‘Twas a busy month, I am happy to report!
First off, the first Japanese Pebble Prose book was released! The Pebble Ballet / 小石のバレエ.
It was originally created in the spring of 2024, soon after the first Pebble Prose book, Winston and the Gnat. It was inspired by seeing Susan Egan and Adam Jacobs live that January.
The story itself turned out a bit abstract, and not particularly “funny”, so it sat on a hard-drive for two years.
Two Years!!
It only popped back into mind when the idea of creating a picture book for a Japanese audience came about.
I knew the book would have to be indie-published, as there was no way to go down the traditional route without speaking the language. And I knew that I wanted this project to be something pretty simple. Something… fun.
And so The Pebble Ballet was perfect for such a venture. It had limited text, so translating would be simpler, and the concept of the story felt like it would do better in a Japanese market more than a Western one.
I rummaged through drawers for the old hard drive and got the files back onto the computer. The illustrations looked two years old. A lot of pebbles had been drawn since then, and they’d evolved a bit. But, again, this was a fun project, so I didn’t go about with redrawing any of them.
It took a few weeks off and on to get everything all spruced up. It is now out and about! Though it is in Japanese, the story is simple enough to understand without the text. In fact, I originally planned on releasing it without any text at all. If you’d like to take a peek at it, you can find it here:
As for The Secret Project? Well, it finally began to move along more steadily the past month or so, and I am happy to report that it is set to release on March 2nd!
But WHAT IS IT?!? you ask.
Doodle the Court Jester is a middle grade fantasy novella! A fairy tale of farce, if you will.
It follows Doodle, a court jester, who is rather awful at his job. He’s solemn, serious, and has no sense of humor whatsoever. It’s terribly embarrassing. So when the only portrait of the queen’s mother is accidentally ruined, Doodle offers his assistance in getting it restored before the queen finds out… if only to escape the castle and his bell-covered costume. But with a psychology-obsessed princess, a melodramatic painter, and a slew of card-playing knights, Doodle’s quest proves to be much less dignified than he had hoped.
Doodle the Court Jester will be released on March 2nd, 2026 in ebook and paperback! The ebook is currently available for preorder.
I hope you enjoy meeting Doodle, the princess, Horace, Stanley, and the rest of the fairytale crew. I did :)
— ht