The Imaginarium by Mark Hoppmann

A book I came across soon after graduating from college almost 40 years ago, planted the seed for The Imaginarium. The title now escapes me, but the story and the illustrations were in the style of Shel Silverstein. A detective, (picture Inspector Clouseau), peers intently through his magnifying glass at footprints while a small puppy followed directly behind him devouring everything in its path. As the footprints grew larger and the clues more terrifying, the puppy following behind the inspector grew proportionately larger and more terrifying, until too late, the inspector turns just as the giant dog devours him in one bite. The detective’s past and his future had become one and the same.The theme was perfect for a vivid dreamer such as myself. To a vivid dreamer, dreams are a wonderful experience.  I walk through the back door of my grandfather’s workshop on the edge of a wheatfield in Nebraska only to emerge onto a great battle in the Arabian desert. I can traverse time and space as