A special thanks to all who supported my introduction post and took the time to check out my book especially 
Around Easter this bunny idea came to mind. Bunnies can be adorable. This character was dreamt up a couple months ago when my kids demanded a good night story. Belly bunny is a domesticated animal but too domesticated. It gets to the point that all he does is eat junk food and watch TV and play video games.
At first he tried to hide his bad habits. When Bobby, his elementary school 4th grade owner, was around he acted like a rabbit but as soon as his owner went to school Belly Bunny became a couch potato.
Billy finds out about Belly Bunnies eating habits and inactivity. Billy's mom finds out as well and take Belly Bunny to the vet. That is just the beginning of how a domesticated bunny gets the workout of a lifetime.
My kids love this guy and he gets into a lot of trouble. He also goes for an adventure to places he didn't know where there although they seemed so familiar to him. This is the mystery part of Belly Bunny. We wonder if he change his habits and if he can ever meet his family in the wild again.
Today I found the sketch of Belly bunny I made months ago and used pastels to color him in. I really enjoy working away from the computer screen and hope my kids can get used to it. Pastels are something the whole family can enjoy. We used paper towels and a paint brush to smooth in different color hues.
I also started a charcoal sketch of a Koala 🐨. One of the limits of Koalas is the color. I'm thinking of a simple Koala design with a bright color, maybe even purple. The gray color of the Koala makes me think of rain.
Anyway when my son saw the picture he spilled his tomato juice on it leaving a water mark.
The reason I'm bringing this up is that these are the first two fundamental elements to writing a story book.
Story
Characters
Before marketing and networking and formating a short story needs to be written. Characters need to be developed. Ideally in a picture book the pictures can tell the story.
One of the things I overlooked on my first book was the story. I spent more time researching how to publish than I spent on the story itself.
So if you ask me what the first step to publishing is I will answer, "Play with your story and your charcters. Write it down and talk about it to others." For me it was my kids but also on social media.
I was shy and didn't want people to steal my ideas but I see now there are tons of ideas and few people who follow through on a good idea. So today I'm not afraid to share what is going on in my head and what stories we are talking about even in an unfinished form.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there.
We love you.
@mcsagel