Book Description

Topaz and the Green Fairies                                by Pat Frayne

“For once in his young life he had a sense of self-reliance and what a responsibility that truly was. Whatever happened to him on this journey had the power to make him stronger. Or he could let it destroy him”. Such are the thoughts of young Bozel, a pivotal new character introduced in Topaz and the Green Fairies, the third installment in the Tales of Topaz the Conjure Cat series by Pat Frayne.

In this latest high adventure story we journey to an island in the midst of chaos. Severe storms are threatening to obliterate the home where the Green Fairies have lived for generations. It is up to young Bozel to find help to save his people before they perish. Armed with little more than a blanket, a hand drawn map and a small bag of food, Bozel bravely sets out alone to do as he has been tasked.

 Along the way he encounters numerous obstacles and life challenging situations. Bozel must overcome not only his own personal fears and self-doubt, but very real dangers as well. The story switches between Bozel’s trials, to that of our old friend Topaz and the inhabitants of Knownotten Kingdom who are experiencing struggles of their own. Otis has been injured and is trapped in a desolate land where he encounters a sinister, ghost-like creature.

When Topaz, Otis, Dooley and Daisy’s paths finally collide with Bozel the race is on to formulate a plan to try and save the Green Fairies before all is lost. Topaz will be faced with the ultimate test of his strength, courage and commitment to others. Pat Frayne has once again created captivating and memorable characters who not only show their flaws and weaknesses but also their grit and determination in the midst of adversity. This fun, fast paced fantasy, about a land inhabited by mystical beings will be sure to capture the reader with all its exciting twists and turns.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1518621155/?ref_=pe_584750_33951330

How my nine-year-old granddaughter solved writer's block

Cait loved the decorative shoe box I'd made for her, and she liked the story about the young fairy girl so much I promised to complete the second story by Christmas. I began writing it within a few days of our visit. The plan was to elaborate on the world I'd created in the first story. Cait liked the characters, and I felt as if I was just getting to know them myself. I wondered where they would take me next. This time, when I began to write, the creative energy didn't flow as easily as it had with the first tale. I couldn't seem to develop a decent plot and found myself stuck on page one. The problem was - I needed a dilemma. I put the story aside.

One or two days later I received a letter from my granddaughter. Inside was a hand-written note:

"Dear Nannies

Im not sure what to say next so I want you to finish it for me"

There was no comma, no apostrophe, and no period. I have typed it just as Cait wrote it, and I will keep this letter forever.

Further down the page, she had drawn a big heart in the same purple fine-point marker she'd used to write the note. The heart was well drawn for a nine-year-old, I thought.  Next to the heart was her name, "Caitlin". This was paper-clipped to a computer typed note. I found out later, that with a bit of help from her mom, Cait had typed the letter herself. It reads as follows:

"Topaz and the wizard 2

Wake up Topaz wake up yelled daisy. Daisy was a young white fawn. When Topaz awoke he silently ate his breakfast, for his owner King Kittle had passed away. Then Bumper came in and broke the silence Topaz he yelled Ollie has been stuck in a tree and cant get down you have to help him. So Topaz followed Bumper when Topaz got their he soon saw ollie up in the tree he yelled up to Ollie are you okay Ollie replied:"

This is word for word just the way Caitlin wrote it, so capitals and punctuation are mostly missing. As you may have imagined, I teared up when I read it.

Not only was this act adorable, heart touching, and terribly sweet, it was the dilemma I needed to move this story forward. Ollie and Bumper were characters from the original story. But Daisy, the white fawn, was an entirely new character, and she was perfect. Eventually, Ollie, a Great-Horned Owl, and Bumper, a rambunctious raccoon, became Otis and Dooley; however, Daisy's name will never change.

Now, the thing I had to figure out was how a Great-Horned Owl could end up getting himself "stuck in a tree"! And it didn't take me too long to come up with a reason that got my imagination up and running again.

As the story moved along I found myself writing Daisy in my granddaughter's character. This was unintentional, and when I finally realized what I was doing, it worked out even better. I would think to myself: now what would Cait say in this situation?

Cait's title, "Topaz and the wizard 2" was a take-off on the title of the first story I'd written, Topaz and the Evil Wizard.

In Topaz and the Evil Wizard, fairy and elf children are missing. Nevertheless, Topaz only learns about this when Orange Blossom's older brother goes missing and Topaz's long time friend, Ollie, the Great-Horned Owl, finds this out and calls on him for help. By now ancient rumors about The Wizard of Scarford have begun to resurface and circulate amongst the forest folk, and this is how the name of the book comes about.

The first edition of these two tales was published under one title, Tales of Topaz the Conjure Cat Part 1 and Part 2. And so the second tale began as a continuation of the first. Later, when I decided to make each tale a standalone book in a series, I revised the stories. The latest revision will be out soon. It's a longer more descriptive version. In the meantime, book three was written, Topaz and the Green Fairies. But more about that book later.

Since the first two short stories, Topaz as a mystical superhero has evolved. To begin with, he was never an ordinary cat. He started out as a descendant from a particular breed of cat known as Yellow Conjure Cats, large muscular cats with eerie luminous eyes who were endowed with a unique mystical power. Due to circumstances, I won't go into now, Topaz had little knowledge of how to wield this power and was forced to learn through trial and error, or to, in fact, die trying. Follow this blog to find out more about Topaz and the world he lives in.

 http://www.patfrayne.com

Have you ever wanted to be a writer?

I wasn't always a writer. Writing came about quite by chance. It happened eight winters ago when we were visiting our daughter and her family in northern California around Christmas time. One snowy afternoon while were all sitting around the fireplace drinking our hot chocolate, our grandson, Sam, began to tell us a story. It was a story Sam had just made up on the spur of the moment. After Sam finished his story, each of our other grandchildren made up  a story of their own. The adults even gave it a try. When it came to my turn, my mind was a complete blank. Yet, that afternoon around the fire stuck with me, and on our thirteen-hour drive home, I thought about the sort of stories I'd like to make up.

By the time I got home and back into my work routine I'd forgotten all about it until I began work on a project for my granddaughter, Caitlin's ninth birthday. I was making her a decorative box from a new shoe box and some of my scrapbook materials. On the lid, I created a large yellow cat sitting in a meadow surrounded by wildflowers. The cat was talking to a young fairy girl. The fairy girl, without wings and no higher than the cat's chin, was blond and wearing a pink dress.

Now I have no inkling where this idea came from other than the fact that Cait and I both adore fairies and cats alike. All the same, I was having fun with this project, and because I happened to have some shiny gold paper laying there on my table, I decided to make the cat a crown. As I stared at the scene on the lid of the box, it came to me that I ought to write a story to go along with it. Only I didn't get around to mentioning the crown until six months later when I wrote the second story for Cait at Christmas.

At the time I began this story, I had no concrete thoughts about where it was going. I merely began to write. As it turned out, my first draft became my outline, and I've been writing stories in that manner ever since. I called the young fairy, Orange Blossom. The cat, my superhero, was named for a lake we often passed on the way up to our daughter's cabin when we traveled the back way to Dorrington. Eventually, the series became known as Tales of Topaz the Yellow Conjure Cat. As for the tales that followed and why I finally published - well, that's another story. Follow this link and find out.

http://www.patfrayne.com