I thought it would be a treat to share one of the drawings as they reach their final stage.

There is a page in the book where Steven is asked “Which part of the chicken is the nugget?” A question I’m sure we all asked ourselves at some point, whether seriously, or humorously. (Is that a word?)

Here is the sketch Ron did for the page.

And here is the (near) finished color version of the sketch.

Pretty cool huh? I can’t tell you how great it is to see a story come to life… even if it is 2D.

Part of writing a convincing story is research. I wanted to research farm sanctuaries and find out more about them. That led me to the Kindred Spirits Sanctuary in Ocala, Florida. The Sanctuary encompasses 36 beautiful acres. There are about  150 sanctuary residents. The animals living there are called residents, because that’s what they are. The residents receive around-the-clock care, carefully controlled diets, spacious barns, and green pastures to graze.

I am planning a visit to the sanctuary very soon, and hope to meet some of these amazing residents. According to the care taker, each of the residents has a unique personality, and their special needs are seen to. I cannot wait to get there and meet some of the residents.

Sometime research can be fun! Check out The Kindred Spirits Sanctuary and learn about some of their residents.

Eartha’s web site is primarily geared toward the book and free coloring pages, whereas Steven’s web site will be a blog. The blog will include recipes, and interesting information on a vegan lifestyle. Many people do not know the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian. Some believe that vegan is a shorter word variation for vegetarian. I assure you it is not.

Steven’s book was inspired by the notion that young kids today will have a hard time explaining to their peers the concept of a vegan. Additionally, kids are finicky eaters. I am going to focus on kid-friendly vegan recipes, including vegan mac & cheese, sandwich wraps and more.

I have recently signed up with Kitchen Monki, an online resource for sharing recipes, planning meals and more. I will be embedding the recipes I put there on Steven’s web site.I am also teaming up with Meatless Monday to promote a monday meal, without meat. All the meals can be made by anyone. Whenever possible I will include links to where people can purchase the ingredient, but in most cases local grocery stores will have them.

Of course the site will also serve as a way to promote the upcoming book. I feel these affiliation will assist with the marketing of the book. We’ll find out in due time.

Links : Kitchen Monki, Meatless Monday, Spoon Graphics

In high school, Ron and I created a computer animated cartoon and won the Art Contest that year. Ron drew the characters on graph paper, and I recreated them pixel by pixel on an old Apple IIe using a program called Take II. Each frame was custom drawn, and edited. I can’t remember how long it took us, but it only lasted about twenty seconds, and that included a commercial interruption.

After high school, Ron and I lost touch. We occasionally were able to reach each other, and I learned he was doing caricatures for Disney in Orlando. I had already hired an illustrator for “The Tale of Eartha the Sea Turtle” when I found him on Facebook.com. I sent him a PDF of the book, and asked him to “draw” Eartha. Of course, he nailed it. He created some illustrations for the web site, and I knew he would be illustrating my next book.

We bounced some ideas around. Ron has some characters he already has created that we are looking into putting into print. My latest book, Steven the Vegan, is what he is illustrating now. I described Steven to him, and BAM again, he nailed it. Below is a sample sketch of what some of the illustrations will look like. I am extremely glad to be working with Ron on this, and hope to be working with him for a long, long time.

Not to be outdone by George Lucas, both Eartha the Sea Turtle and Steven the Vegan are on Twitter.

@EarthaSeaTurtle

@SteventheVegan

@danbodenstein <– Me!

I tend to post stuff about technology, computers, photography, green and earth-friendly things, and more.

Eartha tends to tweet about sea turtle stories in the news and other sea turtle bloggers.

Steven tends to tweet about vegan recipes, stories about vegans, and other vegetable related things.

So add any of us as a friend, and see what were up to.

Here is a preliminary drawing of Steven from the upcoming book, Steven the Vegan. Steven will be joined by several classmates. As progress continues, I will post updates here. Very excited for this book, and to be working with my long time friend, Ron.