Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Star Saves the World

[First off, my husband noted that my last post could've used a good editor. My response: I was making my point for me.]

So Star Saves the World. Last fall when I was in the throes of finishing Debut Novel, my daughters decided to write books, too. (Love them!)

Catherine started The Secret of the Nile, which I think she's still writing, and Laura wrote Star Saves the World, Book 1.

I think it's awesome she added "Book 1." As if at six years old she realizes the world is most likely going to need saving again.

Anyway, so Catherine's still writing. Hers is a thriller. An unexplained scream in the night and two girls--Charlotte and Monica--are trying to figure out what it could be.

Can I just say my children are superstars?

In this case I'm most impressed with their ability to just come up with great character names. Just like that. The hardest thing for me to do when writing my books was come up with names for everybody. Sheesh. I agonized over it. One of the my main characters went through five name changes. No joke.

Regardless, Star Saves the World (Book 1) is complete. We've all read it, laughed over it, pronounced it the best book ever written, and yesterday, as I was working at the computer, Laura came in and handed me a note. Very official.

It read, "Dear Mommy, How can you make Star Saves the World into a movie?"

Everything stopped.

Uhh... Well, honey. A lot of writers ask that question... Mommy's not really sure.

You have to understand, Laura wrote and illustrated her book. The left-hand pages contain the story and the right hold her drawings of Star, who is a cat; Star's sidekick Princess, another cat; and Star's baby Jessica.

They all have little adventures, take naps, and eat lots of snacks. Laura reads the story to Catherine, and they both collapse into giggles. It's really a big deal for them.

So I thought about it.

Well, I told her, how about we do this: 1-We cast it. (Decide which of her toys are going to play which roles.) 2-We write the script. Then 3-We plan it out. (You know, storyboard it.)

Laura was concerned. "How will Star go to the different states?" (To save the world, she travels around the country.)

Richard says, "Sorry, kid. For your first picture, no location shots."

I kicked him and suggested we use our USA puzzle map and let Little Toy Star be in the different states using the puzzle pieces. Laura prefers getting large pieces of paper and drawing the states. (OK! It's her movie, after all.)

I have a digital video recorder, so we can at least film something. My fear is she's expecting Avatar (The Last Airbender), and she's going to get Gumby. But anyway, we're giving it a try. Whatever we end up creating, I'll put somewhere if you're interested in seeing it.

Now I'm wondering how we're going to create that mysterious scream for Catherine's movie...

4 comments:

JRichard said...

If Catherine is like me trying to write fiction, she is still not sure what caused that scream but is pretty sure she's be able to figure something out. What I would really like to know is who is Jessica's baby daddy? I am looking forward to serving as production assistant and key grip on the film.

LTM said...

I figured you'd lower the boom...

Ex-pat Odessa said...

have you thought about using names of some of our relatives, obviously those that are no longer with us, and yes some of the names are OLD sounding, but maybe kinda change them up, and of course "Dessa" is a GREAT name for a character!!! hehehehehe!!!;p

LTM said...

that did cross my mind... ;o)