{"id":337,"date":"2014-12-28T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T17:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/?p=337"},"modified":"2014-12-23T21:38:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T02:38:49","slug":"my-favorite-book-follow-that-mouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/2014\/12\/28\/my-favorite-book-follow-that-mouse\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Book: Follow That Mouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Follow<\/a>
Follow That Mouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I love to travel, and long lonely roads are sometimes the best times to think about stories and to plug ideas together.\u00a0 One long drive on I-70 through the empty miles of Utah, the only distractions were the very infrequent roadsigns.\u00a0 But I noticed that \u201cRanch Exit\u201d happened frequently, all on signs just like the exits for towns.\u00a0 With a smile, I considered the possibility that there really was a small community named \u201cRanch Exit\u201d, but if that were the case, then something reality bending would have to be going on to see all those signs, dozens of miles apart, all leading to the same place.<\/p>\n

That was the germ of the idea, and the rest was researching the maps to find the place to set my fictional Ranch Exit community.\u00a0 Reality bending was more in the realm of fantasy than science fiction, but I tried to put as much logic behind the process as I could, writing the story as if it were science fiction, even if that weren\u2019t really possible.\u00a0 It also gave me the chance to look at some of our cultural givens, like credit cards, from a quite different perspective.<\/p>\n

But the characters came alive for me, and that\u2019s the important part.\u00a0 The first scene was easy, since it was from my life.\u00a0 We have a horse than has to be fed every day, and it\u2019s not unusual to spot a mouse loitering around the barrel that contains the feed.<\/p>\n

And as long as I was bending a little reality in the story, I was inspired to copy the quirky signs and outdoor art that is part of real life in Amarillo, Texas.<\/p>\n

But once the story started rolling, keeping my own reality straight in the story-line was quite an exercise.\u00a0 If reality changes for your characters, you have nail that down to get it written correctly.<\/p>\n

The cover on this book showed up with a whimsical twist that was just right for the story.<\/p>\n

So, with a smile that always comes from a quirky story, Follow That Mouse is my favorite.<\/p>\n

More about Follow That Mouse<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up — My Favorite Book: Pixie Dust<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love to travel, and long lonely roads are sometimes the best times to think about stories and to plug ideas together.\u00a0 One long drive on I-70 through the empty miles of Utah, the only distractions were the very infrequent roadsigns.\u00a0 But I noticed that \u201cRanch Exit\u201d happened frequently, all on signs just like the… Continue reading My Favorite Book: Follow That Mouse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[26,12,8],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4t90x-5r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrymelton.net\/2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}