Posted on November 20th, 2021

I created Curtis Chameleon Boy Wonder books during a winter holiday season. I received phone calls from my little nephew about what to buy him for Christmas.

He had asked repeatedly for action figure cards. I did not know which figures he wanted, so I answered yes by saying that when I came to see him, I would take him shopping to pick out the cards he wanted.

On the evening I came to see him, he was ready to go. He gave me time to put my bags down and we were out the door. He directed me to a small dark shop with a dusty appearance. I wondered how he had found such a shop, but I discovered that action figure fans knew all the hidden spots to find select cards.

We went inside the shop and the owner directed us to a glass enclosed show case. The owner knew my nephew’s name. I supposed my nephew had been there often.

Nephew eagerly selected cards, and I paid for them. I asked what else he wanted for Christmas, and he answered that he had everything he wanted.

A day after Christmas, my nephew’s friends came over with their cards. They sat down on the living room carpet and began to play.

I had occasion to come downstairs. I expected to hear the noise of young boys laughing and playing together, but all I heard was silence. I thought that was strange, so I investigated. I looked into the living room to see what was going on, and if the boys had decided to go out and play.

I was surprised to see a set of five boys kneeling around the coffee table executing a series of trading strategies.

My curiosity drove me to ask to see the cards. I saw that all the cards had adult action figure or adult superheroes. I asked to see the cards with kid superheroes.

The boys looked at me as if I were crazy, wondering what I was talking about.

One boy said that there were no kid superheroes on the cards, only adults action figures.

I felt this was an unfair situation. Kids were heavy into these action figures, but they had no representative action figures who were their age.

I told the kids that I was going to write a book with a hero who was their age. I promised.

The boys stared at me for a second and returned to their Wall Street style card trading. I thought they had forgotten about me.

I went back to my computer and tried to come up with an idea for a kid superhero.

It did not come immediately, but after two weeks, I came up with an idea for Curtis Chameleon Boy Wonder.

I worked on the novel for two weeks, then the boys came over and wanted to read the story. I was just starting the second chapter of the first draft, but the boys were waiting. I told them to come back the next day.

I spent the remainder of the day re-working the novel into a short story. At noon the next day, the group showed up to read the story.

They took the copies, told me I could go, and they set about to read and discuss the story.

I went upstairs to my computer to work. After a while, the kids came up and gave their copies back to me. They looked me in the eye and asked to read another story. I replied that I had only that one. They asked when the next story would be ready. I told them two weeks. They just stared unmoving. I changed it to one week and they said Okay.

I worked feverishly until I had a skeleton for the second story.

The group came back, read the story, and wanted another one. So, it began.