Hello,

Usually, I would publish a little tidbit right after editing the story but I wanted to gloss over the story before making it back out on the market.

Concept of Sketchbook:

Sketchbook was one of those stories where anything I didn't get to put into Secrets, I wanted to throw into Sketchbook. Trouble was, I had so many ideas. Most-if not all were pretty fleshed out. However, you would be looking at a 250,000 word story. So, originally I would decide to throw it all together and end the story with Lindy making the sacrifice. I was too miserable to kill off my one OC character I made, so I decided to make her 'forget'. I hated that idea but it was the only thing I could think to do at the time. Now, I got a little more guts to stick to the original script.

Sketchbook is about understanding your dark side, and acknowledging it. Everyone has one, everyone has the choice to feed it, or feed your good side. As well, it starts the relationship between the two main characters and you can slowly see something building up. I didn't think it would make sense for them to be up front with their relationship right away but, after Surrender, you see why Lindy chose to come out so quick with it.

When the story came out, I was satisfied and I enjoyed introducing a few new characters from Canada. They were loosely based off some people I heard of in school who were the notorious popular group. I know so many fanfiction writers went with the 'loser' group getting the glory so I wanted to make it the 'popular' group getting the glory. Don't worry, the popular group has a lot of problems to get through before they become as good as the Tamers.

Editing:

So, upon editing I decided the ending to this story will have to change so I can make appropriate edits to Surfacing (my crap shoot of a story). It was a more darker and sinister kind of ending but I think to understand how far the antagonist is willing to go-it is necessary. Yamaki was one of my favorite characters as he plays kind of a guardian role for these Tamers.

As for grammar and spelling, I will have to keep glossing over the story to find new things to pick at. (I'm doing this occasionally to Secrets). Or some continuity error I found in my series. Alas, when you have a series with so much detail, you have to keep some kind of flow chart.

Inspiration

My inspiration varies with this story before I edited it. I watched Elfin Lied recently and loved the character design and story. I love soccer so that was of course thrown in and you can even see details of Silent Hill thrown about.

During the edit I made now, scenes were taken out that completely ripped off Elfin Lied. I was not really impressed. I created a city for the Digimon called Code City which for some reason I think of the book Supernatural. Also, I used some life experience to fill in some holes-but I will not tell you which ones are true :)

Music is a great inspiration, as I love to listen to some stuff. Pianos, some pop music covers, some classic rock (Kansas you are my hero). Anime not so much. I think I can only think of two or three Animes that I enjoyed watching and will recommend. (Tamers, Oran High School Host Club, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.)

Acknowledgements

To anyone who reads this! Seriously, I do this mostly for myself but it's nice to know that I can create something entertaining for readers. Also, my career path requires me to write a lot so this is good practice.

I started to recreate my concept art at Deviant Art . com. If you would like to check that out I made some cool designs for Lindenmon. My username there should be Linkmaste.

My dog Jackson, who passed away last year helped me as I read to him my story to make sure I didn't make something completely bonkers. Thank you.