Ordinary Day

This song has kind of gone through that overplaying stage where I got so sick of it being on all the time that I deliberately forgot it. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. It was just on all the time and even the songs I like get old after that much repetition.

Still, as it played on Pandora, I couldn’t help thinking of Thyme and Whim.

When Thyme meets him, she’s doing that daily grind thing. She’s job hunting. It’s an ordinary day, just like the lyrics.

Just a day,
Just an ordinary day.
Just trying to get by.

Thyme becomes the catalyst by which Whim finds his own path, with her help and advice and even meddling, she gets him to break free of the rules that he thought he had to live by, freeing him for a future that is limitless. At one point, though, she tells him, “If you really think that the only way you can live is by someone’s wishes, find someone new to wish for you.” He asks if that’s her.

And as I looked up into those eyes
His vision borrows mine.
And I know he’s no stranger,
For I feel I’ve held him for all of time.

In the light of her name being Thyme, this part is almost funny.

Touch the stars for time will not flee.
Time will not flee.

Of course, Whim isn’t ordinary, so that doesn’t fit, but what does fit is how well this goes with the concept behind the cover art.

Don’t you see all your dreams lie right in the palm of your hand.

For more on that, though, see the Kabobbles on Art piece about the cover.


Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.

All I Want Is You

This song has a memory connection for me, since the first time I heard it was on the in-flight entertainment when I went to France. I didn’t actually know the original version of it, but I did like the cover.

I was thinking about Just a Whim and how much wants have to do with the story and what Thyme finally realizes she wants, and this song was playing. It all connected, though the song doesn’t fit as much as some of the others have.

The sections with the wants or the offers, like this one:

You say you’ll give me
A highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night

Whim is capable of granting all of them, so that fits.

This little bit, too:

You say you want
Your story to remain untold

That has a bit of a double meaning in the story.

All the promises that we made from the cradle to the grave when all I want is you…


Kabobbles Sing Along is just what I think when I hear songs. I sometimes see images when I hear lyrics, pictures or movies in my head. Sometimes I relate it to stories. My interpretation of the songs and lyrics are probably nothing like their original intent.

I Am Not an Artist

I had a simple concept for the art on Just a Whim. From the beginning, I knew what I wanted, and I even thought I knew how to get it. I was definitely wrong about that.

 

The cover needed only a few things, a hand and some ribbons. Why ribbons? Why a hand? I thought both of them symbolized what the story was largely about. Whim’s ability to see these things that pass through our thoughts and hands sometimes faster than we notice. The dreams, the hopes, the wishes, and the fear, all kind of like threads passing by. Then we have his mother who gave him rules, and these rules could be chains, but Thyme points out that they could be more like guidelines, that they only really matter when Whim believes in them, and so in a way, the cover is also showing those rules falling away.

 

At least, that was the theory. The execution of it… Well, it definitely didn’t look good when I started in on it. I figured all I needed was a picture of my hand with some ribbons. Then the color was wrong, so I started to fix that.

 

cover art attempt start whim

 

You can see it wasn’t going quite as I hoped. Still, I kept trying. I got rid of the background, made it so that the ribbons were all solid color, and the hand even looked… okay.

 

progressing cover attempt whim

 

It was coming along. Really. Okay, kind of.

 

nearly complete attempt

 

I thought making it white in back would help.

 

pretty much end of attempt on whim

 

Still, I could tell it was wrong. I asked for help. This is what I got. This is why I need a cover artist. Because the cover artist did this.

 

just a whim cover art

 

It’s still my hand, though.