Product Development Detour

During my unexpected journey, I developed a line of products to represent Heaven's Wait. It included fun items and activities for young children that revolved around my bonus characters of the land, the Drippils. Since the suite of Drippils products was ready to move beyond my test groups and onto my website for purchase in the real world, I realized the name, The Drippils, needed the same protection as Heaven's Wait. I inquired into beginning the trademark process all over again, but decided to hold off until the items were actually out there in commerce. Knowing how I had hit snags and delays in the past, I wanted to make sure all was in order before I proceeded.

In the meantime, I realized that with my first eBook, R.J.'s Story, Heaven's Wait! Tales from Vowella, soon to become a reality, I wanted to add some items to the Heaven's Wait store that represented elements from my original vision and storyline, of which R.J.'s Story was a part.

It wasn't hard to decide on the first two items. In the story, R.J. loved the coffee blend he had created from the various nooks and crannies of Heaven's Wait's dark and creepy Jimmy's Jungle. Since I was deeply connected to a certain Bay Area coffee roasting company, I leaned on my husband and sons to come up with a coffee offering that would be worthy of R.J. And since R.J. and the Vowellans are such smart folks, we also gave them credit for figuring out how to decaffeinate some of the beans in their remote environment. So we ended up with two coffee offerings for the Heaven's Wait website: R.J.'s Blend and Jungle Decaf. I designed the packaging to fit the HW theme, and I added the items to the store.

Another idea I wanted to pursue was the design and creation of Wistamere scarves. In R.J.'s Story, wistas were magical animals that were under the care of one of Vowella Valley's oddball clans, the Fig Wigs. The Fig Wigs were masters at creating dreamy scarves from the combings of the wistas. So my sister, Donna, and I went on a hunt for a yarn that could emulate the heavenly, delicate combings of the wistas. After pounding many a sidewalk, we came across a unique yarn that fit the bill, in a color that was a perfect match to the wistas and Heaven's Wait's theme.

Donna knitted and ripped out again and again on cheap yarns until we settled on two designs that fit my vision of scarves the Fig Wigs would produce in their isolated world. I sent Donna on her way, with good yarn in hand, to produce some lovely handmade scarves that would be as exclusive to Heaven's Wait as the coffees. It was so much fun to see the ideas materialize into real, marketable goods. *

Once again, I was creeping a little closer to pushing my project out the door.

*Catch a glimpse of these exclusive items from R.J.'s Story(before they are available for purchase)on HW's website: www.heavenswait.com/ShopHWStore.aspx