A funny thing happened at the photoshoot

Harry Potter meets a green monkey.

One of the projects that I am slowly working on is a pagan/wiccan friendly children books series called Turtle Monkey. At the moment, I am just doing the occasional thumbnail sketch and working out the background of the world that it is set in. Come December, I will be devoting a lot of time to it as I wait for my Nanowrimo project to cool off enourgh that I can realistically start rewriting and editing it.

Nevertheless, knowing that the project is coming (one of the first three projects to come out of Salt Mine Publications--the ebook "publishing house" that I had to set up...because it was the only way to get my investment back on certain projects), I have done a certain amount of work setting up the initial foundation of our advertising platform.

Which is partially why I ended up doing a photoshot with monkeys dressed up in Halloween costumes. The other reason is that my co-creator (they do the writing; I do the artwork) decided to riff on my 31 Days of Halloween Kitties, and do 31 Days of Halloween Monkeys for the Turtle Monkey Facebook fanpage.

One of the most amusing pictures to come out of the photoshoot was a picture of the green stuffed monkey that was the initial inspiration for appearance of the chacter being held aloft with my lotus wand by the eleven year-old girl who was the inspiration for how the character acts.

In the interests of privacy, I decided to cover up her face with a yellow smiley instead; her mom got to see the original picture...the face was priceless.

Of course, I am sure that there are people who are appalled by this for various reasons: MDE is involved in a children book series...as an artist (and he can't draw); someone was allowed to touch my lotus wand; MDE thinks that monkeys and little girls are funny--take your pick and get in line...because there is always someone upset with me.

[Update: September 25, 2013--In July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project due to differences in creative vision and business philosophy.]