#144 Source of ideas for White Rabbit Time

     The obvious source of the ideas for my chapter book, White Rabbit Time, is Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. If your contact with Alice is limited to the Disney movies, please let me remind you that a ninety-some minute film cannot tell the entire story. (However, movies usually do have music and popcorn.) 

     Carroll's real books offer exposure to additional characters like Humpty Dumpty.  Did you know that HH is in the original version?  HH also appears in White Rabbit Time.

     An "Imagining Connections" page follows the story text in WRT and provides a list of thirty-one elements found in both Louis Carroll's books and mine.

     Of course, the story is very different.  Where the original Wonderland setting is either at the bottom of a rabbit hole or in a mirror's reflection, the setting of WRT is Wondermart, a huge "anything and everything" kind of a store. (Do you recognize a connecting element there?)

     And my own eBook's message comes from my experiences. As a child, I was given lots of time to explore my interests and abilities.  I loved creating things, and remember making tiny doll-house dishes from mud.  When they were dry, I painted them with an inexpensive watercolor set--the kind with eight or ten pads of paint in a tin box.

     I didn't take classes to learn the correct way to do things. I just followed my curiosity and interests.  I also wrote my first "novel" in sixth grade on theme paper. I kept it hidden away on a high shelf in my bedroom. I sometimes wonder what ever became of it.  As I recall, the chapters rambled a lot.

     As was the case with many girls at that time, I wasn't particularly enchanted with athletics, though I shared a boy's bicycle with my brothers. My parents purchased a "family ticket" to our city swimming pool every summer, and I loved to climb trees. I took one series of tennis lessons at the city park before deciding that it was not a biggie for me. However, I was not inactive either, and my weight was never a concern in those days.

     I read a lot of books (also comics and newspapers), and the books mostly came from our city and school libraries. I explored every corner of those magical "transports of the mind".

     So when I grew up, I had a healthy imagination, a creative spirit, and a wealth of naturally acquired knowledge; the tools I needed to write, illustrate, and publish eBooks for kids.

     Others will find different paths in life, but the point is, each of us needs have the time and opportunities to seek our own way. Structured classes may help, but they need to be balanced and limited to children's interests. Kids need time to "dabble".

     Am I ranting? I won't apologize for my passion about this.  It is too important.

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     Margaret's Christmas Cookies is currently offered as a free download for your Kindles on  Amazon.com. This promotion is only effective November 10 and 11.  MCC is a short holiday chapter book for middle-grade readers (reading level 4.8), but it would also be a nice early holiday gift for families. Time is short, but if you miss this promo, the book will still be available on Amazon.com for $2.99. 

     I think that concludes this series of posts about where my story ideas come from.

     Next time I will give you a progress report on my next eBook, Jessie's Journey. I am just getting a good start on it. 

     In the mean time, please feel free to click on the following link to my other blog.  The current post is about my recommended eBooks about strong, independent children. My own Margaret's Christmas Cookies is one of the featured recommendations.  www.ebooks4kids.blogspot.com.

     And, as always, please keep reading.