I enjoyed walking past the artists’ cubicles and seeing them busily ‘sketching away’. In time I’d learn some were building model sheets – art studies that would show a series’ characters in various poses, standardizing appearances and gestures for other artists to duplicate, providing continuity to a series. Others had other tasks, but I particularly liked watching the model sheets take shape and how the artists brought the characters to life.

Still, I could only hang around artists so long since we didn’t speak the same language. It was my second day at the new studio and Lori was somewhere out of the office. So after lunch I drifted back to Sandy. He had me read a couple of Care Bears scripts to familiarize myself with the series, which made sense. But he was surprised when I asked to see the series bible, like I wasn’t supposed to know about series bibles.

When I reminded him I’d worked on The Littles, he said, “Oh yeah…” As he pulled the Care Bears series bible from his desk drawer, I wondered why he hadn’t given it to me the day before.

As the day ended and I started to leave with the series bible and two scripts, Sandy called, “Bring them back tomorrow.” I glanced at him, almost asking, “Do you think I’m planning on peddling them on the black market?” Instead, I just left.

Back home, at my rented condo, I was gloomy. By the time I finished rereading the series bible and the scripts, I knew why. It had been more than three weeks since I’d written anything. I walked down the third floor corridor toward Jean’s condo and knocked on his door, hoping he’d throw me a lifeline.