If the fire of God is in you and the presence of God is on you, then stand firm!  And shine, ever seeking to become a better witness! People will analyze, dissect, rate, compare, and pigeonhole (and–unfortunately–I’ve been one of these people).  Even good people go in and out of favor with other good people, right?  God is bigger than that.

“…Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course.” ~from Phil. 1, MSG

First of all, I now own a publishing company!  Not a huge deal really, but I recently went through the legal process of forming an LLC to keep my book business organized and growing.  The name is “Georgie IV Publishing” and if you can guess the significance in that, I will give you a prize… or mutter something affirming under my breath.

Also, I am definitely working on another children’s book.  After oodles of doodles and a number of story treatments, I have decided that Book #2 will again feature “Neckless” Audrey Amaka and her friends Nelson and Doodle.  In this story, the intelligent Audrey (painfully) learns that every talent comes with the responsibility to use it wisely.  You can start looking for the new book in October!

If you have read and enjoyed Neckless, please tell your friends!  After Book #2 releases, we are hoping to sign with a Christian book distributor.  Naturally, Audrey can use all the help she can get in spreading the word.  So far, the response has been terrific.

Again, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

I kicked my Mountain Dew habit in January, but – in order to stay awake for the last two hours of the drive home – I got some real coffee.  It is now 3:40 a.m. and I am still quite awake.  Boooooo!

I will be back in EN&T doctor’s office this afternoon…  Last year, I discovered a parotid tumor on my right jaw, just in front of my ear.  I had it biopsied and it is – thankfully – benign.  On Thursday, I will be having it removed.  The surgery doesn’t worry me too much, but I’m not excited about having my face sliced open.

Apparently, my incision will be similar to the kind they give you when you’re getting a facelift.  I’m hoping they don’t pull a Kenny Rogers on me…

I like to name things… my vehicles, my computers, my pet seashell, etc.  My tumor is no exception.  I named it “Leona” after Leona Helmsley, the “Queen of Mean”.  Remember her?  This week, my Leona will die.  And I will not mourn for her.

During my Christmas vacation in 2009, I got serious about writing and illustrating a good story.  I began to collect ideas and add them to my proverbial peg board.  Proverbial?  Imaginary? Whatever…   The neat thing about retaining a list of ideas (even if it’s only in your head) is that they tend to get better with time.  Some ideas need to stay in the cooker for a while.

In February or March, I came up with a scenario that worked for me.  It went like this:  A married couple, both world-famous opera singers, discover that they are expecting a child.  Their dreams for the baby are off the charts.  They imagine their child to be the most amazing singer ever. Finally, their daughter is born and grows up to be a nice little girl.  But, to her parents horror, the child is not only tone-deaf, she has the voice of a foghorn.

What would life be like for that little girl?  How would she deal with that kind of expectation and disappointment?

Obviously, the idea of a neckless giraffe wasn’t far behind.  Soon, I got to know Audrey, her parents, and her friends Nelson (an accident-prone aardvark) and Doodle (an oversized hyrax).

Much like it is when I compose music, writing this book was like having creative constipation (pardon the comparison).  On my family vacation in June, I forced myself to write a couple of pages every day.  In the meantime, I started coming up with character designs for Audrey and her friends.

©Brent Vernon

Once the book was written and the copy finalized, I used my Wacom tablet and Corel Painter to generate really rough sketches like this.

©Brent Vernon

I then opened the sketch in Adobe Illustrator.  Using it as my guide, I created near perfect vector lines for each main character element in the scene.  This is a painstaking process, certainly the most time consuming step…  It probably took me about five hours just to create the Illustrator lines in this scene. Those anchor points nearly killed me!

©Brent Vernon

When the lines were completed, I copied them into an Adobe Photoshop file for coloring and shading.  I think this was my favorite step in the process!

©Brent Vernon

With the main characters colored and shaded, I dumped the file back over into Corel Painter where, using the original sketch, I finished the scenic/background elements.  Then I opened them one last time in Photoshop for final color editing.

©Brent Vernon

Then, with some final color corrections for print, we put it all together!

©Brent Vernon

So this was my first stab at writing and illustrating a book.

I have so much to learn about the process, but – so far – the response to “Neckless” has been enthusiastic.  God willing, Book #2 will be here before you know it!!

When I was probably seven, I wrote the Cabbage Patch company telling them that the “Kids” (which were crazy popular at the time) should have pets.  My letter was never acknowledged, but – within the next few years, the “Kids” had pets for sale.

In high school, I started to write music.  I suppose I became enamored with the idea that I could write, record, and perform music as a vocation, so – after spending some time in prayer (but not too much) – that’s what I did.  Like so many things in life, my motivations were definitely mixed.  I was passionate about sharing my faith through song, but I also did like the attention.

Most of us who think of ourselves as “creative” tend to crave affirmation.  We want our lives and work to be appreciated.  I will always be susceptible to the pang of those “needs”, but as I have deepened in Christ and developed a true Kingdom mindset, I find myself returning to the raw joy of creating things as I did when I was a kid.  Back when my dreams weren’t dependent on how I personally was perceived.  It was just fun.

In the early 2000′s, those childhood dreams started tugging at me again.  So for about two-and-a-half years, I cut my touring schedule in half and started developing an animated series called “The Finest of Fables” along with a former VeggieTales producer Jen Combs McFadden, a couple former Disney animators, and several others who knew much more about the process than I did.

Disney/Big Idea layout and concept artist Michael Spooner provided some inspiration for our series.

Spooner's concept of the imperial palace from The Finest of Fables' "Beetle and the Golden Shoes"

The project, as planned, was enormously expensive.  After months of working and worrying, I decided to shelve the project and refocus on the music/touring.  It was a huge disappointment at the time, but also a major learning experience.

My rendering of "Kip" from "Beetle and the Golden Shoes" ©Brent Vernon

On December 16, a much smaller version of my dream will come true with the release of my first children’s book, “Neckless: The Audrey Amaka Story”.  In my next blog, I will share the genesis of that story and introduce you to Audrey.  I’ll also show you how I did the illustrations.  Why? Because it’s fun… and keep getting questions about the art.  I guess that’s good.

As a storyteller and illustrator, I have so far to go.  But “Neckless” is definitely a happy start.  I hope you think so too!

- – - – - –

I need to be in bed.  It’s been a full day today — office work, travel, concert, more travel….  Tomorrow will be another extremely full day, then another concert on Friday in Stoystown, PA which is near the 9/11 Memorial.  Looking forward to seeing that.

I suppose this is a feeble attempt at a testimony.  But my experience has been anything but feeble.  Within the last two or three months, there has been a deep change in my heart.  I keep wanting to talk about it here on Facebook, but I struggle to articulate it.  I don’t want to sound trite.  There have been seasons of growth before.  There have been helpful insights.  But this is different.  Markedly so.  And how do you Tweet about a soul revolution?

Through prayer, study, and a series of circumstances, I have finally come to a place - the place - of complete dependence and (as much as I know how) surrender to God.  I have often spoken, written, and sung about the importance of obedience to the voice of the Lord, but even as the words were spoken, there was usually some kind of contingency in the back of my mind…  A stipulation that I did not want to admit to myself.  And that was a big problem.

A few mornings ago, I read the passage in 2 Samuel about how God was angered by King David’s census… “replacing trust with statistics” (2 Samuel 24:11).  It hit me again.  God hasn’t been frightened by my honest questions, but in order for Him to work in my life, I needed to dive in.  Wholly.  Otherwise, I would be awkwardly and unsustainably situated in a place of duplicity, speaking and writing the Truth while living a few shades away from it.

I simply do not have the time to tell you the whole story.  But it’s a Good one.  I chose to give God everything… my fears, my “need” for affirmation, my time, my faith, my talents, my future, etc.  I have been taking time with Him.  Regularly.  Enjoying beautiful moments with my Creator.  I have been worshipping Him and trusting Him to take care of me, to provide, to open the right doors, to bring me in contact with those who I might be able to help somehow, to work out His plan through me.

There are still things that tug on me.  Naturally.  But I’m not bound by the worry, weakness, fear, and self-consciousness that use to dog me.

My life focus is no longer on me, but on Him… and my forever with Him.

I wish I could convey my joy in all of this.  There is so much more to say, but not enough time right now.

Revelation 12:11 (MSG) - “They defeated him (the Accuser/Satan) through the blood of the Lamb and the bold word of their witness.  They weren’t in love with themselves; they were willing to die for Christ.”

On the music/creative side of things, I have been really pumped about something called RootMusic which I have been using as my BandPage on Facebook for the past few months.  I like it so well, in fact, that I have had all www.brentvernon.com traffic routed here.  It’s definitely a one-stop-shop for music, tour dates, links, bio information, pictures, and videos!  It’s very easy to update.  I love it!  I just found out, however, that Facebook will be making a major format change to it’s fan pages on Monday, so it will be interesting to see how it all works out.  Surely some redesigns will be in order.  In the meantime, I’d love for you to check it out.  Let me know if you have suggestions.  I think Sam will be launching his own Root page in the next few weeks.

Earlier this month, I had the joy of touring in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa.  For this trip, my buddy Dan’l was kind enough to let me borrow his Canon.  I was thrilled to get some really beautiful shots along the way…

There are many more pictures in the Summatime MMX photo album on www.brentvernon.com.  Enjoy!

This fall, Sam and I will be on the road again for another seven week tour.  It’s gonna be another big trip!  Nearly two thirds of the concerts have been scheduled, but there are still several openings…. from Massachusetts to Kansas.  If your church, school, or event would be interested in booking me and Sam, let us know!  :-)

For years, I’ve toyed with various story ideas and sketches, but – finally – I am happy to say that I have just completed the first full draft of a sweet little tale about a little giraffe with a very unusual problem.  I’m very much hoping to introduce you all to “Audrey” in November or early December.  Stay tuned…  Can’t WAIT!

And finally, today is my sister’s birthday.  She is two years older than me.  To say that I love her is an understatement…  Not only to I love her, I appreciate and admire her.  Happy Birthday, Sonja!!

Anyway…  Yesterday was kind of icky.  There were no huge problems, just a number of concerns weighing on my mind.  So I was jittery and felt unproductive.  Have you heard of those people, who under great duress, grab the clippers and shave their heads?  I was kind of one of those people this morning.  Except that I’m not under great duress and I didn’t have clippers close by.

But after stumbling into the bathroom and seeing the guy in the mirror, I grabbed the scissors and gave myself a haircut.  A haircut of sorts.  It was not premeditated.  And it’s not pretty. 

I’m calling it “Phase 1″…  There’s more work to be done up top. 

In the meantime, I’m hungry… and there’s some Snicker’s chocolate cake left from my Poppy’s birthday.  I must go.