What some of my followers may not know is that I am in the middle of writing a children’s fantasy. I got inspired about six years ago walking on one of Charlotte’s greenways. On a boardwalk, to the left, I saw a bunch of Cattails, but to me it looked like a “Cattail Forest” so an idea was born. Below is a breakdown of this book I am writing.
Summary:
Sparkle, a 12 year old Fairy Frog, befriends Marge, who is a toad. But it is against the rules for frogs and toads to be friends. What happens when Sarge, the toad’s leader and Marge’s uncle, tries to get in the way of their friendship? The book centers around the friendship Sparkle has with this toad and how she starts a cycle of friendship after showing compassion to Marge, which eventually leads to the Fairy Frogs trying to befriend the toads.
Characters:
Fairy Frogs- all of them are artistic, clever, and deeply compassionate. They may all share these three characteristics, but they all still each have different personalities. Unique fact: not everyone can see them. Humans can see them; but not all humans. I gave each of my Fairy Frog characters a different craft to show that they are artistic.
Sparkle: a drawer Frog who is 12 years old and my protagonist. She is very adventurous, courageous and rebellious due to how invested she is in her craft. Even though she is not allowed to be in Graysloup or befriend a toad or interact with them, she doesn’t care. She just wants to help a toad who is in need of a friend ,who also needs some compassion. She always carries around a gold and silver backpack with a pink S in the center. That backpack holds all her drawing supplies. She is one of the most gifted drawers and usually at age 12, they are still getting to know their craft and not quite as skilled as Sparkle is. Sparkle likes to draw anything even in places that she knows are against are against the rules, which is how she ends up in Graysloup in the first place.
Misty: She is Sparkle’s best friend. She is very protective of her. She sometimes has to lie to Aires if she knows where Sparkle really is. Once she know that Sparkle is really in Graysloup, she might just tell Aires she has been in the Cattail Forest all along or just found a new place to draw in the opposite direction. She is my singer frog, and she discovered her talent a bit late. She doesn’t have much time to write many songs due to her protective nature of Sparkle.
Aires: He is the Fairy Frogs leader. He is a very confident leader and will do anything to protect them. That is why he made the rule to keep the frogs out of Graysloup. Even though he is Darcy’s uncle, he is very concerned about Sparkle. She is always sneaking out and he can notice that. His craft is in construction and he is head carpenter. He wears a red hat construction hat with a white “A” on it.
Darcy: As I said with Aires, he is Aires’ nephew. He is a sculpture frog. He is about 14 or 15. That is all I know about him for him for now. He and Felipe are best friends.
Felipe: I already said this, but he is Darcy’s best friend. He also is about 14 or 15. His craft is in woodcarving.
Celeste- She is 8 years old and is a potter
Tweetsie- She is one of my youngest frogs at the age of 5. She is of the most energetic frogs out there. She spends the story trying to figure out what her craft is. From the ages of 3-5, frogs are still trying to figure out what craft they are naturally talented at
Toads- they are assumed to be rude and disrespectful mainly because Sarge is their leader, but that is not really true. After all, Marge is one of them.
Sarge: The main antagonist. He is basically this bully and leader of the toads. He hurts the toads and other creatures, but it is most frustrating that he would do what he does to this niece. He eventually has to hire a spy to spy on Marge and any Fairy Frog activity going on in Graysloup. He does actions like throw rocks at the frogs or say hurtful things or shove Marge and other toads in the mud. I don’t know if Sarge is going to clean up his act by the end of my book or not- if I decide he will not, I will just kick him out of Graysloup.
Marge: About Sparkle’s age. She just happens to be niece to my book’s antagonist, She has to stand up to Sarge on multiple occasions. She wants him to clean up his act and clean up Graysloup, but he never listens. It always ends up with him hurting her. He emotionally or physically hurts her. She feels like an outsider among all the toads. She sees that other toads are unhappy in Graysloup as well, and she wants to change some things. She is very wise for her age. I developed a soft spot for her due to how poorly she is treated by her uncle, but thank good Sparkle shows her compassion and becomes her friend.
Norg: He is the one who become Sarge’s spy. Norg makes me hate Sarge even more. Sarge just had to hire him to make it easier to get in the way of Sparkle and Marge’s friendship. Once all the frogs start befriending the toads all together, Norg tells Sarge even more things going on. I don’t what it is about Norg that causes Sarge to trust him to become his spy. Why does he treat Norg the best out of all the toads?
Claude: He is a 15 year old. In the book, he only does rude or not so nice things because Sarge demands him to. He really doesn’t want to do those things one bit. When the Fairy Frogs start befriending the toads, he ends up becoming friends with Darcy and Felipe.
Undeveloped Toads-
Effa/Rudy- I have no idea who they are the moment. They are two girl toads and I want them in the story because I do not want Marge to be the only girl toad.
Locations:
The Cattail Forest– home of the Fairy Frogs
-In the center, there is a grove of trees with treehouses on it that the carpenter frogs made. Each tree house represents the frogs. For example, a drawer frog’s house might have a bed made from colored pencils with a drawing studio
-The trees are connected by brides
-At bottom of each tree, there are small red mushrooms with white dots
-The creeks are lined with pebbles that the Fairy Frogs painted: they are very creative: for example- Felipe being a woodcarver, he carved some of them into different shape. Sparkle may not be a painter, but she actually drew the design, then painted in between the lines- so how the pebbles are painted or carved shows their cleverness: very clear creeks
– There is a Gazebo there where the singers, dancer, and performers entertain
-There are various sculptures found throughout Cattail Forest that Sculpture frogs are created
– Due to their artistic abilities, you can constantly see Fairy Frogs working on their crafts throughout the Cattail Frogs. You can see the 3-5 year olds trying to figure out what their natural gift is. The 8-12 year olds may know what their craft is, but they still are only just experimenting with their craft trying. It is the 13-18 year olds who are the most skilled at their crafts before they become adults.
-So it is a very magical and enchanting place
Graysloup-home of the toads
– -stuck sleeping underneath a highway
-muddy creeks and mud everywhere
-weather feels very muggy and humid
-lots of trenches and ditches
-not beautiful at all
It is going to be a book with illustrations as well. I have always been a storyteller; just never written any story down. Since I want to work in Nonprofit: needed to find a way to make more money. I am very slow at getting this book written. This book really seems to be a book all about compassion and forgiveness.
–
