Stranger Things Can Happen When You Write the Paranormal!
I've had this idea for a middle-grade book for some time now. I knew what I wanted and humor was part of it, as well as magic. I knew just who to contact to co-author it with me—my longtime friend and previous co-author, Becky Robbins. We'd worked on two humorous erotica books a few years back. She's the one that exudes awesome Southern humor, just what I needed for this book.
Being an elementary reading teacher for years I know what kids like to read and they love to listen to a great 'Read To' from their teacher. They could never get enough of stories involving bad kids, magic, adventure, and of course humor.
So this is where the creation of Toads by Midnight began, along with all the odd occurrences that we both encountered while writing this book.
And So it Begins~
The premise of the story is "Don't mess with your substitute teacher and be careful when you play with dark magic."
The story revolves around three feisty boys who attempt to make one substitute teacher miserable, and they try their best only to be thwarted by the teacher's knowledge of magic. She's out to teach the boys a lesson but do no harm.
Antics ensue along the way with some Voodoo and Toad Magic and hilarious events that have the boys wondering what is real and what's not.
Shortly after Becky and I discussed the book she had a most vivid dream that night—one that gave her some pretty alarming visions, including teachers in her yard and a boy holding a toad. She'd never had this type of dream before. She rang me in the morning telling me in detail what had occurred.
We spoke daily on the phone as we worked together, and at times our phones would both end up whacky and we were unable to hang up.
One day we both were hoarse and spoke as if we were croaking our words out, something that happens in the story.
One of the characters in the story is addicted to sweets, and I for one try to steer clear of this but suddenly began to crave sweets, eating cookies, ice cream, and whatever I could get my hands on.
Just the other day Becky was out driving and saw an old green Buick, similar to the one the teacher drives in the story.
Let me also mention that we often come up with the same ideas for how the story pans out—and this happens a lot!
While sunbathing today I heard a whoosh go over my chaise lounge. I turned around to see it was a toad—yes, a pretty good size one at that. I ran into the house to get my phone to snap a picture but he was gone by the time I returned. I called Becky and we both agreed we were getting some strange signs and they were indeed connected to the book.
A few hours later Becky called me to tell me she was watching a show where a man said he didn't like dark magic but it would help him to get out of a pickle. Well, that's the name of the teacher in the book, Ms. Pickle.
Becky was beginning to get a bit freaked out, but I told her in the very beginning when we started this project to expect the unexpected, and any time you write about magic you need to ground and protect yourself. I've had some very scary things happen to me in past years while writing several books on magical spells and such.
So now as I write this post, Becky is lighting a few white candles and we are waiting to see what else pops up as we work toward the end of our story.
Final Thoughts~
I'm sure a lot of writers out there have had similar experiences as we have. It makes one wonder if our minds are playing tricks on us, or is it that we get ourselves so deep into our writing that we can actually manifest these things?
So with that being said, go out there and write that story but remember what you create in that fictional tale may provide signs that it does indeed want that story to be told. Your thoughts are powerful and so is your writing.
Until then, write safe, but most of all, keep writing.
