Misfit a boom,

I’m back with another update on Day 3 of the creative Misfits journey, creating Shirley’s first book called “From Hot Hoofing to Fair Energy Exchanges & Energy Management”.

Today I packed Shirley and Baxter in my shopping basket and made it cosy for the two of them in the back seat of the car. We packed pillows, blankets, chocolate, vanilla milk and tea for the creative writing journey. After all the journey should be full of comfort. I was quite excited to find out that my car had two cup holders in the back which were perfect for Shirley’s vanilla milk and Baxter’s black tea. The joys of discovering all the features of one’s own brand new car. 🙂

When Shirley and I go for a ride, we always choose scenic locations, put them in the GPS and then once we get close to the destination we cruise around for a bit to find the perfect spot for us to park and write. Haha, I just invented a new word, instead of Park & Ride, it’s Park & Write!

Today’s spot was the snow mountain in Puchberg, Austria. We found the perfect spot to park, just in front of the snow mountain. We managed to write 3 pages and got into a nice writing flow of how the characters interact with each other. Cosmo the sloth also has an appearance in Shirley’s book. He is a multi-dimensional traveller and the Master of Cosmosis who supports “plushies” and “fellow Misfits” in their transformations.

When we got home, we continued with our creativity and started imagining what the book cover for Shirley’s book could be like. We cut out Shirley’s paper drawing from the other day and drew a pair of red sunglasses, then Shirley posed for a bit to take pictures, just some in the moment fun and banter to see what we could come up with for the book cover.

The idea for the book cover is inspired from a moment way back on Wed, 24th August in 2016, when Lloyd and I took Shirley to a cornfield and created a video of Shirley pretending she was stealing corn! We planted the seeds for the book already back then and 4 years later the idea has blossomed and we now have a full story to write with Shirley. Oh, we just realised Shirley wasn’t only stealing corn, she also stole grapes and elderflower! Shirley, you hot hoof!

Oh, and we also decided that we’re going to allow our creativity to free roam and use a mixture of pen drawings, photos and illustrations for our book. After all, we don’t want to limit ourselves to any particular style.

So that was our mini update from Day 3. We hope you enjoy your creative journey as much as we do ours.

Hello fellow Misfits,

This is Dani again here. It’s Day 2 and I’ve managed to draw Shirley the Sheep today. It’s my first attempt to capture the unique beauty of Shirley for some of the book drawings. Like explained yesterday, Shirley’s book will be about Energy Management and it’s all about Shirley’s journey of how she started out hot hoofing corn in a field, to having realisations around fair energy exchanges and managing her own energy better, always keeping her balance. She will share some of her “dark sheep times” as well as the wisdom she has integrated along the way.

We usually draw our characters first and then send them off to an artist on Fiverr, who then turns them into a graphic design to use for the book.

Here’s a little taster of Shirley:

Hello Dear Misfits,

This is Dani Misfit here. I am writing from Austria at the moment; Lloyd and I have started our book writing journeys. We are currently in two different locations so you will hear how we progress with our book writing from Austria & the UK.

Lloyd has started writing with Cosmo the Sloth, the book is called “The Art of Doing Nothing – While still manifesting your dreams” I am focusing on a book with Shirley called “From Hot Hoofing to Fair Energy Exchanges & Energy Management”.

We will post updates on our progress so you can follow the Misfit journey of us writing and living our dream, being Slothpreneurs and Digital Nomads, living life outside the hamster wheel.

Here are a few pictures from Day 1 in Austria.  Today’s Misfit companion was Baxter Riverdale, the badger. He helped to hold the space for the writing, he also helped with finding this epic writing den. I managed to write 1 page in 3 hours, that’s big! It was about getting clear on the essence of the book and capturing a few ideas around Energy Management.

Stay tuned for more Misfit mischief.