The Mushroom Feast Behind-The-Scenes

We started school today!  September is here, and the School Year’s begun–it just feels like fall.  I’m seriously ready for flame-colored leaves, crisp Autumn mornings, and pumpkin English Muffins.  Just all of sudden I’m ready to let summer go.  It’s my first year of high-school, and I’m planning on making it a good one!

IMG_2038

Anyway, behind the scenes. . .

 The Inspiration

The Mushroom Feast is readable proof that stories write themselves.  What was going to just be a silly little fairy-story turned into a lot more.  What was supposed to be just another short story with some science in it turned out to be longest story I’ve posted on my blog, even if a little short compared to my average.

What actually came first of this story was the spider-scene.  I came up with it sometime this summer (probably while looking at a spiderweb, though I don’t remember exactly when), and after toying around a bit I threw it on a shelf to gather dust till I wanted it.

I found a place for it surprisingly fast.  Module 10 of my science book is called “Classifying Life”, and tells (if you remember) about the different Kingdoms that life forms are put in–and one of those is fungi–mushrooms!  I’ve always liked mushrooms (I know, it’s weird), but in the squeeze of fitting two modules of information into one story fungus got dropped.  But somewhere along the line I got inspiration to write a fairy story where there is a famine until a fairy finds a mushroom, and they can eat the mycelium.

Somewhere in the midst of the story forming I remembered the spider, and (after a little thought) realized it fit right in.

And somehow that turned into all this–nature, a lot of my imagination, my experience, science, romance, and even the idea of wrong feelings not being important if you if you don’t act on them–something I personally have been struggling with–ending up in the last line.

Oh, and the beetles were inspired by a Japanese Beetle infestation we had a few years ago.  A little of my life experience always sneaks into my stories. 🙂

The Characters

The names Elva and Cianna were suggested by my reader Savannah in the comments of this post, where I also got Titus, thanks to Ariel.  I’m going to be looking back you guys’ name suggestions for a long time!

I actually didn’t know why Amelia lived alone at first.  I just knew she needed to live alone, but wanted her young, so I decided to make her an orphan.  The dying-of-a-bee-sting idea I owe to Spencer, from when we were very little.

And Ryan wasn’t originally in the scheme of things.  He just came zipping in without warning and then stuck around.  The romance came pretty naturally after that.  At first they were sixteen and seventeen (who else is thinking of the The Sound of Music now. . . ?), but I decided I should bump them both up a year because of the romance.

Jerry was inspired by this little guy that we found at our porch light last fall:

Bz320fJCcAASISw

Spencer looked it up and found out that it was a house centipede.  I don’t know where the name Jerry came from.  I called this one “Perelandra”, because it reminded me of a creature in The Space Trilogy: Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis.

Bz320fICcAErFfB

Okay, maybe not so little! 🙂

The Picture

The picture is just a mushroom that was growing in our yard, that I actually also posted here.

IMG_1397

I picked the one that included the strawberry leaf because I liked that slash of color, even though it left the mushroom a little out of focus.

And Now It’s Your Turn!

And now it’s back to you, dear readers!  If you would comment and tell me what you thought of my story, I would really appreciate it.  Your favorite character, your favorite part, what you liked, what you didn’t, any questions about anything. . .

I’m all ears!

20 thoughts on “The Mushroom Feast Behind-The-Scenes”

  1. Hi.
    I really liked it.
    My favorite character would have to be Ryan.
    My favorite part is the end.
    I liked that it had a plot. I liked that she had a pet. I liked the mushrooms, the King, and the Queen. (their names escape me)
    I didn’t like………………………………..that they didn’t get married. 😉
    I really liked how you handled the romance!!! I mean, it was a little physical, mostly mental, and perfectly ‘awkward’!!! 😉
    Great job, Hanna!!! I can tell you had fun with this story and keep having fun; ’cause that’s what writing is all about!!!

  2. I’m pretty excited for Fall, too … but that makes sense, it very well might be my favorite season 🙂 .
    I think it’s neat that ‘The Mushroom Feast’ was based on so many different things! I never really knew that before. And I also didn’t know that I was the one who (at one point) mentioned the names Elva and Cianna :). That’s kinda neat!
    My favorite part of the story … hmm … I really like the part where Amelia goes to the King and Queen to tell them about the food she found. My favorite character was either Amelia or Ryan, I’m not sure 🙂 . I really liked how you had your fairies be fairy-sized (that sounds weird, but, seeing as my fairies are larger …), and I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like :).
    Anyways, all that being said, great job with the story! Can’t wait to see what you start posting next 🙂 . ~Savannah

    1. I think your fairies are the perfect size! If they were any smaller they just wouldn’t be. . . themselves! 🙂
      My fairies are usually small for some reason though. Now. When I was younger they were usually bigger. These ones HAD to be small though, or the story wouldn’t have worked.

  3. My favorite characters were the queen and Jerry! I have this thing with pets (probably because I have two #ILove Pets), and the tiny centipede in my head that tagged along with Amelia seemed so cute! Amelia fluttering along a fairy path, Jerry scuttling after her……
    I loved your descriptions, my favorite being the one of the throne room. I felt like I could see it!
    I liked how you built a fairy colony during a famine, I never would’ve thought of that! Very creative!

  4. Oh wait! Oh yeah! I have to say my favorite things!
    Favorite part? Probably the end. You wrote that so good!
    Favorite character?
    Oh boy! I think I like, Cianna, Amelia, maybe Jerry, Ryan, the king and queen….. 😀
    I didn’t really like the not marrying part, but, over all, your story was amazing! I liked reading, and fining out things before, Savannah, Ariel, and Skylar, did! 😀 #SoFun
    I wanted to know, have you seen people like your characters before? Thanks! – Jaidyn

      1. No, I think she means did you model them after anybody. Right, Jaidyn??
        Like in Savannah’s story. Ellen is Ellen, Reece is Skylar, Selena is a lot like Savannah, Hannalore is a lot like you……………

        1. I think she’s asking, have you ever seen a person in real life that actually kinda looked like one of your characters. That has happened to me before, and I must say, it’s quite strange 🙂 .
          And, Ellen, you got all the models right except for Selena. I didn’t know that she seemed like me at all 🙂 ! ~Savannah

  5. I’m seeing themes here: everyone liked Ryan–even if they liked other characters as well–and most people liked the last part! I’ll keep that in mind.

  6. It’s fun to hear about where your ideas come from! 🙂
    There were a lot of unique ideas in this story. I liked Amelia a lot. I don’t think I have a favorite part – I liked all of it!

    Love you!

Leave a Reply to Jaidyn Perran Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *