I’m being a spotty blogger (“splogger”?) today while attending a men’s conference, and so… While I normally post an episode of my full-length fantasy The Wishing Map on Saturdays, this time I’ll refer you back to the start of my Narnia-esque little adventure. Each segment (starting below) ends with a link to the next. Ready for a little magic?
Preface: There’s Magic in the World
Bedtime is the time to stall. And asking for a story is the best way to do it. In response to such requests, many years ago I began improvising an ongoing story for my daughters about two princesses, who coincidentally happened to have the same names as them. Princesses Amanda and Elizabeth lived in a castle at the end of a cul-de-sac with Queen Mommy and King Daddy (hey, when you’re five-years-old this is great stuff).
Their adventures at the end of the cul-de-sac continued until one night when the princesses stumbled upon a fantastical world accessible only through a magical map given them by their enigmatic Aunt Aloysia. This was an immediate box office smash. From now on, my daughters insisted all of their namesake adventures be “Wishing Map stories!”
And so the epic continued all the way into middle school, when King Daddy (yours truly), who happened to be working in the movie biz, had an offer from another magical kingdom to pitch ideas for an animated TV series. The first thing I thought of was, The Wishing Map. The Disney folks were enchanted! So I developed the storyline and characters—the two heroes having morphed into a teenage girl named Gina and her pre-teen brother Zack—while the illustrators created concept art.
Everything was magical until one day some mid-level minions said, “Holy bleep! This is going to cost a ton-a-money!” In computer animation, the more settings and characters a show has, the more it costs—and The Wishing Map had scads of both. So the animated series was put on hold until I could create a book series that was successful enough to justify spending a bleeping ton-a-money.
Some years passed as this screenwriter learned to be a novelist. Meanwhile, the Disney deal faded away. But I didn’t care; I’d fallen in love with fiction writing! So I pressed on, creating an epic storyline involving ten ancient kingdoms and three mysterious strangers “from another world” (you can guess who two of them are, but who is the third?) According to ancient prophecy, these three visitors would one day either save or destroy the ten kingdoms—and their own world, as well!
Want to join me?
thanks for sharing and I appreciate sploggers !
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joy neal kidney does genesis 50 has a verse 45 if not i divide half of the chapter to see if has that verse #
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I love the story of how this series got started, Mitch. I have been saving this series to read to my grandchildren, but it’s become hard to pin them down – they’re in a very busy stage, with extracurricular activities. Also, I need to ask you, what age group do you recommend this series to? Has it “evolved” as your little princesses grew?
And can I get it in book form?
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Hi Annie. The Wishing Map is targeted at a “smart” YA audience, 10ish to adult (there are “easter eggs” for older readers), and fine for reading aloud to younger kids. Sorry, so far it’s not in book form.
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Thanks! I’ll see if I can lasso them one of these days and read it with them. 😉
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