Way at the beginning of the month, we entered a cartoon into a competition for holiday animations.

These are the last few days to see our entry in the contest (it’s three minutes long). Here you go! For anyone who likes to copy and paste into their own browser – http://is.gd/3FOCA.

We love imagining things like this – a StoryPeople cartoon on network tv.

We love imagining places where we can play with all sorts of ideas and ways of telling stories. In fact, we love that you often cover territory we never thought of.

It’s just big fun (which is kind of convenient since we can’t help ourselves). Some people are really good at being doctors. Or librarians. Or … politicians. (I would, admit, like to meet a few more of those. The ones who are good at it, I mean.)

We’re good at playing.

Although, I think it deserves admitting that making a cartoon is not all play. Since the whole goal was getting this cartoon in front of People Who Know Their Cartoons, we had to wear serious faces on more than one occasion. The People Who Know etc. etc. are really nice people, we’re sure, but they do have an awful lot of rules and restrictions and guidelines.

Okay, sometimes? When you’ve animated a whole scene and realize it doesn’t work – it just DOES NOT WORK – and that scene needs to be tossed? Okay, that is definitely not play. That is highly poopy.

Still, mostly, it’s wonderful. Ful of wonder. (Does make you think it should’ve been wonderfull, doesn’t it?)

It can’t be that different from those moments you have on your own blog, in your own writing and photography and dance and acting. You deliver the exquisite line on Facebook, you have a conversation with someone really listening.

Those are wonderful moments, aren’t they, when we know we’re spreading the tendrils of stories. And those stories are changing things.

Imagine THAT. Wheee!