The Idea Pot

I'm writing two new stories around some old characters I'm very fond of. The first one also introduces a Princess and a bog full of frogs. The second one was to have added an Indiana Jones-like character who arrives in a big blue zeppelin. And then - and you can trust me on the chronology here, even though I'm professionally addicted to bending truth - I was told about the recently released "The Princess and the Frog" and shown a DVD of "UP" ...

Has my brain been taken over by Disney (horror!) or Pixar (well, if you must) in the night? Or is it just another example of convergent evolution? Two sets of hands reaching into the Idea Pot and pulling out the same thing?

"The Princess and the Frog," I have been assured, is completely different from my first story, which is good because I've just finished writing it. "Up" (I loved it - and I'm so glad I didn't have to watch it in a cinema with a bunch of kids - like Wall-E, so not a children's cartoon!) isn't like the second story either, really. Even so, I think I just might change my adventurer into a woman. On a skateboard.

Or did I just think of that because of having watched the Olympic Snowboard Halfpipe ...

Cheers, Joan.

P.S. Not a lot of warmth has been expressed for the new blog title. I will probably just quietly put it back to Joan Lennon's Blog and pretend nothing ever happened.