Things that go what?

Since I’m launching this updated site to coincide with the release of my first picture book “Things That Go BUMP! In The Night”, I thought it might be of some interest to show how it was born.

I keep old sketchbooks in boxes in my garage. On occasion, I’ve looked through them for one reason or another, and often come across silly drawings or strange ideas for some forgotten purpose.

About two years ago, I was digging through a sketchbook looking for a past project when I came across the marker sketches above and below, along with the tiny stanzas scribbled next to them.

A few pages later I found a full page with similar sketches and a written, rhyming intro. I’d completely forgotten when, why, or where these came about—but the idea made me laugh, which is a good sign that there might be something more to it. I began to develop them a bit further, playing around with the silly idea of horrible things happening to people in the dark.

I started to develop them into refined digital sketches, and the idea of telling a story completely in silhouette started to emerge.

All of the original sketches survived in one form or another and made it into the final, except for the vacuum scene (as each situation began to get more outlandish, the idea of stubbing one’s toe on a vacuum in the dark—though relatable—felt boring, and was tossed).

After nine or ten of these, I could see it was a series… but was there a story? There were a few insights…

1) Most of us are frightened as children of strange sounds that usually amount to nothing… water heaters, creaky hinges and such (I myself grew up in an old house that was always making noise).

2) Compared to childhood fears of imaginary monsters in the closet or under the bed, this series of accidents that were (technically) possible in the real world were much more frightening by comparison… yet as adults we don’t carry the same fears any longer, and often get ourselves into trouble absent of a little basic caution. There was an odd juxtaposition in there.

3) Many of us have known of someone who is just trying to help during a tough situation but ends up making things worse, and adults don’t always give the best advice to kids even when their intentions are good.

That’s where the idea of a well-intentioned adult trying to be helpful but doing the opposite was born. It took a few turns here and there, and I ended up killing off a whole intro section introducing the father and son characters in order to dive right into the narrative.

As for the ending, I was inspired by the movie “The Princess Bride”. The fairy tale in the film is read by an old man to his grandson who’s stayed home sick from school. At a few pivotal points in the movie the boy jumps in and cuts off the narrative to question the storyline. I liked the concept of a jarring ending, where the child interrupts the narrative just as it begins to go off the rails.

One of the original sketches—that of the guy falling down the stairs—became the little “easter egg” joke at the end of the book, where the father becomes another victim who falls prey to “things that go — in the night.”