• Home
  • The Author
  • The Book
  • Excerpt
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Other Works
  • Order Now


Olivia’s Story
Home › Blog › Blog, Olivia's Story News and Events › Why I Wrote Olivia’s Story: Protector of the Realm
31 Aug

Why I Wrote Olivia’s Story: Protector of the Realm

David L Dahl Blog, Olivia's Story News and Events 0 0

IMG_2979“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” John Lennon

Ensconced in her car seat, Olivia stared out the window. “Tell me a story?” she asked, eyes pleading in the rear-view mirror.

How could I say no? I thought. Clearing my throat, I struggled to remember a story.

“Once upon a time. . .” I began, not realizing that with that tired phrase, I was starting a very a unique journey.

“I’m no story teller,” I told my wife later. “I’m just an engineer.”

She smiled, “Did she like it?”

“Yes, I suppose she did,” I had to admit.

“Then I suppose you are a storyteller.”

It was late 2009; my son’s medical residency schedule prevented him from making biweekly trips to pick up his daughter. I eagerly undertook those two-hour commutes, happily accompanied by my five-year-old granddaughter, Olivia. I would retell stories from my youth, books I had read, and movies I had seen. Olivia was always eager to hear new tales. Thus, the journey to Olivia’s Story began. As a way to entertain a 5-year-old on a long drive.

Eventually, I exhausted my memory of stories. In desperation, I made up my own, with Olivia as the heroine. Often she would direct where the plot would go. At times, she would take over and tell a portion of the story. Soon we had developed a fantasy world of good and bad fairies and the fairy protector Olivia. Each trip produced a new tale, more complicated than the one before. However, every story began the same.

“Olivia was preparing breakfast,” usually blueberry pancakes. While she cooked, the room glowed with that familiar blue light, and the blue fairy would appear with a mission for Olivia. Usually, there was an evil gray fairy creating a problem somewhere in the world. Olivia would run out to the dog pen, sprinkle blue fairy dust on Ariel, and fly to the rescue.

Soon Olivia was in school. To help her practice her new reading skill, I would type these stories and mail them to her, a chapter at a time. Our correspondence continued, and in several months, I had produced the first draft of Olivia’s Story. I had also exhausted the fairy storyline, so I set it aside, and moved to short stories, again sending them to Olivia,

I had never pictured myself as an author. My previous experience was writing dry engineering reports, not fiction. Nevertheless, Olivia enjoyed the stories. Later, looking at my body of work I wondered if it was any good, so I contacted an old English teacher who agreed to look at my stuff.

“You definitely have talent!” he replied. “Send your writings to possible publishers and don’t get discouraged. It can be fun collecting rejections. LOL”

Then I discovered Lulu.com and decided to self-publish four of the short stories as Bugga’s Tales. Then a ghost story became Who’s in the Lighthouse.

The following summer, Olivia and her mother traveled to Wyoming and worked at the Diamond 4 Ranch. That fall, I wrote a story inspired by that summer experience, again mailing a chapter at a time. It became a short chapter book – The Last Chore.

With these works of fiction for children and young adults under my belt, the draft of Olivia’s Story called to me. I could resist no longer, and pulled it off the shelf to re-read. With growing confidence, I finished Olivia’s Story: Protector of the Realm, sending it to Lulu to edit, illustrate, and prepare for publication.

I hope you enjoy this work of children’s fiction as much as I enjoyed composing it.

David L Dahl.

 

                                   

Leave me a comment, follow me on Twitter @buggasbooks, or like me on Facebook.

Read more about Olivia’s Story here – https://www.buggasbooks.com/book/olivias-story/

Read about my other books here- https://www.buggasbooks.com/other-works/

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related


buggasbooks Fiction books grandkids New author Olivia's Story Publishing Self-publishing

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • Had a wonderful time discussing “Those Kids Deserve Water Too”
  • Those Kids Deserve Water Too
  • Coming soon – Those Kids Deserve Water Too
  • These Guys Still Make House Calls.
  • ♫ Give a Hoot – ♫

Recent Comments

  • Gabriel on These Guys Still Make House Calls.
  • AmyL on Why is That in Our Food?
  • Teresa Wilburn on At Least It Wasn’t A Dinosaur
  • ig on Tent Flaps and the Storm of the Century
  • Shari on A Thump In The Night

Archives

  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016

Categories

  • Blog
  • Book Reviews
  • My General Musings
  • Olivia's Story News and Events
  • Politics
  • The Patoka History Project


  • Home
  • The Author
  • The Book
  • Excerpt
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Other Works
  • Order Now

Copyright © 2019. David L. Dahl. All rights reserved.