Happy Sunday, everyone!

I greatly apologize for the delay in my blog, but this weekend was VERY busy, but VERY fun. This was Homecoming weekend, so I was, of course, doing something. On Friday, as part of the American Marketing Association, I attended a regional conference in Aurora, and my partner and I won second place in the digital marketing simulation competition. Go us!

That was really the highlight of my busy weekend.

As for my thoughts on Rockybado, I have a lot. I go through phases where I really want to get a head start on each series. And now, it turns out that I am in the Rockybado phase. So, of course, I am thinking about ideas for the next part of each series. 

I am continuing my sci-fi compilation project, which I'm hoping to get done by December 20th. Then, my first bet is that I will work on Rockybado's third novel, which I have decided to call The Revenge of the Naughty Blue Aliens. Please keep in mind that pretty much everything that I have written so far goes back to what I have written in the past. The only difference is that I have beefed things up a bit. 

While the first novels and sci-fi compilation take place in 2006, the next few novels and sci-fi compilation will take place in either 2013 or 2014. And I have thought that it would be cool to show a difference in style in terms of the seven or eight-year difference, showing how much I've grown as a writer since then. I believe that I have always had talent, but I have greatly improved over the course of these years. 

For the Rockybado series, things have changed for the Ingram's. Dawson is no longer interested in Spanish and Education. As a matter of fact, after his internship at the age of 21, he is a 28 or 29-year-old working at a marketing firm. Brett is a finance guru and is the lead guitarist of his garage band, Mr. Morton. David and Brody are 21 or 22-year-old and 20 or 21-year-old respectively and are in college. David studies Marketing and Finance, and Brody studies Computer Engineering with a Marketing minor. Toby is a 17 or 18-year-old who is still in high school.

I also have ideas for the other series, but....first, I believe I will start with the Rockybado series.

Next week, I will further explain my thought processes and eventually give more character sketches.

Also, Rockybado and its sequel, A Run in the Game, will be free on Amazon this Friday, October 24th through Sunday, October 26th, so please check them out! I also have a synopsis for each novel below.

Rockybado: "It is June 2006, and, after school lets out for the summer in Crown Point, Indiana, five boys find out about a robot in Texamilio, a fictitious island due west of the eight Hawaii Islands. When they meet Rockybado and his two close Bobino comrades, they are all confronted by Susan and Claude McSmith, who are both out to steal Rockybado's position as King of Texamilio, after a sour debate regarding physics in high school."

A Run in the Game: "It is the summer of 2006 in Crown Point, Indiana, and Brody Ingram and Andrew McCalsky make it on the Watsons baseball team, and the team must try hard to defeat the Pratts team, their opponent, from Hebron, Indiana, that plays rough. In the meantime, Brody's older brother, Brett, must come out of his shell in order to communicate effectively with his love interest. Everyone is faced with different challenges throughout the summer."

Have a great week!

B. Levi

Happy Saturday, everyone! As a matter of fact, Happy October! I know it's already the fourth, but still.

This is the month of apple cider, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkins in general, and Halloween. So, watch as many scary movies as you can while you can! And this is also the month where you can eat as much candy as you want, but that won't be until later in the month!

Today, I will give you ten fast facts about each main character from each series. I'm sure they are similar to character sketches that I've been doing for quite some time now, but this is information that I have not blogged about yet, so here we go!

David Baker Ingram (Rockybado):
* David is half-English, a quarter Italian, an eighth German, and an eighth Greek.
* David eventually goes on to college to study Marketing and Finance.
* In high school, David dates Cera Berringer. Before entering college, they break up, but they remain close friends. In college, David dates Olivia Flavenshevich, who is also from Crown Point. Olivia is actually a year younger than David, and they didn't know each other until college. They happened to be at the same college, and that is how they start their relationship.
* David goes to a small college that is about thirty minutes south of Warsaw, Indiana.
* David's mom's maiden name is Wickes, and her first name is Marsha.
* Dawson, David's oldest brother, was given the middle names Alan Wickes because his birthday is on the same day as their uncle, Alan Wickes.
* David's dad's name is Dawson.
* David is English and Italian on his dad's side of the family. He is English, German, and Greek on his mom's side.
* David and Brody look very similar, and they are Irish twins, with Brody's birthday (9/23/1992) being only a week before David's (9/30/1991).
* The Ingram's do not have a lot of family. They have some family in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but most of their family lives in the Crown Point area. The five boys only have four first cousins, and they are all girls: Jennie Bridget Wickes, 24; Maggie Elizabeth Wickes, 20; Annie Jane Wickes, 16; and Kellie Olivia Wickes, 12. They are the children of Alan and Renee Wickes, and they live in Hobart. The nine kids get along pretty well.

Andrew David Michael Grzedek (The Jazzy Island of Dinosaurs):
* Andrew is three-quarters Polish and a quarter Irish/English/Scottish.
* Andrew goes to college for Marketing and Spanish.
* Andrew dates Eliza Colbert during their freshman and sophomore years of high school, but they break up for a little while during their junior year of high school. After a year, they have started dating again.
* Andrew goes to a college that is thirty minutes east of where he lives, and he lives on campus.
* Andrew's mom's maiden name is Johnson, and her first name is Deena.
* Andrew's dad's name in John, or Janusz (in Polish).
* Andrew and his siblings have numerous cousins on their dad's side, and several on their mom's side. Most of them live in the area.
* Andrew is Polish on his dad's side of the family, and he is Polish and Irish/English/Scottish on his mom's side.
* Andrew and Caleb look somewhat similar, but Andrew looks more like their dad, and Caleb looks more like their mom.
* The entire family is fluent in English and Polish.

Levi Andrew Caleb Cranston (The Magic Video Game):
* Levi is half-English/Irish, a quarter Italian, an eighth French, and an eighth Polish.
* Levi goes to college to study Biomedical Engineering.
* Levi has been dating Mackenzie Burbanks since he had to undergo an emergency tonsillectomy at the age of thirteen. This is his first relationship.
* Levi goes to a college that is forty-five minutes north of Fort Wayne, and so does his girlfriend and best friend, Jack Andrews. While Levi continues his tennis career in college, Jack does not. However, they still remain very close friends.
* Levi's mom's maiden name is LeVole, and all of the kids' first names spell out her last name, which she keeps after her second marriage. The kids' names are Louise, Elizabeth, Victoria, Olivia, Levi, and Evelyn (who was adopted). His mom's first name is Lisa.
* Levi's dad's name is David.
* Levi is Irish and Italian on his dad's side of the family, and English, French, and Polish on his mom's side. Levi's half-sisters' dad is of Italian and Polish descent and is Jewish. The family celebrates some Jewish holidays because the kids' mom is Jewish. The kids' dad (David Cranston) is Methodist, so they still celebrate Christmas.
* Levi has been told by some people that he looks like his mom but has the attitude of his dad, but he has also been told that he looks just like his dad in terms of looks and attitude. This has created confusion.
* Levi has a lot of family in Rhode Island, but he also has some family in Northwest Indiana, including Crown Point, Merrillville, and Valparaiso. Levi eventually becomes a groupie for his cousins' rock band.
* Levi's half-sisters' dad's name is Lee Baranovsky, and he and Levi's mom divorced when Elizabeth was three years old. Lee and his new wife, Pam, still live in Rhode Island and have twin sons, Matt and Kevin, 21, who play in a rock band. Levi and his family have some contact with them. Levi's mom and dad (David Cranston) were married in 1986, two years before Victoria was born.

This was a lot of information that I wanted to talk about because I believe that it may have some importance to the characters and their development. This is also information that will probably not be directly included in the novels, but I believe that it's important that you have some idea of the characters' backgrounds.

Now I log off, and next week I blog again.

Have a splendid week!

B. Levi