The "Outtake"
The video below is a section of my story that ended up on the proverbial "cutting room floor." While I think that the passage is funny (not to mention Liz's hilarious and spot-on illustration), the story had a certain "clunkiness" to it without some explanation for how the narrator ends up back in his room at home for the final "happy ending" scene. Therefore, I removed this part and added the "space interlude/falling asleep" passages, with my own primitive illustrations.
The reaction of my "test audience" (aka my two kids) also seemed to confirm that the joke being told in this passage was a bit too grown-up and "inside-ish" for its own good. It never occured to me, when I originally composed the story, that a "purist" attitude towards sharks and dinosaurs is something that develops a bit later in childhood, when boys lose a little bit of whimsy and gain a bit of fanaticism and literalism regarding their favorite interests. Perhaps when my kids are a bit older, I will re-insert this section!