Sequel Script Almost Complete!

It's been almost a year since the last update. Act I, II and III are complete. The final one is in progress. I truly feel this is the greatest story I have every written. 

It feels like this is taking forever. Only having enough time to put in at 30-60 minutes each day will slow things down. 

Hopefully, this sequel won't be the last story. I have three other stories about important characters in Badin and the Secret of the Saami that need to be written. Ahmed Ibn Fadlan is next. After him, it will be Herr Torsten. Finally, a new adventure about Badin.

Other than during some recent visits to the Chicago Art Institute, I haven't been practicing my drawing skills at all. I have been totally focused on writing and reading—and so it should be! The art serves the story. If this story is bad, there is nothing I could do that will make it look good. 

Much of my project-related reading are comic book collections. Marvel published beautiful, full-color hard-cover bound omnibus volumes that I spent alot of money purchasing at Graham Cracker Comics downtown. 

I am just started Volume 3 of the Micronauts, but got distracted with Volume 1 of Doctor Strange. The writing and art of these books is from the 1970's and 1980's. Flat colors. Grids. Nothing heavily rendered. This is the look I wanted for Badin and the Secret of the Saami. So it will be for the sequel.

One thing I have noticed about the script so far: The characters are more alive than ever in my mind and heart. You will see Vaarvaa—a teenage girl with very little concerns about anything important—transform into a woman who will literally change her world completely around.  

Like Badin and the Secret of the Saami, the theme of family is found throughout the story. The loss of my sister to suicide is one of the most traumatic and transformative experiences of my life (and our entire family). Vaarvaa will experience a similar loss. It will define who she becomes in many ways. I think this personal experience will resonate through all the stories I hope to write in the series. 

Admittedly, Act IV has been extremely difficult to write. The outline for the story was completed long ago. However, as Acts I, II and III were finished, Act IV feels underdeveloped. Maybe that is natural to experience. So I am literally taking it apart and trying to build the ending first. Then I must tie the beginning of Act IV—which I really like—with the conclusion.