A few years ago, when I was a fledgling wanna-be writer and an enthusiastic believer in “if you write something new, different, and interesting, people will like it and will buy it and write a review!” Well, that ain’t necessarily so!
Thousands of scripts are written only to be thrown in the trash or left crying so many tears of disappointment that the paper disintegrates in the bottom drawer, leaving only faded dreams. The brave souls who have the courage to send their manuscript to a Publisher could show you their bottom drawers, but probably won’t.
It is discouraging as hell to hear, “I don’t read anymore!” If it is your eyesight, you are forgiven; if you listen to audiobooks. I want to shout, “You are missing so much! After reading a good book, or a great book, you imagine doing amazing things and being anything you want to be is the payback.
We read to our kids every night. It helped them to develop imagination. We had tons of picture books with large typeset words. They were allowed to pick more than one, and we would read until they sometimes fell asleep. By the time they started school, they could read. Kids who read at a young age are better equipped for academic goals.
Our daughter had three imaginary playmates when she was little and spent many happy hours having adventures with them while playing on our glass-enclosed sun porch in Fairfield, Maine.
As with most kids, when she became an adult, she only remembered their names. She knew I had developed a love of writing, and one day she asked, “Mom, why don’t you write a book about my imaginary playmates?”
The problem was, she could only remember their names: Ning, Dog, and Boss!
No problem. I created a character for each one through an interesting thought process.
Ning was patterned after a Siamese cat we had when Dawnie was very young. I exaggerated her dislike for dirt and made her a little snarky.
Dog was pretty easy; almost every kid had a big shaggy dog. I had a big shaggy dog, too, and our Little Dawnie did too! He was stuffed, and she loved him.
Boss’s attitude was patterned after an African Gray Parrot Dawn adopted.
So, there is the cast of characters; now all I had to do was create the adventures they shared!
About now, you are thinking this was a hard thing to do, but it was a labor of love, and I had a blast. The adventures seemed to flow so rapidly, I wished I could type faster.
I chose a Zoo setting first because letting the animals talk and escape their cages to some freedom, even if it was in their sleep, made my heart happy.
The synopsis of the book, Sleep Travelers Book 1: The story of Ning, Dog, and Boss, is on the back cover of the book and is available on most of your favorite book sites in eBook and Paperback.
