I’m working on adding artwork to my online portfolio.
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Currently, I am at work on the characters for my latest children’s book–The Yellow Wood. I’m so excited for this work. It’s based on the poem by Robert Frost–The Road Not Taken.
Hook–A company of misfits set off looking for the Yellow Wood in Robert Frost’s poem–The Road Not Taken and end up having the adventure of a lifetime.
Pitch–When Scarecrow first heard Mouse read about the Yellow Wood in the poem, he knew he had to see it for himself too, but he knew he could never go. For one–he can’t walk, and for another, he tethered to this pole that’s stuck deep in the ground. But can he convince the others to take him along?
The Cast of Characters:
A Pony named Buttons–because he often wears a coat with brass buttons.
A Goat named, well–Goat, who loves old maps and planning adventures, but being a goat he also loses himself in the planning of the adventure and snacks on the maps so the maps have chewed off pieces. Sometimes, important pieces.
Two farm dogs belonging to Frost–an old faithful retired black lab named Cracker. He’s diligent and orderly and strict. He was ready–yesterday. He notices every. Last. Detail.
Cracker loves Nutmeg–the little nearsighted buff orpington hen. Nutmeg goes through life wearing rose colored glasses. Literally. She wears rose-colored glasses, because she is nearsighted, but also she sees life as lovely and beautiful. Nutmeg is naive and so innocent. Cracker has dedicated his life to protecting Nutmeg. Nutmeg gets into so much trouble.
Snapper is the newest member, a young mixed-breed pup that Frost took in last fall. Snapper is never still. He drives Cracker crazy. Snapper chases everything that moves–squirrels, rabbits, dragonflies, crickets. He’s never ready, but always ready for anything.
Mouse is Scarecrow’s best friend in the whole world, besides Frost. Mouse knows Scarecrow the best and Mouse can go where the others cannot. He can get inside Frost’s house and listen to his conversations and read his letters and his scratchy poems. He raids his wastebasket and brings the scraps of poems and discarded letters to the others which they read late into the night.
These characters make up the company at the Frost farm. Scarecrow is the watchman. He sees everything coming and going but he has limitations. He can’t go into the barn and hear what’s going on late into the night. But what he does hear, is the early morning ramblings of an old man who is lonely and needs someone to talk to. Scarecrow is there, he’s always there when Frost needs to bounce ideas off of or when he just needs someone to talk to. On the outside it seems like a one-sided friendship. One morning, Frost leaves. He doesn’t come to talk to Scarecrow. He doesn’t tell him goodbye. He doesn’t share his heart. Mouse searches for clues and finds a letter from Frost’s friend Edward Thomas and a poem called The Road Not Taken. They interpret this as a clue and interpret the poem literally, as animals interpret the world, and decide to search for this infamous Yellow Wood, thinking perhaps this is where Frost went or in any case this would be a grand adventure. But, Scarecrow is stuck to a pole deep in the ground. And Scarecrow has never walked. He realizes he could never go. But how he really wanted to go and see the Yellow Wood.
