Answer: Both.Mr. Bo Vine writes edgy, paranormal fractured fairy tales (or is that dairy tails?) and Mr. Wesley Wiccup writes quirky fantasy, anthropomorphic tween novels (that oddly enough feature lots of cows).
Okay, so Bo is doubly branded if you count that epidermal mutilation thingy, which he asks you kindly not to refer to as a "rump roast." But, we digress.
Yesterday, writer and teacher Dianne White was cool enough to share her branding tips in the Writer2Writer program at the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse. Organized monthly by Children's Books Manager Catherine Linka, the Writer2Writer program features fun and informative topics for kidlit writers.
Armed with a yummilicious mango smoothie, I spent an hour refining my understanding of the concept of branding for authors. Dianne provided a useful hand-out to help organize the process of whittling from a foundation of core values to a "succinct tagline."
Not as easy as it sounds, folks. I don't count whittling among my talents. Dhittling, yes. Fhittling, yes. Whittling, no. But that's part of the process. There's a mountain of thought behind a single word or concept.
In pondering all this branding stuff, I've gotten a strange urge to go out and get a tattoo. Yet, somehow, I don't think that was the point.
In any case, only time will tell if I'm able to figure out all the subtleties of branding. Either I'll be covered in tattoos by the end of it, or the very sound of my name will conjure a distinct commercial jingle in the minds of all sentient beings.
