It's almost halfway through October and I'm winding down my time in Berlin. This city is so beautiful in the fall - massive trees with leaves scattering on the cobblestone (real cobblestone!) Kindergarten kids being ferried to and fro in little kiddie karts. It seems very German because the teachers peddle groups of 5 or 6 kids through the streets. Back in Canada there would be rules about helmets or capacity and the kids would have to be piled into a city bus.
As many times as I've been to Berlin I still love this city. I'm going to be sorry to come home. But don't feel too bad for me, I love Vancouver so I'll get over it pretty quick.
I've had the good fortune to be able to do some work on my book that takes place here (in Tiergarten, the Stanley Park of Berlin.) There's something pretty special about being able to work on a project in the location it takes place.
And of course being somewhere new can stimulate the creative juices. I've got seeds for a few book ideas but the only way to see if they will really turn into anything (or at least the way I work) is to put them aside for a bit. I wonder how other freelancers work. My technique is a rotation of delving into new possibilities, followed by storing those away while I work on current projects. And the cycle goes on. The trick is to always have 3 burners going: one on the boil, one simmering and one you're out at the market gathering ingredients to see what you can make - which is clearly not a burner. I seem to have mixed my metaphors again.
I've been having fun working on a couple of Apps too - something very new for me. These are math apps for young kids. I guess you could say I did a bit of animation but it's very simple. So let's just say, inching my way into the world of Apps.
This is from the Tiergarten book, out next year with Groundwood.
This is from 'Eggstravagant!' the new App written by the lovely Lori Sherritt-Fleming for the TV entertainment company, GAPC.
And this is another cartoon for the orange menace below. I do have to give credit to Mr. Trump - he has given cartoonists and illustrators no end of new ideas just by being himself. If only he weren't a real danger it would be amusing.
