T - Trilogy of One

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T - Trilogy of One

You may be asking yourself - why in Bookania is this post entitled Trilogy of One? Isn't that another one of Kendra's WIP's? Isn't she going through The Ankulen? Aren't the two books completely different?

My answers. Yes, yes, and no.

You see, if it wasn't for The Trilogy of One, it's very likely I wouldn't have The Ankulen today. (Or the New Division, but that's another story.)

About four or five years ago, I found the first page of The Nine Gems of Virtue (book 1) on the back of my school list. I had no idea who wrote it, or what it was about ... but the story of the little girl who was having writer's block with a school assignment ... even though she had once been able to craft stories so well ... well it stuck with me. Later, I found out that it was my mom's writing, and convinced her to let me read it the rest of the book ... or at least the six chapters that she had written.

I loved them! I wanted mom to write more!

So ... when my young cousin and I were playing with our new stage (actually, it was part of a fancy mattress, but we weren't complaining) and were trying to come up with a play, I suggested we do my mom's book. I would play Shasta (even though I was now three years too old for the part) and Grub 1 would play Flewder (even though he was about ... sixty or so years young).

And we had the loveliest little start. I was sitting on the stage, my notebook in my lap, and I would be scribbling away most dutifully ... and dutifully tearing out pages and hurling them at the wall ... and then I would hear a knock at my closet door (actually, *cough, cough* the door to the plastic playground castle, but again, we weren't complaining) and I would open it to find the little dwarf, who would inform me that he needed my help, then I would throw some things in my backpack, and we would step through the door ... and ...

Run out of plot.

Okay, truth be known, that was only the first chapter and mom had written five more, but beyond that point, we would need more actors ... and those were a precious commodity in those days (something we did complain about). We had to cut it short.

My message of "Mom, I want to know what happens to Shasta and Flewder next" would have been clear. But ... this was also to entertain, not just for me to embarrass my mom into writing more of her book.

So ... we decided that that would be the prologue into the official play, which would open in a very similar way. I, who was now Jen, would be sitting on the side of a stream, with a notebook in my lap (why waste a perfectly good prop?) with a horrid case of writer's block. Then Grub 1 (now called Chris) would appear, and the two of us will go on a delightful little adventure.

The problem was, now we needed a script.

We never did preform that play, since we could never settle on a good ending that made sense and would work for our very limited repertoire of props and special effects. The idea, however, wouldn't go away, and eventually I started writing a rather different version.

But I'm not done with what The Trilogy of One has to do with The Ankulen.

You see, as I was writing, I discovered that there were other Anka and Anku out there. Jen was not the only person with an Ankulen, not the only person capable of bringing her imagination to life ... and a few of these other Anka and Anku show up in the course of the book. And some of them refer to the books that they are writing.

And since I'm a person who, if she gets and idea, I'll want to write it, I decided to give these Anka and Anku some of my own stories. The two books that are referred to the most are 300 Dragons (basically, whenever you hear a certain redheaded character talking about dragons, she's referring to this book's world) and ... The Trilogy of One. In fact, some of the characters from those two books are seen fleetingly during the climatic chapter!

Oh, and don't forget, I'm going to do an Ankulen-themed vlog, and I still need questions to answer, so ask what thou wilt!