Task: The Bear in the Net

I wrote this up last night, before I knew what the day would bring. That may be for the best. Probably the last two posts covered most of what it would be reasonable to say, and I don’t think being constantly driven by the news cycle is healthy for me. So today is light, and I may be able to manage two more light ones for next week, and then it’s probably going to turn heavy again. It’s just a heads up.

Tomorrow night I am going to the Teddy Bear Toss. That is a tradition with many hockey teams, including the local Portland Winterhawks, where  attendees bring bears, and after the home team scores its first goal of the night, everyone throws their bears on to the ice, where they are rounded up for distribution to children. 

Collecting toys for kids had always been a cause close to my heart, I like sports, and I prefer minor leagues to big teams, though ultimately I only really care about the Ducks. Still, I don’t mind a game now and then, and I love teddy bears.

This will be my second time. The first time was in 2009, the day after Thanksgiving, and the game was exciting, and the sight of all of those teddies being tossed is amazing, but I ended up being very distracted by one bear getting caught in the net on his way down. Some people tried to get him down, but they couldn’t, so ultimately he stayed there for the rest of the game.

My empathy extends to inanimate objects, and I kept going back to looking at this bear, and feeling sorry for him. After they got all of the toys off the ice they did a count, and before the end of the game the flashed the total:16321. And all I could think was “Plus 1!”

Anyway, the story stayed with me, and grew, and the only thing to do when that happens is to write it out, so I did, and basically I had a children’s book there. I did submit it to one agent, and never heard back, and I did some research, but basically the story was sitting around, and as I was getting back into writing and setting goals, that was a big one. Do something with this, because I like the story, and I want it to go somewhere.

What I have realized though, is that it isn’t practical for me to be submitting this to publishers. I would need to be going through a lot of contacts, and really focus on it. If I wanted to write children’s books, that would make sense, but I feel like I have one children’s book in me, and this is it. On the other hand I have many screenplays, written and unwritten, and I need to focus my attention there for writing and submitting.

Still, I couldn’t abandon the Bear completely, because I do care about it, and it has meaning to me, and I have been posting a lot of web content now, so that seemed like the next logical way to go. Since I am getting into drawing, prepping to start illustrating the comic, I thought I could do some sketches for the story. Well, that’s harder than it sounds. I have some, but they are not great. It’s what I can do now, and it is something.

You know, if someday, as I accomplish other things and make contacts, we can do something with it, that would be great. I am not even ruling out that as my drawing improves I might not take another crack at illustrating it myself. Right now, there is still too much chagrin at the difference between what starts out in my head and what ends up on the paper. That’s okay. That will get better. This is what we have for where I am.

So, although tomorrow the normal travel blog post will go up (I am starting on our Mexico trip), there will also be a special post on this blog, with the text of the story and scanned copies of the some very rudimentary drawings. Perhaps that is my Christmas gift to you, but it is also my duty to the story. I write because I have to, but then the next thing I need is to share it.

I hope you like it. I hope you share it. I hope parents read it to kids, and aunts and uncles read it to nieces and nephews, and that the children take equal interests in hockey games and charitable giving, and that those interests are encouraged. Perhaps I will tell some moderately sad Christmas stories next week about why I care about toys for poor kids, except I’m still supposed to be reviewing bands and I totally should write about the 21^st before we get there. We’ll see.

By all means you are welcome to email the link, print the text, and engage in any type of non-commercial sharing. Obviously, any type of commercial use without express written consent is out, and I can’t imagine that I would consent without it involving me getting a cut, unless it was a charity thing for toys for kids. Still, the permission would need to be obtained. I just needed to get that out of the way. Merry Christmas.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-bear-in-net-by-gina-harris.html