I seem in danger of letting the blog slip - as I've been working on stuff for my wife's school, and a little idea for a children's short story (and now thanks to predictive text a children's snot story). So with that in mind I thought I'd try it out here - any thoughts will be appreciated (and slightly dreaded), along with some of my illustration ideas and process.

"The Cleaning Ninja.

Harrison liked to play with his toys. He liked to take them out on long adventures, where they would fight terrible enemies, climb enormous mountains, save villages in the nick of time, and generally get a bit battered and bruised. So it was understandable that when Harrison finished playing both he and the toys were exhausted. Way too exhausted to crawl back to where they lived in the cupboard. Instead Harrison and his toys lay puffed out, until Harrison had to go to bed.

Harrison's Mummy would often complain about the state of his bedroom. She would put her hands on her hips and wonder how he found anything in that mess!

One morning, after Harrison had been on a particularly tiring adventure his Mummy looked into the room and put her hands on her hips.

"Harrison, this room is a mess - I'm sure you can't find anything in here. It's time that you tidied it up. Here are some boxes and some cloths, I'm going to the shops, when I get back I expect to see it all put away tidy, and any mess cleaned up."

"But Mummy..." Harrison started, but it was no good, the cloths and boxes flew into his room, and the door shut. Harrison stood and looked at all the toys around him.

They were everywhere.

There was no way he could tidy all this, not by himself. You would need Ninja skills to be able to get anywhere in here. Harrison slapped his forehead, "Of course!" he shouted. He had forgotten that only last week he and Blue Ted had climbed the Himalayas to the temple of The Monks, where they had learnt how to be Ninjas so they could defeat the evil dinosaurs of doom. All he had to do was remember what he had been taught.

Harrison stood and closed his eyes. Ninjas were cunning, and could flip and roll so that they couldn't be caught by enemy weapons. And they could make anything into a weapon, so they were always prepared. Harrison remembered all the skills he had learnt, and thought he could use it to tidy his room.

The next second The Cleaning Ninja was flying through the air, before rolling through his toys - flicking them into the cupboard where they lived.

Just as he was about to hit the wall, he spun and pushed off the side, grabbing his building brick spaceships and using them to glide toward the cupboard. At the last second he let go, bouncing on the chair to send his dinosaurs and soldiers sailing into the cupboard with the others. He then dealt with the stragglers - chopping and kicking the last few toys into the cupboard before those who were left ran there for safety.

Harrison, 'The Cleaning Ninja', bowed deeply toward the cupboard and shut the door.

Just as he took off his mask, the bedroom door opened and in walked Mummy. She blinked.

"Wow," she said, "this is much better, and so quick - I'm very impressed. Aren't you good?" Harrison smiled. His Mummy walked around the room - checking to see it had all been cleared. "Isn't this nicer?" she said, leaning on the cupboard door, "Now, do you think you can keep it like this?"

"Oh yes," nodded Harrison, just as Mummy knocked he cupboard door and all of Harrison's toys whooshed out and covered the bedroom floor. Mummy looked around at all the mess and wailed, "Harrison!"

"Don't worry Mummy," smiled Harrison, "The Cleaning Ninja will sort it all out.""

Well that's where it is at the moment - along with some rough thumbnail sketches to pepper the story.

As well, I suspect some more of the chaos - which I'm looking forward to drafting - as I get to act it out first 😉.