rainy Day endpapers.

And Title Page. It seems I was a very thorough little kid.

And… dedication. I owed those cats my success. (But his name was actually spelled “Arthur”.)

Thunder says “BOOM BOOM”. Or maybe that’s Cindy’s giant mouth saying that.

Remember how hard it is to draw hands when you’re a kid? TOO MANY FINGERS!

You’ll notice her hair shrank in the rain.

If one of my six-year-old students drew this picture, I’d tell her to go back and fill in those white spaces in the colouring. Tsk tsk.

Yikes… I can’t tell if she’s wearing pants or not!!

She’s always on the go! See? She’s swinging her feet while she watches rain patterns. Try and keep up with the action.

This plot is off the hook!!

I love how she’s so huge, like a linebacker. And Daddy only has one tiny arm, in an inappropriate place, and some swirly Elvis-hair.

That’s Cup-A-Soup, by the way.

I’m pretty sure I gave up on using a ruler for those text boxes after the first three pages. But the bunny slippers make up for it.

I’m not sure what I meant by “a girl like Cindy”… I think I wanted her to be adventurous. Boy, did she play with that doll! Like crazy!

[Oddly enough, in the rough copy, I did not put the apostrophe in “its head”.]

I never broke a doll’s head as a child… but my Gramma Sue did have a doll with a breakable head at her house in Texas. We didn’t play with that doll, but we got to hold her reverently. I guess that proves that Cindy IS pretty intrepid, playing with her breakable doll. Good thing Daddy is magical.

That WAS a big day! Almost as big as that other one (with the rain and the window and the TV)!

And there you have PART 1. I hate to leave you at a cliffhanger like this… but I’m afraid you will have to stay tuned for Part 2: the exciting conclusion!

***

[subscribe2]