I was flipping channels this afternoon and came across a show about the top ten Chameleons in acting. It was on biography channel.

At first I was barely watching, but as I got into the show it was mentioning different actors who’ve done very diverse roles quite convincingly.

Kate Blanchett, Mery Streep and Heather Ledger were all on the lists in different spots, and the top chameleon of them all was Johnny Depp.

Going from Edward Scissorhands to Captain Sparrow and all the roles in between.

They interviewed the actors about how they felt about doing the roles and they all had something in common. Heath Ledger said that he had a short attention span and he got bored very easily. And the others just talked about how they liked to be challenged.

And I got to thinking about the term chameleon and I think it fits me.

Boy do I get bored easily!

And there’s something in me that I can’t seem to write a ‘safe’ book.  An ‘easy’ book. A book in line with something I’ve already done before.

You know like those ‘Give a mouse a cookie’ ‘Give a pig a pancake’ books. Basically the same chain of events but with different animals.

Can’t you just hear the cash register ‘kaching kaching’ with that type of book. But I can’t seem to do that. And I have tried. Even with Big Red Lollipop, to do a kind of take on it. But nope. My imagination just won’t cooperate.

Seems I have to write something new.

It’s like once I’ve created the nerve synapses in my brain that taught me how to write that story, it won’t let me go down the same path to make a duplicate (but with just other characters or scenarios).

Even my sequel, for goodness sakes, had to be in a completely different vein to the original Wanting Mor.

And as I was watching the stories about these actors who did much the same thing, I wondered if I wasn’t a ‘chameleon’ too.

I’ve been hopping around writing for all kinds of age groups. Writing funny stories, and sad stories. Going whichever way my imagination wandered.

It sure makes marketing myself a hassle.

I can’t count all the people who’ve picked up a picture book of mine and then saw my novels and said they didn’t know I’d written that.

Oh well, one day I hope they’ll notice my name on the cover.

All I want is for one day, people to pick up a book with my name on the cover and know they’re going to get an interesting story.

To me that will be my definition of success.