After I wrote the first book I followed up with the Cursed Seed to explain who the creature was who was trying to destroy all plant life on Earth and what motivated the monster to do so. Central Ohio is the center of an ancient group of Indians, known as the Hopewell who built elaborate earthen mounds and huge geometric earthen shapes throughout central and southern Ohio. In surrounding areas they built a lunar observatory that covered acres of land. I wanted to incorporate the mystery and folklore of the ancient Hopewell and their love of nature into my novels.
The heroes of the novels continue to battle the destroyer of plants using magical herbs using all their skills as witches. They attempt to bring a balance back to the planet and eliminate the creature focused on destroying plants and all life on Earth.
Targeted Age Group:: Middle School/all ages
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
After I wrote the first book I followed up with the Cursed Seed to explain who the creature was who was trying to destroy all plant life on Earth and what motivated the monster to do so. Central Ohio is the center of an ancient group of Indians, known as the Hopewell who built elaborate earthen mounds and huge geometric earthen shapes throughout central and southern Ohio. In surrounding areas they built a lunar observatory that covered acres of land. I wanted to incorporate the mystery and folklore of the ancient Hopewell and their love of nature into my novels.
The heroes of the novels continue to battle the destroyer of plants using magical herbs using all their skills as witches. They attempt to bring a balance back to the planet and eliminate the creature focused on destroying plants and all life on Earth.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
I created characters from my family and friends. Since the books are addressing plant conservation I named all the main characters after botanical names. Rubus (plants in the rambling vine family like blackberries and raspberries) a retired Botany teacher lives in a house on 415 Raspberry Picket Lane in an old house in a small central Ohio town. His extremely eccentric housekeeper, Flora, or Flo lives in an messy apartment on the back side of the house. Rubus’s mysterious and beautiful mother, Rosemary (named after a powerful magical herb) is often a visitor. Darach which means, ‘Mighty like an Oak,’ comes to live with his uncle escaping abusive parents. To the boys surprise he discovers his uncle, grandmother, and the housekeeper are all witches. It isn’t long before the boy realizes he too has a rare and wonderful gift.
In the first book there is an American Indian shaman who assists the group in deciding which seven sacred seeds to gather. I bring her back in the second book with her young daughter. The young daughter and young Darach survive many harrowing adventures together.
Book Sample
Straining and breathing heavily they were able to push the stone away only a few feet to reveal a dark tunnel. A dank smell of moist earth and centuries of musty air invaded their sinus cavities and olfactory receptors.
“Gross,” whimpered Darach turning up his nose at the odors of decay in a centuries old tomb.
Rubus sucked in his stomach and barely squeezed in between the carved stone and earth wall to enter into the tunnel. Little Deer Song followed. The children looked up at Flo as if to ask for permission to follow. When they were all in the tunnel Rubus turned on his flashlight, “Be careful and watch your step! And lean low so as not to hit your head.”
They carefully walked bent deeply at the waist down a narrow low tunnel supported by rotting tree trunks. The beam of the flashlight illuminated elaborate geometric shapes made from milky white mica. Spear and arrow heads and human bones and skulls littered the tunnel floor. Piles of clay pots filled with corn and decorated with mica and beautiful designs lined the walls.
They came into a small room carved out of the earth and against the wall laid a crude hand hewed coffin ten foot by four feet wide made of maple. A tattered and decayed purple cloth with geometric designs beaded with tiny sea shells and mica covered the top of the tomb. Clay and copper pipes of woodland animals laid piled up against the coffin. Clay bowls of elaborate copper and mica wrist bracelets and other jewelry filled the tiny room. Large mica cutouts of huge human hands and bear claws adorned the walls behind the coffin. Decayed tapestries of purple cloth and copper beads decorated the chamber. It wasn’t the tomb of an Egyptian Pharaoh, but for this person it was the grandest tomb his people could provide. Rubus noticed a clay jar on the top of the coffin that was different than all of the others. It was decorated with pictographs and symbols. It was thought Hopewell Indians did not have any kind of written language. He glanced inside the clay pot and it looked like a book of some kind made of bark paper. He shoved the clay jar with some dirt from the tomb into his cargo pants pocket. “Darach,” whispered Rubus with his face flushed and full of excitement, “I think we found your Shaman!”
Darach and Rubus stood before the wooden coffin realizing the last person who had been here before lived nearly two thousand years ago. Rubus solemnly looked at Darach, “You want to open it?” Under normal conditions Rubus would never have violated the sanctity of a person’s burial place. He would respect it and treat it with great reverence. But this was different; the world’s fate may hang in the balance.
Darach nodded and with great respect he carefully pulled back the scraps of purple cloth from the lid. In his mind the boy could hear and see the mighty Shaman standing atop his burial mound proudly holding a seed with a copper box, a Cursed Seed. A seed of death and destruction. He remembered the man turning into a bear and slashing at the sky with his claws …
Rubus placed his hand on the boys shoulder. “You OK? You still want to do this?” asked his uncle with his voice full of warmth and support.
With his hands trembling Darach grabbed the edge of the decaying wooden lid of the coffin and slowly slid it open. He gasped as he …
Links to Purchase Print Books
Buy The 415 Raspberry Picket Trilogy-Book Two-The Cursed Seed Print Edition at Amazon
Buy The 415 Raspberry Picket Trilogy-Book Two-The Cursed Seed Print Edition at Barnes and Noble
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