Wallabies in the Bathroom
How many people have a wallaby toilet
paper holder? Not many. They are cute animals. So why don't more of
us have them?
Recently my husband and I rented a
house for a few days in northern Michigan. We saw photos on the
Internet of the family's big game hunting exploits. Stuffed heads
(and complete animals—more than 70) hung on the walls. They were
above eye level, and I could ignore most of them. I didn't look up
much. My daughter is a vegetarian. Enough said.
In two of the bathrooms taxidermied
wallabies held the toilet paper like a servant from bygone times.
That gave me paws.
Once I got over the shock of a
wallaby's adorable face, furry ears and vacant eyes—and avoided the
little paws—I thought it might be an opportunity for inspiration.
I recently revised and finished a
picture book for my four-year-old granddaughter I wrote and
illustrated a long time ago. The illustrations were crayon drawings.
The story had little plot, no conflict and no satisfying ending. I
rewrote the story with a plot, conflict and an ending. With Photoshop
Elements I turned the illustrations into a cute little story about a
frog who escapes from an octopus. I know frogs and octopi live in
mutually exclusive environments, but my granddaughter loved it.
Inspiration can come anytime, anywhere.
A story began gestating in my mind. I have a vague idea of a picture
book about a wallaby. But I'm not an artist. I'm a digital
scrapbooker. I don't have a clue how to draw a wallaby. If I figure
that out I can use Photoshop to separate the drawing into its
disparate parts, then cobble them together in different poses. The
wallaby in my story will never encounter a hunter, because that's too
scary for little children. He will have an adventure, escape some
difficulty and live happily ever after.
My granddaughter is enamored of
princesses. How about a wallaby princess who wants to have adventures
instead of being rescued by the handsome wallaby prince? Princesses
can do anything: have adventures, slay dragons, rescue princes. A
tale of star crossed lovers whose wallaby clans have been feuding
forever? Or the wallaby princess who rescues the wallaby prince from
the big bag wolf.
Right now I'm in Vermont on a mountain
with my son's in-laws. No wallabies here. Last night while we slept I
think the forest crept closer to the house. I'm going to pace it off
to see if it really did. There's a premise for a creepy horror story:
what happens when the trees encroach on the house? Hopefully, I won't
be around when that happens. I'm leaving in the morning.
The point is that inspiration comes in
many forms. We just need to look and truly see, and listen with our
hearts.
Wait. There is so much wilderness here
in the Green Mountains. What if a woman's car breaks down on a
country road, and, when she goes for help, she meets a seemingly
ordinary family who conceals a horrible secret. There's a creepy
story there somewhere. Beware, this won't be a child's cautionary
tale about a wallaby. You won't want to go outside in the dark after
you read this one....
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