Three Brothers Three Nations (Part 2 of 3)

In all writing, it helps to visualize as much as possible what one is writing about. I started drawing detailed scenes of places on the planet Orbitralas. I drew these as if they were produced by a photographic process called JudaKolor. It was really my watercolor magic markers that did the work. I was using my Grandpa Loveless’s dark room equipment at the time and I made actual photographs. I had some very old photographic paper that was made during World War II, but it was still good. I touched these photographs up with my watercolor markers to also make them look like they were produced by JudaKolor. I tried to live my book as much as possible while I was writing it. Once I was feeling sick and achy. Instead of going to bed, I pretended that my sickness was caused from the effects of a dust bomb exploded in the atmosphere of the planet Orbitralas.
By the end of the summer, I had finished my first version. It was 400 hand-written pages long. I then commenced working on the second version. I knew somewhere down the road I’d have to type it if I wanted to send my book to a publisher. So in my ninth grade year of school I was writing my book. It doesn’t make sense to me now that even though my English teacher, Mrs. Johnson was impressed with me right from the start, I never went to her and said, “I’m writing a book, will you help me with what needs to happen so I can get it published.” She probably would have done anything for me. But I never even told her I was writing a book. I spent every spare moment I could in writing my book. Even though it was the second version, I never had to go look up anything in the first version. I wrote the second version entirely from memory.
Like I said, I lived it. At one time in ninth grade I was secretly in love with a girl named Rebecca. So in my book, I imagined her as Judakatrupe’s wife. When I was writing about his meeting her at a dance, I made sure in real life I danced with the real-life Rebecca at a school dance. I was then able to describe how Judakatrupe felt dancing with Rebecca when he first met her. Every detail was there, even the aroma of her herbal shampoo, her dress, her face, and her voice.