Let’s see, where did we leave off? As you can see by now truth is sometimes stranger than fiction….why make stuff up when the true stories are just standing there in front of you…waiting for you to write a play about them? Or not….because about this time Cheets, the effervescent elf came into my life!
‘The Fabled Forest Series‘ was brought to me by my friend, Cheets, about three in the morning to be exact. He put his over-sized elf feet in the middle of my back and pushed. Yelling in my ear, ‘Cheets has a story….write about Cheets!’
By the time I crawled out of bed, made a cup of tea and stumbled to my keyboard he was skipping along beside me, telling me about his friends in the fabled forest and about the unicorn that they must save. No, I’m not crazy (or if I am, I’m in very good company) and yes I do hear voices (again, good company). A few years and four children’s plays later ‘Emma and the Lost Unicorn‘ was produced outside of Boston. The little actors in the show pleaded with me to write them story books based upon the plays. That was my launch from playwright to author.
Two summers ago I was talking with some teachers and they were bemoaning the fact that ‘the arts’ budget was non-existent at their
schools; anything that they wanted to do in that area; paints, music, scripts, was out of their own pocket I 
thought, what if I wrote several 10 minute plays for the class room, made them affordable, no sets, no costumes, no props? Twenty-six scripts later and it’s definitely been a hit. While I did write some fun 
ones, I quickly learned that I needed to write about teen issues in real life. Bullying, mean girls, dating violence, divorce, drugs, running away, cyber-bullies…the list goes on and on.
And as I am not a mystery writer but do love to stretch my creative wings, I thought I’d throw in a murder mystery play into the collection. I knew the kids in the classroom would love it. “The Art of Murder” was born. Then some well meaning friends told me, after reading the play, “But what happened to Monty?” and “Who killed her?” “You have got to tell us the rest of the story!”
‘Okay, okay! I’ll write a novella for you.’ Well, it went pretty well and my friends and fans seemed to like it. Just one problem, they came back again and told me, “You’ve got a series here! We want more of O’Roarke and Garcia, your murder cops!” I objected: ‘I’m not a mystery writer!’ Well, apparently I am since I’m currently writing the fifth in the series!
Book 2 takes place back stage on Broadway……so we’ve come full circle!
Want to read more? Click here to read Part 1
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