Daniel S. Fettinger's Blog: Sophichkin.com

Hey, been awhile.  Just thought I’d share this gem from the desk of Milana Samarskaya.  She’s the genius illustrator for all things Sophichkin, and recently launched her online portfolio at misamarskaya.com — check it out!

Huzzah!  The first sketches for Sophichkin’s Lighthouse are in!  Here’s a little taste, just for the faithful…

Greetings!

I’m proud as punch to announce that the latest Sophichkin adventure, Sophichkin Gets a Lift, is now available on Amazon in eBook format!  In this go round, Sophichkin and her daddy have to make an emergency trip to the grocery store and find themselves face to face with a strange talking animal.  What could it want from them?

Get the Sophichkin Gets a Lift eBook on Amazon now!

As you’ve come to expect, Sophichkin Gets a Lift is beautifully illustrated by the ever talented Milana Samarskaya, whose artwork never ceases to amaze me.  If you haven’t already, check out her Facebook page here.

New to the game?  It’s not too late to catch up!  All four Sophichkin stories can be purchased as a bundle here!

Be kind and be well,

-Daniel

There once was a little girl.  Her name was Sophichkin.

One morning while making breakfast, her daddy discovered that they were out of milk.  Seeing as you cannot make proper cereal without milk, Sophichkin suggested that they drive to the grocery store to get some.

“That’s a mighty fine suggestion!” said her daddy.

So they brushed their teeth and hair, put on clothes, hopped in the family car and drove to the grocery store.  They were almost certain to find the milk that their cereal needed there.

While in the store, they decided to also buy some bread (in case their lunches wound up needing sandwiches), some oranges (in case anyone’s tummy felt snackish later in the day) and some ice cream (just in case).

They were lucky indeed that day, as Sophichkin spotted the last carton of ice cream in the entire store.  She reached for it and pulled it off the shelf.  As she placed it in their cart, she noticed a little boy, slightly younger than herself, looking woefully at the now empty ice cream shelf.

His tummy quite obviously had its heart set on eating some ice cream that day, and now it would have to do without.  Sophichkin looked on sadly, seeing the little boy’s face, heart and tummy all frowning at the same time.

Being the kind soul that she was, Sophichkin decided that the little boy’s face, heart and tummy would get more joy from eating the ice cream than her “just in case” would.  She smiled and handed the little boy the last carton of ice cream.  He squealed with joy, thanked her at great volume, then bounded off to his mother with the ice cream in hand.

Sophichkin’s smile got even bigger.

Greetings!

It’s been awhile since the last update, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to clue you all into what’s what in the world of Sophichkin, and, as an added bonus, toss a “new” story out to the universe to see what happens.

First, Sophichkin:  The fourth Sophichkin story, Sophichkin Gets a Lift, is all done being illustrated, thanks to Milana Samarskaya!  I’ll be busy in the coming units of time getting everything assembled and ready for lift off…

The “new” story, entitled I Am, is a bit of a departure around these parts, as it isn’t a Sophichkin story at all (although I think her fans will like it just the same)!  It is intended to be the origin story of another little universe I’m creating for exciting, fun and sometimes scary stuff to happen in.  Of course, it’s just a work in progress, but  I’ll be adding more and more like this in the coming months (I have two more just sitting around collecting dust already).  I’d love to hear what you think!

I guess that’s all for now.  I’m sick, so I’ll be getting back to bed now.

Be well,

-Daniel

Once up on a time, there was nothing.

This was a long time ago, before there were words like “long time ago” or “boring.”

Then came a word.  From the nothing, suddenly there was an I.  This I, all by itself, didn’t amount to much.  It didn’t even know it was a vowel, let alone a letter than you learn to write in school.  So, deciding that being an I wasn’t enough on it’s own merit, the I decided to become I Am.

Yes, thought the I Am, which used to be an I, this feels much better.  In fact, this was the first feeling it had even known.  It was an I Am, and that was far more satisfying than being simply an I.

Being an I Am was plenty for many, many long years (which hadn’t even been been invented yet).  The I Am was pleased, basking in its Am-ness, enjoying the Am that it was.  It did this until it wasn’t plenty anymore, when the I Am decided that it wanted something to play with.

“Yes,” thought the I Am, “I would sure enjoy some company.”

So the I Am set about all of its Am-ness and made some Bes (pronounced like “bees,” which also hadn’t been invented yet).

The Bes that the I Am created were also, of course, I Ams, since the I Am could only create things it already knew.  Seeing as it only knew itself, an I Am, it could only create Bes, which, of course, were smaller versions of I Am.  The Bes were quite lovely and playful, and they absolutely enjoyed Being.  They would dance and sing and draw pictures in the air of I Am all day long.  It was a joyous time to Be a Be, and this made I Am quite happy with his creations.  He watched them Being all day long, never growing tired of their antics.  If he’d had hands, they’d have clapped with delight at all the wonderful things the Bes did for his amusement.

Before long, though, the Bes became restless.  They were feeling a yearning they couldn’t quite put their fingers on (I Am had, of course, long ago given them hands and fingers so they could dance and draw pictures in the air for his amusement).  I Am noticed the Bes becoming quite irritable with this newfound restlessness, and set about doing something about it.  It loved the Bes very, very much, and wanted nothing more for them to be happy.  You see, when they were happy, they sang and danced and drew pictures in the air for I Am’s amusement.  I Am loved Being amused almost as much as it loved the Bes.

So I Am created rocks for the Bes to play with.

The Bes rejoiced as only Bes can, and danced and sang like never before to thank I Am for its gift.  They danced around the rocks, they sang songs about the rocks, they built large piles of rocks to climb and play on.  It was a great time to Be a Be.  They discovered that if they stacked the rocks just right, it would block the wind to keep them warm so they could dance and sing into the night without getting chilly.  They discovered that when they banged rocks together, they made wonderful banging noises to accompany their singing.  The songs and dances the Bes did for I Am got longer and longer and louder and louder.

I Am loved the new songs.

It wasn’t too long, though, before, Bes Being Bes, that restlessness arose again and the Bes began to feel bored.  They had been singing and dancing about I Am for so long that they longed to do something else.  I Am was saddened by this development, but loved the Bes so much that it decided to let them figure out what would satisfy their restlessness on their own.  I Am remembered what it had been like to simply be an I, before it was an I Am.  That was a lonely time.  I Am also understood that his little Beings were feeling that same way.  They were discovering the inner I Am-ness that it had given them so long ago.

One of the Bes, longing for something more, picked up a rock and threw it as far as she could in frustration.  Another Be saw her do this and clapped his hands with delight!  He squealed with joy as he ran over to the rock, picked it up and threw it back to her.  She was confused by what he had done, but saw his smile and realized she had done something that made him happy.  This, in turn, made her happy inside.  So she, again, picked up the rock and threw it as far as she could, this time in his direction.

The other Be jumped up and down with glee before running over to the rock and throwing it back to her.  They did this for hours, much to the amusement of I Am and all the other Bes that watched their new game.  Soon, other Bes joined in the fun, picking up their own rocks and throwing them to and fro.  So much fun was being had, with rocks flying overhead in every which direction.  Before long, all of the Bes had stopped singing and dancing and drawing pictures in the air in order to join in the rock throwing fun.  The songs about I Am were replaced with loud laughter and screams of excitement from the Bes, who were all quite impressed with their new game and their own ingenuity.

I Am smiled and watched them play.

With so many rocks flying through the air, it was only a matter of time before something unexpected happened.  Of course, it could’ve been expected that this unexpected event would be someone getting hit with a rock.  Anyone expecting that unexpected outcome would’ve gotten what they expected.  It wasn’t long before one Be threw a rock that hit another Be squarely in the head.  He howled in pain and held his head in his hands.  This quite frightened the other Bes, and they all began to wail in fear and with great feelings of sorrow for the Hurting Be who had been struck by the flying rock.

All the Bes except one, that is.  This singular Be saw the calamity, but remained calm.  She realized that the best thing to be done was to help ease the pain of the poor Hurting Be.  She ran right over to him and planted a loving kiss right on the spot where he had been hit by the rock.  Immediately, the Hurting Be stopped crying and flailing about.  He ceased Hurting as he looked at the Kissing Be with love and gratitude.  These new feelings were quite confusing, quite real and utterly overwhelming.  He decided that he wanted more of them, and would therefore follow the Kissing Be around everywhere she went forever and ever.  He was no longer the Hurting Be.  He had been transformed into the Thankful Be.  He never wanted to feel hurt or pain ever again, and only ever wanted to feel the way her kiss had made him feel.

Of course, other Bes saw this happen and decided the same thing.  They would devote themselves to following the Kissing Be around for the rest of her days.  They all wanted what she had given the Hurting Be that turned him into the Thankful Be.  This, of course, scared the Kissing Be immensely and she ran off as quickly as her legs would carry her (I Am had also given the Bes legs to better dance with).  The Thankful Be followed earnestly, but was never quite fast enough to catch her.

As they disappeared into the distance, all of the remaining Bes looked at one another, confused.  They realized that Being a Be was no longer enough for them.  Each Be now felt a longing to Be a Something Else Be.  It was all quite unsettling.

Not knowing quite what to do, the Bes scattered and began trying to fill their need to Be a Something Else Be.

One became a Counting Be.  He counted all of the rocks.  He counted all of the Bes.  He counted all of the clouds in the sky and the grains of sand on the ground.  He then counted all of grains of sand that touched another grain of sand, each cloud that produced rain, each rock that was thrown by each Be in turn.  The numbers overlapped and multiplied until the Counting Be had to devote himself to simply counting the numbers he had created.  Then he began counting the numbers of numbers he had counted and so on.  He was quite pleased with all of his counting and took every opportunity to try to convince the other Bes that his countings were of the upmost importance.  Some Bes agreed that counting was what they were meant to do, and so they joined him in counting and making sure that no other Be could do without their numbers.

One Be became a Rules Be.  She came up with all sorts of rules for the other Bes to live by.  She made rules about when they should go to sleep, when they should count, when they should throw rocks, when they should dance and when they should do none of these things.  She would roundly scold any Be that did not follow her rules to a tee.  Some Bes enjoyed this scolding and her rules.  They joined in her fun and set about making up new rules to scold other Bes for not following.  This did not go over well when they set in place a rule against doing was another Be had decided to become, but rules were rules and scoldings were handed out all the same.

One Be decided he would be a Word Be.  He came up with new words for all of the things the other Bes were being.  Pretty soon there were far too many different types of Bes for him to remember all of his words, so he became a Writing Be.  He wrote down all of the names of the different Bes and even came up with a bunch of new words to describe what they did.  He became the inventor of words like “long time ago,” “boring,” and, eventually, “love,” “Be” and “I Am.”

The Writing Be was extremely happy with all of his words and descriptions.  He would write them and write them and write them some more.  One day, the Counting Be was talking by and noticed how many words the Writing Be had created.

All of these words and no numbers for them?  How could this stand?  It could not, the Counting Be decided.  He then set about telling the Writing Be all about his numbers and how he simply could and should not be writing without counting his words with them.  The Writing Be wanted only to do his wordings and none of this counting business!  He set himself to telling the Counting Be where he could put his numbers and countings when up walked the Rules Be.  She noticed the look of frustration on the faces of both Bes and decided that there needed to be a rule about such matters.

She let the Counting and Writing Bes know that for each word worded, there would be at least one count counted.  If this counting did not occur, then there would be scoldings delivered, which, of course, would also need to be counted and written about lest there be more scoldings handed out (which would then also require countings and writings).  The Counting Be did not enjoy being told when and what to count, and began to argue with the Rules Be when up walked the Shushing Be.  The Shushing Be shushed them both with as much authority as he could muster with a shush.   Before long, up walked the Crying Be, who was quite upset by all the noise and kerfuffle.   She began doing what Crying Bes did, which was wailing at the top of her lungs and sobbing at how unfair the entire situation was.  This, of course, attracted the attention of the Consoling Be, who did her very best to make the Crying Be feel better about the activities of all the other Bes.

Soon, a great many other Bes with a great many other purposes for being joined the confusing chorus and the noise became unlike anything any Be had ever heard before.  It overwhelmed their senses of being until in a panic, they all froze.  Not a Be made a sound or a whimper.  They’d all lost their sense of purpose amidst all the shouting, crying, shushing, scolding, counting, writing and consoling.  Utterly confused, they stood silent, staring at one another wondering what to do next.

It was then that the Question Be remembered who she was.  She spoke to herself as much to all of the other Bes when she said simply “Who are you?  What are you doing?”

None of the Bes could answer these simple questions, for they had all lost their knowing and their purpose.  Even the Talking Be was at a loss for what to say.

Finally, one of them spoke, breaking the silence.  It wasn’t the Scholar Be or the Pastor Be or even the Leader Be that spoke.  It was The Simple Be that opened his mouth to answer the Question Be’s queries.

“I Am…” he said, unsure what to say next.

He paused for a moment, then said with a confidence and presence until now not heard among the shouts and din “I Am Being.”

There was a small murmur from all of the other Bes as they thought about what the Simple Be had said.  Some looked at the ground, some shuffled their feet, some others looked at their brothers and sisters for answers.  One by one, they all nodded and said quietly to themselves “I Am Being.”

Once they were all in agreement about this simple answer, the Singing and Dancing Bes remembered who they were and began to do what they were meant to do.  They sang and they danced until all of the other Bes decided to follow suit, chanting “I Am Being.” over and over as they did.

I Am looked down and smiled.  Oh, how its children had grown and how wonderful was their singing and dancing.  He drew pictures in the air of his children and was love.

Greetings, Sophichkin Sophisticates!  Great news for you all!  All of the previously published Sophichkin stories are now available for FREE on Smashwords.com!

We love this service.  Not only do they allow us to publish in multiple formats (PDF, MS Word, mobi, ePub, HTML and more) so you can enjoy the stories on whatever device you happen to have handy, not only do they allow us to set the price to anything we like (FREE!), but they also distribute for us to a metric-mess-ton of other retailers.

That means Sophichkin can now be found on Apple’s iBooks, Google Books, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Baker & Taylor, Gardners and about three gazillion other places.  She’s even likely to find her way into some libraries as a result.  How cool is that?

I’ll continue publishing first through Amazon, as I really like their Smile program and how easy it is to work with the mobi format, but moving forward you’ll also be able to find Sophichkin just about anywhere you’d buy books online.

Super duper mega jazzed.

PS: Sophichkin Gets a Lift is currently being illustrated.  Shhhh!

That’s right, Sophichkin is back and louder than ever! In her latest adventure (as always, illustrated by the talented and amazing Milana Samarskaya), Sophichkin does battle with with the monster under her bed.  Armed with only an array of joyous songs, will she ever get the sleep she needs?  Read Sophichkin Sings to Monsters to find out!

As an added bonus, today only, if you buy the Kindle version on Amazon using this link (you’ll need to search for “Sophichkin Sings to Monsters”), Amazon Smile is giving 10x their usual donation to the real life Sophichkin’s school!  Get a great story and help support Sophichkin’s education all with one click!  Boom!

Don’t want to use Amazon Smile?  No biggie.  I get it.  You can always find it here: Sophichkin Sings to Monsters on Amazon

There once was a little girl.  Her name was Sophichkin.

One night as she prepared for sleep, Sophichkin heard a noise coming from under her bed.  It was not a very beddy sounding sound.  It was also not a blankety sound.  It definitely was not doggy sound or a catty sound.   What kind of sound could it be?  If it wasn’t the bed, the floor, the blanket, the dog or the cat, surely it must be a monster!  It had been a rather monstery type sound, she decided.

The very idea of a monster making monstery sounds under her bed frightened Sophichkin very much.  With a monster making noise under her bed, she’d never be able to get to sleep.  Then she remembered that singing happy songs was a good way to scare off monsters.

So Sophichkin sang a song about twinkly little stars to herself.  It was a pretty song, one that she enjoyed singing very much.  The monster heard her singing, and he did not like it at all.  Monsters do not like twinkly little stars, not one bit.  But he was not scared away.  He was a rather stubborn monster, it turned out.  Surely, another song would do the trick!

So Sophichkin sang another song to herself, this time about rainbows.  She sang it in a silly froggy voice because she knew that froggies love rainbows.  The monster again heard Sophichkin’s song.  This time he was quite frightened by it, but still he did not leave.  What a stubborn monster!

Read the Rest!

Buy the Kindle version on Amazon

Get it free on Smashwords in ePub, mobi, PDF, Word or in your browser!

Even when things are quiet, the Sophichkin train keeps on a’rollin’. All the illustrations are in for Sophichkin Sings to Monsters and Milana and I are finalizing the cover now!  Once it’s ready, I plan to make it available for free as an eBook on Smashwords and at cost on Scribd and Amazon both, so stay tuned.  Up next is Sophichkin’s Teacup!

On that note, I’ll be porting all of the yet-to-be-illustrated stories to myriad digital formats and making them available for free on multiple channels (including Scribd and Smashwords).

I was recently challenged by a friend to produce one story per month for the next year and to give them all away.  So it’s on.  I counted Sophichkin Gets a Lift as the first story in the challenge, so only 11 more to go!

I’ve started work on a few new projects, among them one short story collection (#bears, #tourists, #monks, #eagles) and a short novel length story (#soulmates, #goats), both for young adults.  The real life Sophichkin also fed me the synopsis for another children’s book this very morning, informing me that I have no say in the matter — it will get written!  Fairies and insects are involved.  So there’s that.  Assuming she has the time and willingness to work with me again, this one should be a bonanza of fun for Milana to illustrate.

Remember to always be kind,

-Daniel