Tea With the Queen almost was never written. When asked what does someone give their mother when she turns 90 years old my husband said "write her a story- a fairy tale!" I had been agonizing over a family history saga dealing with depression, but that didn't seem appropriate for a birthday present, so I drew from my childhood what I wanted to see in a story then I added bits of personality from my family of inside jokes and character traits that were recognizable. You see, this story is a fairy tale but the people are real.
I need to get this off my chest before we delve into the story and plot line. This IS a children's book, but it's a children's book written for adults. It is written in the high-style of an old fashioned fairy tale but the language is a bit sophisticated for young ones, then again I despise talking down to children. I remember my nephew Donnie, he was six or seven at the time; he wanted to read Jaws, whenever he didn't know a word he asked his mother and she would tell him. Now we just hold our finger over the word and the definition immediate comes up. Some of the characters are a bit bawdy and I am not ashamed of their actions. When you read out loud you may choose to omit these passages, for as one critique of the story goes something like this; "I have nothing against Gay people, but..." I always find that when somebody starts with the statement, "I have nothing against (fill in the blank) they usually do.
The original book was printed from my home computer in a nondescript black vinyl folder. The printing looked like olde script on parchment paper and the pictures were taken from clip-art off the internet. It was nice and it pleased my mother and family as I gave a copy to my siblings as well. Being a bit OCD, I knew that this little story had potential and I began the journey of bringing Tea With the Queen to full Technicolor life! But, where does one begin?
I knew that I wanted to be in complete control over the construction of the book. I wanted it to look like a book I enjoyed reading when I was young. I choose the texture of the paper and the feel of the cover, now came the hard part, I needed an illustrator, someone who shared the type of images I wanted to grace the pages of my mother's story. I went to comic book and tattoo conventions, leaving broken hearted for all they were interested in was superheroes and over-the-top villains. The answer to my problem came from the the most unexpected place.
I was talking with a coworker. I was teller her how unhappy I was at the prospect of not finding the right illustrator, when out of the blue a woman was listening too our conversation. "I didn't mean to be eavesdropping on your conversation, but I have a friend who's daughter likes to draw and, in my opinion, is very talented," the woman said. "The only bad thing is she lives in Portland, Oregon." I wrote my email down on a business card and handed it to the woman. "Have your friend's daughter email me some of her work and let's take it from there." I did have my doubts. You see we could not have been further from one another, I live in South Florida and she lives in Oregon- completely on the opposite sides of the country!
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