Jim Richard's Blog: The World of Blue Bink

Biography

Jim Richard is the author and illustrator of the Blue Bink book series. Currently, his titles include: Blue Bink Likes to Think - Colors, Yellow Yay Likes to Play - Shapes, and Red Rinn Likes to Imagine - Letters. He is now working on his fourth book, Green Gern Likes to Learn - Numbers. All titles are self-published under the name Blue Bink Books which he founded in 2011.

Jim has set out to create a series of books that will educate kids and inspire them to think, play, imagine, learn, dream and believe. These are the core qualities embodied in his cast of characters.

"I wanted to be a cartoonist and an author when I was a kid. When I was somewhere between 8 and 10 years old, I decided that I wasn't a good enough artist or story-teller. I gave up on the idea for about 30 years. After the birth of our kids, I started dreaming of writing books for them but had no ideas for years.

"One day at work, the words 'Blue Bink likes to think' came into my head and I immediately felt that I could make a story around those words. The next day on my lunch break, I wrote the first draft of Blue Bink Likes to Think - Colors. Still doubting my skills as an artist, I contemplated who I might ask to do the illustrations.

"I made a hand-drawn version of the book with the illustrations I imagined. It was very rough, but it led me to experimenting on the computer with a drawing program. Within a few days, I developed a style of drawing the outline of my characters and adding their color with scans of papers I had covered with crayon. I was happy with the face I made of Blue Bink and I was off and running with the illustrations. A year later, I held in my hand the printed copy of my first book!

"Besides the subjects of my books - colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc., I want to teach kids that if I can make something of my dream, it's possible for them to do likewise. I gave up on my dream for three decades and yet I finally came back around to it and made a go of it!"

Jim currently resides in Castaic, California with his wife, Jennifer, son, Ethan, and daughter, Miranda. His dream continues to be to write more books that educate and inspire and to spend as much time as possible with his family. No longer ignoring his dream, he now pursues it with all his ability.

Yellow Yay Likes to Play - Shapes

"Y" from yellow and "ay" from play! This character is based on my daughter, Miranda, whose favorite color is yellow and who truly will "play all day if she has her way!"

I just published Yellow Yay Likes to Play - Shapes earlier this month. In it, Yellow Yay and her friends set out to find shapes in the games they play. Six basic shapes are introduced; then, examples are given; and finally, there are two pages of review in which kids can practice finding these, as well as more advanced, shapes! It is available on createspace and on amazon just in time for your holiday shopping!

Blue Bink Likes to Think - Colors

My first book, Blue Bink Likes to Think - Colors was published December 1, 2012. It was a year in the making. The words "Blue Bink likes to think" came into my head on December 1, 2011. I wrote the rough draft the next day but spent several months doing the illustrations.

Bink (and the other three main characters) get their names from their color and their attribute. "B" from blue and "ink" from think gives us "Bink".

I've been hoping to cover as many subjects as possible with my books. With my first few books, I decided to cover some basic pre-school / kindergarten topics of which colors was the first. I planned to cover shapes, letters and numbers if I could write three more books and, so far, I've written two more (and I've just started working on the last).

I've still got to decide on a subject for Bink to think about next. Any ideas?

Philosophy of Blue Bink Books

Hello everyone - thanks for visiting my blog! I'd like to introduce myself to those who don't know me yet - my name is Jim Richard and I am the author/illustrator/publisher of the Blue Bink book series. (I'll introduce each book in future posts.)

My goal is to create books that will educate and inspire kids. And, hopefully, entertain them along the way!

I've created a colorful cast of characters - they each embody a core quality I want to promote. Those qualities are "Think! Play! Imagine! Learn! Dream! and Believe!"