Elona of the Great Green

Elona of the Great Green

You can hear it in the rustle under all the other sounds, kind of a tap tap like nuts cracking open, then it’s gone. It’s a small enough sound that makes you think you never heard it, in fact people tell themselves that they never do hear it.

My mom was the first one to show me, I was very young, too young to remember, but it’s something you don’t forget. The first time, the very first moment as I held my breath suspended between here and there, then and now, I listened with a finely tuned ear and there was no mistaking the sound, something was out there. I looked over to my mom, she saw them. In between the must dos and the most be dones she still took the time to listen and she could see them as clearly as I could. My eyes followed hers, they rustled the leaves of the trees and seemed to speak with the wind.

My mom’s eyes grew wide with pride at seeing my astonishment, the kind of bright sparkling look you dream of seeing glint across a mother’s face; that mix of pride, love, joy and wonder. I felt warm and full, for there in the tree just staring down at me was a fairy. I caught a glimpse of her in the corner of my eye. I could hardly contain my joy.

I spent the rest of the late afternoon sipping cold tea with my mom and auntie, all the while knowing she hovered overhead.

It became a haunting awareness over the years that they lived in my aunt’s old oak tree. I had often looked up to see them playing there. My mom regarded the tree with a reverent smile. She would look at me with eyes that asked if I could still see them. Of course I could, but we never spoke of them, neither of us did.

My aunt always referred to them, the fairies, as living in my heart, it was probably true as they did eventually take up residence there but at the beginning they were far from it. They lived in an old oak tree. Rustling leaves and speaking as the wind blew to mask the sound. I would offer them food and I knew they took it, but I never saw them eat. In fact it was rare that I actually ever saw them, until that day, the day I met Elona of the Great Green.

So this is page one of the short story. As the story will progress we will learn more about the fairies and why Magenta’s mother never speaks about them to her.

Essentially as this first chapter progresses we will discover that while her mother DOES believe in fairies…Magenta’s aunt and mother are playing make believe, that her mother teeters on really believing they exits and believing for the sake of her daughter. What will be discovered later in the book when Magenta brings the issue of the fairies losing their homeland and solicits her mother’s help, is that her mother is losing her ability to believe. So not only is Magenta trying to save the fairies, she is also trying to save her mother’s ability to believe. In doing so, she learns the magic and bravery of life, that she can face the hardest of obstacles, which will help her overcome her feeling of confusion about the world.

Well this is my first post over here and I wanted to sort of lay out what’s gonna be happening Weeee hoo.

This is gonna be part blog and part children’s story….as the story unfolds you will be able to read the new pages but as well as the new pages there will also be links to information regarding the story and the inspiration behind it as it evolves you will be part of the process. Feel free to comment on your thoughts about characters and parts of the story as it unfolds. The purpose of this project (on going) is to write a work in progress with live participation and involvement as this will be a global children’s story. It is set in the world of fairies and will be weaving in the real world of children and parents and the trials tribulations and joy of the children’s lives as it unfolds to discover the fairy world.

Elona and The Great Green is a story about Elona a misunderstood, though well intentioned fairy who ventures into the modern day world. She meets Magenta, a young adopted child, when she is very young, yet Elona remains hidden from Magenta and her younger sister and cousins for many years. As Magenta grows, her awareness of the fairies and the fairy lives begins to grow and her imagination finally lets the fairy world unfold for her.

With a mother whose imagination is vast though she struggles, Magenta learns to turn the world and her perception of it on it’s ear as she becomes friends with the elusive Elona, building a friendship that will last a lifetime.

Magenta begins to understand that fairies live on the periphery of every aspect of life, hidden within the places people force themselves not to see. This human misperception has caused the fairy world to crumble and an evil force threatens both of their worlds.

It will eventually be the legacy of children and fairies to find an answer for their dying world….
The purpose for writing Elona and the Great Green is to offer a literary legacy for my children. The book will be rich visually and engaging, but as the story unfolds and the worlds become more mythical in every way, the conflict will actually become more real. The story is about adoption, self esteem, creativity, love, parenthood, life and the environment. More specifically the threat to our environment. The great evil Elona and the Fairies are fighting is the loss of their natural land and air, it will be personified as smoke wolves that chase after them, but this growing threat will be easily characterized as human’s dwindling care for our environment and the earth.

What has also been lost is a lot of our children’s innocence. The ability to believe. While we do have Tinkerbell and The Princesses, Elona is hopefully going to offer a more real telling of fairy worlds and help a child expand their own imagination by suggesting that fairies live in everyday settings and offer ways to speak to them and interact with them.

Elona will also be a spiritual journey as well, developing a trust in something unknown and taking risks based on that trust.

So welcome to this journey I hope you enjoy it. Tomorrow will offer the first page of the book.