One of my favourite (and scariest) dreams helped me write the short tale of ‘The School‘. The story is pretty much as it was, there was no need to artistically extend it, it was complete in itself. It was quite an unnerving dream, one of those that leave you out of kilter for the rest of the day, but then by embracing it, giving it life, I turned into something which was no longer just a bad dream.

I am currently improving my skill set in Illustrator, and have been looking for ideas to begin designing. A recent dream I had seemed pretty mundane – I was walking around ASDA (Walmart to you folks over the pond) as some heated issue was taking place and people were stressing over something. But the one bit that stuck out was when I stopped at a display of some bottles of rum. I picked up the bottle and looked at it, thinking, that looks so cool. So upon waking, I made a quick sketch on the glass wipeboard, and got on with my working day as normal, but I knew that I now had my project idea to work on in Illustrator. I gave it a little more thought, added a new brand (the other one was an existing pirate) and a bit of unique flavour, but the core design was the same. You can see the result here - it is still basic but I want to refine it and turn it into an advertisement.

So don’t underestimate your dreams for helping you out in your daily life, they can inspire, solve problems and give you the answers you need when you need them.  And when your partner, family or pet demand that you get your lazy hide out of bed, tell them you’re doing research.  (Of course, pets don’t understand this and still demand to be fed).

Now why is the rum gone?

So what has happened over the last of the late summer that has befallen the UK? Well friends have been married and begin new lives, engagement  and babies are arriving with each new marriage and new eras are beginning all around me.  OK, yes I am thirty-something and friends who I still see with air of early twenties are taking another step into adulthood. But this is no bad thing and it comes with lots of smiles. I hope they all will be happy.

As for me, I am still in that period of change that came up about this time last year and is still ongoing. Job interviews on the horizon (one tomorrow) and with luck I can finally start to plan abit further ahead than 6 months, maybe a snowboarding holiday or Alaska even and look at where I want to be in a few years.

My recent projects have been heavily impacted from job applications and a couple of freelance web jobs for clients and their new maritime business ventures.  On my Imagine Tales website of short stories I have finished the five part story ‘The Grass‘. This tale was started many years ago and it sat going stale with no direction.  At the time I wanted to write of demons, I think I may of recently watched ‘Trainspotting‘ judging by the main characters addiction issues and was still heavily indulgent in ‘Hellraiser‘. But I really enjoyed coming back to this tale now that I want to take my wiriting more seriously.  One of the things I enjoy about posting upto the website on a regular basis is that it forces me to write and lets it flow with ease. I don’t have the time to revise and revise and rewrite, so what you get is whilst given some edit treatment, it is pretty raw still. Even I am often not sure how the story will develop until I sit down in from the of the computer and reread the last part for inspiration to carry on the tale.

Prior to the ‘The Grass‘ I had written the ‘The School‘, a short story based on a dream that occurred last year, I rather manic time and one I wanted to escape and in which this tale highlights with alot of description. Dreams are funny things, some can be harrowing and leave you out of sorts for the new day, but then others leave you peaceful and calm. You have travelled and seen wonders, felt peace and all without leaving your bed.

Anyway one must depart now and begin to think about that job interview tomorrow. Put aside those to be written stories of home furnishing stores of Hell and stealing time.  Till next time my little minions.