Anyone who had ever read the work of Daniel West would tell you that he was eloquent and outspoken, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary in less than a paragraph. Anyone who had ever spoken to Daniel himself, however, couldn't tell you very much. While a highly praised and verbose children's author on paper, who spun tales and characters from thoughts no other writer had the ingenuity to fathom, in conversation he summed up the events of his work week with a shrug of the shoulders and a complacent "eh". His thoughts on political issues didn't extend beyond "hmph", his day always went "you know...", and "oh, nothing" was what was always on his mind. It was not so much that Daniel was dull and aimless, it was not that at all. His brain was a hub of new ideas and thoughts and questions that he could have elaborated on until he was blue in the face. If he were ever to expand upon his reveries beyond "meh"'s and "dunno"'s, he would be able to snag the attention of anyone with an inquiring mind within a ten block radius, so innovative and dumbfounding were the places he traveled to, the people he met, the discoveries made inside the universe that was Daniel West's mind. But just as deftly as he magnified an idle daydream into its own anomalous world, Daniel had condensed his sensational gift into something of a contrite knick knack he stuffed into his back pocket. It was almost a nuisance to him, one that blotched his freckled face red when complimented, and made his usually nonchalant mumbles of acknowledgment into incoherent sputterings accompanied with profuse perspiration, which caused his slightly over sized glasses to slide down his long and thin nose.
As much as Daniel tried to water down his talent and prolific dreaming, he was fighting a losing battle. He was a very accomplished writer; there was no denying his abilities. Whenever a new book of his came out, the windows of bookstores were plastered with the children who were loyal fans of Daniel and his series's protagonist, the brave knight Sir Gregor. A person standing on the inside of the shop would not be able to see out the store window due to the fog created by the round squashed faces, peering eagerly at the shelves of shiny new books as though they thought staring harder and smooshing their faces closer would allow them to read through the hardback cover and be reunited with their literary hero for yet another adventure. It was often suggested that far more could be learned about the enigma that was Daniel West from books that were no more than a 45 minute read than from a 2 hour one-on-one interview with him.
As much as Daniel tried to water down his talent and prolific dreaming, he was fighting a losing battle. He was a very accomplished writer; there was no denying his abilities. Whenever a new book of his came out, the windows of bookstores were plastered with the children who were loyal fans of Daniel and his series's protagonist, the brave knight Sir Gregor. A person standing on the inside of the shop would not be able to see out the store window due to the fog created by the round squashed faces, peering eagerly at the shelves of shiny new books as though they thought staring harder and smooshing their faces closer would allow them to read through the hardback cover and be reunited with their literary hero for yet another adventure. It was often suggested that far more could be learned about the enigma that was Daniel West from books that were no more than a 45 minute read than from a 2 hour one-on-one interview with him.
