Advancing

The one piece of writing that gets the most emotional reaction from my readers has been from Chapter 16 of Vitamin F. It starts out fairly dull, the tension brought on by Bridgett, aware of the secret locked in her genes, confronting her life. She still has to go to class, she still has to talk to the other girls in her sorority, and she still needs to go to the library on occasion.

But at the library, Genetic Security is waiting to run tests on the crowd. They wait, ready to ambush the crowd and run tests. They sample the genome, making sure its being taken care of for the good of the nation.

I just finished editing that section again. I try not to mess with it, for the simple reason that I don't want to destroy the notes that pull at an audience's emotions. I set out to have Bridgett confront her situation externally. I ended up with a some readers doing Bridgett's crying for her.

Creative Accomplishment

For Christmas, I had the idea of giving Lyndsey a drawing of my prospective cover to Vitamin F. I'd had an idea for quite a while showing an off-center image of Bridgett holding a vitamin in an open hand. It was a simple visual, marked more by the fact that the top of her head was going to be intentionally cut out of the image.

Another idea came along just after Thanksgiving. Yes, it took heavy notes from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, but, instead of being set up purely as an aesthetic, my new idea was built more around trying to identify the most basic conflict of Vitamin F. Once the twist comes along, there is actually significance behind Bridgett taking her vitamin every day.

The problem was that, with hectic scheduling and chaos all around, I ended up only having one day to draw the picture. I took out my pocket sketchbook and my pencils, being trapped behind a register for 6 hours on a slow night, and I went to work, doing what I could. My thought was that if I could finish the concept and have it look halfway decent, I could take a picture of it to finish later and give Lyndsey the original.

I did it. Had to do a little trimming, but I finished the small version with no problems. Take a look.

I thought I could include a black all around, just to keep the attention of the cover fixated on Bridgett. I want to find some way to really make the vitamin in her hand show up easier as well. I need to also improve the angle and a few of the proportions, but other that that, what you see if what I hope you'll get to buy someday for $10-25.

Finally, I had to give Lyndsey the picture in a card and while she was working, so I didn't really get to hear much of a reaction from her about it at the time. A few days ago, when I had to unlock the door so she could come in for work, she waved vigorously at me and smiled. "The picture was gorgeous," she said. Aside from the obvious statements I could make, I need to start on the next incarnation of that drawing soon. And I might have to try my hand at a drawing of a cute blonde in a thick black coat as well.