Justin Christopher's Blog, page 2

When parenting is a pain in the butt!

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My dog taught me how to draw

My dog is a pain in the butt, but I love him.

I love him because he’s instantly become a part of our family. Growing up, we always had a dog in our house, (RIP Holly, Amber and Charlie), but I’ve never owned one myself.

Another thing that occupied my time growing up was cartooning. My sister and I never stopped, all mum had to do when she wanted a cask of wine at the neighbours was to supply us with a pen and paper. We’d lie on our stomachs on the carpet and create. We never stopped. Only, over time, I did.

It’s often said that we revert to doing what we did as kids. For me, that was cartoons. My dog Cooper is teaching me how to do it properly. You’ll get to meet him on his new Insta page. Woof!

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Are you a keen reader? Do you like free books?

 

Good news wonderful readers.

From March 4th 2021 my book The Underers ebook will be absolutely free – click here for your copy. 

Here’s a sneak peek about the story from a reader named Cheryl:

‘A young girl finds courage and strength 101 steps below her family home. The beast of bullying is defeated, one adventurous step at a time. The Underers delivers a fine message for ALL ages – often in life the things we fear or worry about never come true.’

Please remember to leave a review on Amazon so other readers can discover The Underers!

Enjoy!

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The day R2D2 threw me into a trash can

One of my favourite interviews in my radio career was with Kenny Baker, otherwise known as R2D2.

Kenny was a circus and cabaret performer before a phone call came from George Lucas in 1977 that would change his life. Who knew there were two R2s? In the original Star Wars films, there were two models, one that was remote controlled and rolled on three-wheeled legs, and another which was worn by Kenny and walked on two legs.

Most interviews have at least one awkward moment and the one with Mr Baker came when he asked if I might lift him onto a chair in the studio. It should be said the chairs we use for radio are relatively high, especially if you are 3 foot 8 inches. I thought lifting Kenny might be similar to lifting a toddler. Wrong. I gingerly put my hands underneath the armpits of a 76-year-old sweaty, muscular man and hoisted him onto the seat. He laughed and gave out a satisfying grunt. What a gentleman he was.

‘Kenny, could we have a quick photo before you leave?’

‘Great, you jump in the wheely bin.’

‘Ah…sure.’

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This little shop was the inspiration for my first children’s novel

 

In my children’s novel My Best Worst Year, the main character Toby often visits his grandma in her second-hand shop named ‘Junk and Disorderly.’ The inspiration for this came from a nearby shoe repair store, whose owners told banks on either side to bugger off when they wanted to bowl its premises. The grandma in my novel finds herself in a similar situation as told by Toby in chapter two:

Today I went to visit my grandma. She owns a shop on the main street in the middle of town called ‘Junk and Disorderly’. It sells really old things, like paintings and chairs and tables you normally only see in old photos. But she’s also got cool stuff, like a wind-up monkey with wheels instead of feet, and lots of medals from the war. There’s a medal in a locked cabinet no one is allowed to touch, not even me. It’s a shiny gold five-pointed star with a red-and-blue ribbon. It has a ‘GRI’ written on it in big curly writing, and ‘The African Star’ in eeny-weeny writing. Grandma told me the medal is worth a lot of money. Every time I visit I go straight to that cabinet and look at the medal. It’s almost my favourite thing in the shop, apart from the pinball machine with lots of girls with no clothes on.

You can read the first few chapters right here!

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When you accidentally meet the main character from your novel

 

I was walking along Ponsonby Road in Auckland on a beautiful morning when I ran into an old mate with his ten-year-old son. Here was a kid dressed in a Manchester United shirt, with accompanying NZ Warriors shorts. He was a cool kid: funny and full of life, with mannerisms that seemed oddly familiar.

Then it clicked.

As we stood there in the sun, my mate apparently told me what he’d been up to over Xmas. I say apparently because I struggled to focus on a word he said, mainly because the main character I’d been working on for the past two years, the guy who had lived inside my head all that time, was standing right in front of me in a Manchester United shirt. If I was a casting director for ‘My Best Worst Year’ the movie, I would have chosen this kid right away. Of course, I tried to relay this to my mate. Not surprisingly, he failed to catch my enthusiasm. It was all so freaky. Even more so – the kid’s name was Toby, the same as my main character. I took all this as a good sign – though given the similarities – wondered if this new novel is fiction at all.

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Dr Seuss was right – your first draft always stinks!

Here’s a little story to prove it. In 1964, Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was published in the UK. It took over two years to write and underwent multiple transformations. Originally there were ten kids – in the end Dahl settled for five. There was no mention of Grandpa Joe, and until the very last minute, oompa loompas were called Whipple Scrumpets.

The original title was ‘Charlie’s Chocolate Boy,’ mostly because in this version Charlie Bucket climbs into a ‘chocolate boy’ mould in the Easter Egg room and is encased in chocolate. He is taken to Mr. Wonka’s house as a present for Freddie Wonka (Mr. Wonka’s son) and while there, Charlie witnesses a burglary. As a reward for helping to catch the thieves, Mr. Wonka gives him his own sweet shop, ‘Charlie’s Chocolate Shop.’

Also in the original manuscript, ten golden tickets were hidden in the Wonka chocolate bars every week. Mr. Wonka gave a tour of his factory every Saturday to that week’s lucky recipients. In this draft, Charlie finds a ticket on his first attempt. The other nine children on the tour are not introduced to the reader until they meet their respective ends. Everything stinks till it’s finished.

Things change. New characters appear.
Have no fear. Just get it on the page!

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Thanks Glenn for a wonderful review of Freakout Island!

FREAKOUT ISLAND – ‘It’s Disneyland gone wrong!’

A crazy fun-filled adventure, full of vivid descriptions and interesting characters. The kids encounter their worst nightmares on what was supposed to be the holiday of their dreams. Complete with nasty baddies, weird obstacles to overcome, dangerous critters and a bit of magic. Funny and fun. Recommended for middle school kids. Above is the paperback version with a new back cover of Freakout Island, more details about where you can get the book are HERE!

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The day my teacher achieved the impossible

I remember being at school and having to write a thesis from one of William Shakespeare’s plays. At the time I thought there couldn’t have been anything more boring. There were FAR cooler things to do, like play with my radio controlled car, or play football, or watch TV. Luckily we had an amazing teacher at Kapiti College named Mrs Palmer, who somehow brought these very old stories to life. She made Shakespeare interesting, and because of this, we were sucked into happily doing our homework. I now have a huge admiration for Shakespeare and Mrs Palmer.

Here is a link to an article written in the Guardian by Deborah Patterson titled ‘Top 10 tips on how to write like William Shakespeare.’ And below you’ll find some examples:

1 – Have fun with language. Many words and phrases that are in common usage today can trace their origins back to Shakespeare, so feel free to invent words and create new phrases. You may even come up with the next “The world’s mine oyster”, or “green-eyed monster”.

2 – Write a love story. Like Shakespeare, you’ll have endless themes of love to choose from. Forbidden love is a popular choice, but there’s also jealous love, love-sickness, unrequited love, luckiness in love, or, worst of all, ‘death-mark’d love’ as suffered by Romeo and Juliet. As Shakespeare wrote in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “The course of true love never did run smooth”, so your love story could have as many plot twists as you like.

3 – If you would like to add a darker tone to your tale, consider including a ghost in your cast of characters. The ghost of Hamlet’s father was given a voice, and he used that voice to reveal the identity of his murderer to his son. The ghost of Banquo was silent but was used to great effect in Macbeth, increasing Macbeth’s growing sense of madness.

4 – To write a Shakespearean comic tale you will need to put one or more of your characters in disguise. Sometimes only a single scene using disguise is enough, a masked ball for example, but you could choose to lead your plot with the main character who is permanently concealing her identity.

I hope you learn like I did, that William Shakespeare was indeed a master. We have a lot to learn from him.

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Jack Reads Books Reviews Freakout Island

Thanks, Books Jack Reads for your lover-leee review of Freakout Island.

Jack adds – ‘There’s a strong element of mystery in this story too, as everyone slowly realises that both Friendly Island and its two owners, Vayne and Vulga, are a lot more dangerous than they thought. Overall, this is a fun cautionary tale with a lot of appeal for kids, and a great first effort by a talented young author.’

Glad you enjoyed it Jack!

And here’s another review from Taylor Malmo – Freakout Island is, put simply, a marvellous book which seems to be made of a wonderful concoction of heart, humour, and sheer unfiltered happiness, all held together by a copious amount of pink bubble-gum. The tone is reminiscent of Roald Dahl’s work, with a fantastic story and an endearing cast of characters. I realised, as I lay in bed last night reading the whole thing, that I felt like a 10-year-old again. Granted, it hasn’t been that long since I was a 10-year-old, but as I lay there chuckling to myself, I felt like I should be reading the story under the covers with a torch in hand. It is a book that just radiates joy. I laughed, and gasped, and worried about the characters’ fates, and I loved every second of it.

Freakout Island is a worthwhile read for children of any age and brings out the gum-swallower in all of us.

THANKS TAYLOR!

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