My wife’s grandfather, we call him Bobbo, is the absolute best 90+ year old dude I know. His great-grandkids love him, his grandkids love him, we “grandkids-in-law” love him, everyone loves him. One day several years back when Bobbo was visiting us at our house, he commented on how funny our kids were becoming and how much they were talking.

“Pretty soon,” he said, “they will start saying the word ‘actually’ a lot. I remember when my other grandkids started saying ‘actually’. I think it’s great fun when they do that!”

And so, my story “Actually...” was born. It’s about a kid with a fabulously limitless imagination, who’s telling his grandpa about all the fun he’s been having. This one is for you, Bobbo!

In the longer original version of this story, a mother who has a whole bunch of kids is wandering around her house, trying to find inspiration for a short story she needs to write. The story is for an upcoming writing contest which is taking place in the small town where they live. As she interacts with her kids (all of whom are of course making messes and merriment around the house) she finds plenty of ideas. From these moments, she pieces together the story of the Wonderbeard pirates. So it’s both the tale of her coming up with the story, and the actual Wonderbeards story itself.

The idea was to reveal how writing inspiration truly does come from absolutely everywhere, if you keep your eyes and ears open. Truth be told, almost all of the things the kids come up with are things that my daughter likes or that she imagined at one time or another. Including the nine finned unicorn shark!

My colleagues at knowonder suggested I pull out the Wonderbeards’ story parts and put those together to make it just about these nice pirates having a whimsical adventure. Perhaps you’d like to read both versions and decide for yourself - which is your favorite?

(Incidentally, this story includes the phrase “poop deck”, which may seem like it’s there just for a cheap laugh. Yes, to be perfectly honest, I used the phrase to get a little giggle. But I also used it because it makes sense to the story AND this is a real nautical term meaning: “the aftermost and highest deck of a ship, especially in a sailing ship where it typically forms the roof of a cabin in the stern.”)

The mess-making creature in this story is based off a little monster shirt our son had when he was a toddler. He loved the shirt and we thought he looked so cute in it. Once upon a time, my always-active imagination wondered, what would happen if that critter somehow escaped and became real?

Also, I named the girl in the story after my niece Grace. So this one is for you all, the PA Doyle’s!

This one, again, involves our daughter. You’ll notice in these little write-ups that she’s inspired a lot of my early work. I suspect that’s true for most writers who have children. What can I say, kids are interesting and random - two things that really help churn up the ol’ idea making machine!

Several years ago, she came home from school or art camp or somewhere with an illustration showing something that could only be called a CatElephant. I don’t know why she drew it, the beast simply sprung from her imagination.

Immediately I wondered...how does this beast behave? Where does it live? What does it do? I decided I must reveal these answers in a story.

Funny side note - I named the CatElephant “Ren” after “Ren McCormick” from one of my favorite movies, “Footloose”. Bet you would’ve never guessed that!

No matter how hard I wish for it, I honestly cannot recall my inspiration for this tale. Sometimes something simply comes to your mind, for no reason at all, and since you’re a writer--you write. Good enough?

Two things I can say for sure are the Grandma and Papa in the story are based on my wife’s parents. Except she isn't called Grandma, she's called Meme. “Papa’s workshop” definitely exists too. And there’s plenty of piles of wood and other random things all around the real shop too, perfect for a little kid to rummage around in, looking for magic!

This was one of my earliest stories and it came straight out of my day-to-day life. For over nine years now, I’ve been a stay-home dad with our two magnificent kids. We’ve spent a tremendous amount of play time together building block towers, huge Lego structures, and other such things. When our youngest was around two years old, he was--of course--a perfect demolitions expert. So naturally, one day I wondered, if a toy tower was never knocked down, how high could it go?

You might have noticed when the dad came out of the house and saw Teddy’s extremely dangerous tower being built, he jumped right in to play along with no hesitation whatsoever. This is me...just a big old kid, always in the mix, having fun, and willing to hold the ladder all night long.

Oh this is my favorite story. Did I say that already? Maybe I have. But this one is really my favorite. Probably. This story was SO MUCH fun to write and it’s a blast to read aloud. It started just as this impossible list of things to do - no story at all, just a weird, circular to-do list. Then I realized it would work much better with a story framework around it. And since it’s meant to be enjoyed by kids, it ought to have a kid in it. Enter Molly Nolly!

She’s based on our daughter, by the way. And the Ohmslice (NO IDEA where/how I came up with that name) is, yet again, based on a piece of artwork created by our daughter. Everything else in the story is completely made up. Flartus Flubberwonk is definitely, absolutely NOT me. He might be me.

I hope you are enjoying all these little insights into my writer’s mind! I’m going to take a break and grab some ice cream. Wait, what's this trickery? The carton is nearly empty, except for some remnants in the corner.

ARRRGHH--THAT TROUBLESOME OHMSLICE HAS BEEN AT IT AGAIN!!!