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This morning, Rick Liebling on Twitter inspired me. He asked his followers whether he should get a breakfast skillet or breakfast burrito. Fortunately he selected the burrito. I’m a strong, strong advocate of the breakfast burrito. 12 hours later, while running this evening, his crowd source concept hit me. I don’t know Rick at all. I like the tie he chose to wear in his avatar. And I respect his breakfast choices. Thank you Rick.

Five or six years ago I wrote a children’s story. Then I put it away. Then every 6, 12, 18 or 24 months, I would reopen the file and reread the story, make new edits and then save. Now it’s 2011. It’s been complete for some time.

The story is very much inspired by the England I know. The England I love. It’s inspired by the way I was reared. Whatever happened to me as a kid that has allowed me to think the way I do, is reflected in this story.

My story is about a Warthog named Walter. Walter is from the south of England. Attended the University of Oxford. Snores in his sleep. Is best friends with a Crab. And as the story tells, lands a job with the United Nations in New York City. He leaves his village in England for the Big Apple – that’s where the story begins.

I’ve often thought about this story and finally doing something with it. Sending it to a publisher. Attending a Children’s Lit conference. Talking to a library. You name it. I’ve always been too scared or intimidated. For some reason tonight, I lost that trepidation.

This weekend I will reopen this story, reread one more time, make some edits and then actually share it with a couple of people close to me. Then, after their feedback, I’m going to release this story, chapter by chapter for you to review, as blog posts. It will finally be out there.

You can make fun of me. You can critique. You can offer edits. You can offer praise. You can simply read. You can ask questions. I only ask that you don’t make fun of Walter. He never did anything to you.

It’s late and I’m off to bed. Guess what I’m having for breakfast?

You can now read Part 1, HERE.

Filed under: Walter the Warthog by Daniel
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There’s a new project in town: youseeitdifferentlythan.me

It’s a collaboration with Casey Mullins – who’s a photographer, writer, Moosh in Indy, pretty funny human, friend, mother and lots more.

We’re in cahoots on this new project that combines the written word and photography. We met for lunch one day and had it all figured out before I had eaten my 3rd wedge of quesadilla.

I’m lucky. Casey get thousands of web hits a day. I celebrate when I get double digits. I’m glad she agreed to collaborate on this. She also wrote about this project, here. Notice all the comments? Yep.

Our project is a simple concept.

We take turns picking one of our photographs from Flickr. We both write about the image, without consulting the other. The post is then published as one – two sides of the story, one pic. Pretty cool, huh?

We both take it very seriously. We both believe in it. It’s still in it’s infancy. We’re still figuring it out. And we both think you’ll enjoy it.

Would we lie to you?

Filed under: Flickr, Projects by Daniel
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