Where

‘Where’ sure is an interesting concept.
Looking at that word brings questions to mind.
Like, where what? Where from? Where we live?
Where would we choose to live? Or even… where do we begin.

Where, where… where?

And ‘where’ what or who?
Should we focus on our whereabouts…
Or that of our characters too.

Maybe we’ll just cover the gamut. Maybe not.
We are writing in real time here, so the outcome is not yet known.

Where shall we start? (See?)

The middle of the forest, on a lake. Muskoka.
Cottage country. That seems like a perfect spot to begin.
The area most special to us. It’s where we grew individually and as a team.
Also where we embraced every season as though summer.

Montreal. Jef’s birth place. He stayed there for 9 years.
That’s where he saw both Star Wars and Greece. He didn’t mind subtitles.
Enjoyed many an orange julep as well.

Toronto. That’s where he moved. Spent most of his life there, actually.
Plus, it’s Mindy’s place of birth… and likely why we met.
Meaning, it’s where we met.

And where we spent a few years of our lives together.
Yorkville. Our first city home and full office.
Right across the street from each other.

Convenient yet also scary.
Turns out, the office building had ghosts.
An article in the newspaper years later said so!
Never mind that matter though…

Harborfront, The Annex, Queen West, The Beaches, and Junction Triangle.
We did them all. Thanks Airbnb. Was an adventure.

Hawaii. The place we began our journey as husband and wife.
Interestingly, it turned out to be where we finalized our first TV deal.
It was with TSN for the Fitness Canada Pageant and Musclemania.
Hawaii also where an active volcano melted the soles of our shoes. Oops.

Sharon. A tiny town boasting a street of its own name…
Yes, it was the very street on which we lived. Our first home after we wed.
We painted it ourselves. It was very, very colorful. Very.
In one room, we just used all the remaining paints. (Mistake.)

Lots of wheres. Tons of places. Great experiences. Many memories.
All ours.

Being authors, the other ‘where’ worth mentioning…
is where we actually wrote The Ridiculous series.

Well, that answer starts simple.
Class. Yes, thanks to teenage Jef.

That’s where it began, but not where it ended.
It travelled everywhere with him. Loose papers in a duotang of some sort.

The Ridiculous returned to life and lived in Muskoka on Gibson Lake.
Then to Huntsville, Port Carling, and atop Huckleberry Point.
(Psst: that’s a nod to Ridiculous readers to be exact).

It got enhanced in Mexico and Puerto Rico… while on a 13 month getaway.
More on that another time though.

A lot was written right where we are now… Toronto.
So that’s the where of it. But not the where of it all.
Because there’s more.

That was our where… as humans, and human authors.

Allow us to introduce another layer… the characters.
The very ones we dreamt up, and are still imagining.

Where oh where are they from, we hope some of you are wondering.
Serbinand. He’s from Placellner. It’s often mistaken for a star.
Devoid of trees. (Long story, although the short of it is in the series.)

Jime. Well, he is simply known as being from Earth.
We would like to think Muskoka. Truth is, it could be anywhere…
Although it most definitely is Muskoka.

If you are familiar with its hood, let us know if you recognize scenes.
(Pssst. Anything goes… mountaintop to the burger shop.)

Godfried. It, well, he, has origins that are unknown.
That’s primarily because he was gifted to a character as a gift.
Legend has it he was a very, very, very ancient being. A powerhouse one.
Actually captured itself within a computer superchip, making it portable.
Mostly though, it came to exist as the controller of a super spaceship.

Orville. Not sure how to say this… but, he’s from, ummm… a…cage.
A nice wire one.

Being a budgie, these authors thought that was fine.
However, reading that sentence as it flowed, makes us question even that.
Hmmm. Let’s not mind this matter though. At least not right now.

Besides, as writers, we remedied that easily.
With the stroke of our pen, errr, the punching of our keys…
we were able to relocate Orville.

With Jime’s adventures about to begin,
it made sense to let his best buddy travel with him.
Meaning, his where now is flying free. On Earth, more specifically.

Finally, there is Free. Where she came from is quite unique.
She was created from Jime’s thoughts… and his heart desires.
Through his imagination, he envisioned his perfect partner:
A soul mate, his bestie. But where did she originate from?

That’s the question.
Well, that answer is best revealed inside the pages of the book.

Let’s just say she looks of Earth but acts not of it.

Excuse us. We spoke too soon. Free was not our final character.
There are a bunch more. The extras, so to say. The minor role ones.
But just like in movies, we’re not mentioning them.

Let’s just say they came from the ethers… and into our minds.

So that, all of that, is ‘where’.
But if you look deeper, it actually boils down to here.
(Well, once you remove the ‘w’.)

Where is your where?