Moss Whispers

Down at The Hillock, I keep walking around the big old oak tree in the middle, looking at all the places and possible characters. So many starts and restarts! Which way to go? Which character (s) will jump on the page and say, “I’m ready to take this one!” I think I’ve been nurturing this setting so long that it’s teeming with life every way I look! 

Yesterday and today were big writing days as well as researching how to publish my Jingle book. I researched agents that represent children’s author/illustrators, writing groups, workshops, classes, etc. And then I’d write some more, stopping every now and then to sand and paint a library stool or two. I wrote some possible ways to organize the story.

•meeting held to talk about some crisis at the hillock…The Crisis: for generations things have always been seen a certain way…and suddenly some new ray of light/shift in nature/…squeezes their consciousness to a sharper perception…the return of a lost villager? or the loss of an old ruler? or the arrival of a new ‘princess’ or a stranger? with news of another way? evolution of a new language?

Three changes have happened to cause the call for all villagers(hillockers) to come together:

1.a huge supply of acorns was falling to the ground all at once!..or is it…the big shade branch on the south side has fallen, leaving a big hole in the sky, with new rays awakening old consciousness in the hillock

2.the regal snail has lost her crowning glory, her jeweled shell, reducing her to the status and stature of a common slug

3.more and more holes appear on the Hillock floor for some unknown reason, no evident cause for such change in the earth’s surface.

People disagree on how to solve the crisis (perhaps they only see what’s going on on THEIR side of the Hillock)

They notice someone is missing at the meeting WHO IS IT?)

They have evidence of a note written in some foreign script that they can’t understand

The lowliest or most unlikely character comes forth with an idea/solution/found object/new way of looking at things.

This character must prove worthy of the villagers’ trust to solve this problem:

•decipher this new language

•brave the underworld

•help everyone in the Hillock let go of their old way of seeing things and learn/embrace a new way.

The villagers must prove that they, too, can be trusted to change:

•be willing to switch sides of the Hillock to learn how the other side lives and views the world.

•be willing to learn a new language so together they can create a new way to communicate with others not like themselves.

•make a shift in thought about something thought impossible before.

Then I decided to just write! And I’ll share that tomorrow!