A Remarkable Engineer: Professor Vincent Wizoom
June 23, 2020
Alby's best friend, Professor Wizoom, is a brilliant engineer and scientist. He spends almost every day building unbelievable machines within his laboratory. One such machine is a triangular doorway that Alby finds highly unusual. This doorway will eventually transport Alby into a strange, new world - Jumbalot!
Wizoom is based on multiple engineering professors that I currently work with. I
honestly grew tired of the typical depiction of engineers / scientists that look like Albert Einstein and Doc Brown. I encourage you to learn more about any college engineering program and you'll discover that the faculty are from every corner of the world.
The Latest Jumbalot News!
Receiving five‑star reviews is always a thrill, and Journey to Jumbalot has been fortunate to earn several more over the past few months - thank you to every reader who took the time to share their thoughts. One comment made my day, describing Jumbalot as “Zootopia on steroids,” which feels like the perfect way to capture the wild, creature‑rich chaos of Alby’s adventure. https://tinyurl.com/52c6kp2r https://tinyurl.com/2e5mm9c r https://tinyurl.com/bd6rud9r https://tinyurl.com/4bad8jmp Reviews Page
I’m currently writing the sequel to my novel, and it will be titled The Knights of Jumbalot. Its roughly 50% written and it has been a joy creating new jumboos and magical lands preteen readers will enjoy exploring. Here is a short list of new jumboo species readers will learn more about: mothanzeebras, leopardiles, snaillamas, and bobcrows. Here’s a preview of one of my favorite lines from the sequel. It’s brief, but it captures the heart of what this next adventure is about: “Alby, your journey is just beginning.” Alby receives this message from the most powerful object in the first book, The Gem of Jumbalot. He believes his heroic journey is over, but he soon discovers it was only the beginning of something much bigger. Alby will find himself called back to Jumbalot to face a new threat that he will not be able to face alone. This threat is more dangerous and powerful than the first novel’s antagonist named Rozer. The Knights of Jumbalot must rise again to face this threat!
A huge shout-out to University of South Florida Zimmerman students Regina Segovia, Nicholas Bowen, and Ashika Patel for an outstanding presentation of their final media kit project featuring my book, Journey to Jumbalot. They provided valuable ideas on promoting my book through social media, press releases, in-person events, and interactive drawing contests. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Mimi Perreault for reaching out to me about her PR Writing course’s media kit project. It’s hard to believe that I released my book five years ago. Despite winning several awards and receiving positive reviews, selling a self-published book has proven to be quite challenging. Nicholas, Regina, and Ashika showcased their creativity with excellent promotion ideas that will help me spread the word, and I am forever grateful. They have bright futures ahead of them!