Ollie to the Rescue - Story #3

The 2nd concrete idea I have for a subsequent story in the "Ollie on the Trolley" series, is based on a plot detail that Mom mentioned to me. She said one of the stories she remembers telling us was about the Brown children getting lost in the city, and Ollie coming to the rescue.

Plot outline: Delia gets upset at Grandpa, perhaps because her stay is extended unexpectedly by her parents. Following their phone call to break the news, she runs off - followed by Ollie. She sneaks aboard a busy California line trolley, full of commuters too engrossed in their morning paper to notice a small girl and an orange cat. Delia and Ollie eventually make their way to the Gold Gate Park where they have various adventures, some fun and some scary. As the day gets darker, Delia is suddenly tired of running away from "home" and wants to go back to the row house to see Grandpa. However, she is lost inside the large park and unsure what to do next. Ollie, who has been keeping her company all day, leads her to a more public part of the park and gets the attention of a park security officer, who alerts the city police that he's found the lost child reported earlier in the day. Delia and Ollie are safely reunited with Grandpa and Fred.

P.S. Snaggletooth the Witch?

I'm also working on an idea for a totally different story, based on a tale I told the real Delia in the car last summer. Apparently Amanda has taken up the thread and "Snaggletooth the Witch" lives on. I talked to Amanda the other day about working on the story together and she liked the idea. Apparently, she had already mentioned the same idea to Delia lately!

Today, Sunday, I went ahead and started a new blog for this new story. See the link above.

Ollie at the Exploratorium - Story #2

Now that my draft of the first book in the series - titled "Ollie on the Trolley" - is finished and I'm working on networking and researching literary agents and publishing houses, I've got ideas for additional books on my mind. I'd like to send Ollie to explore the Exploratorium, a museum of "science, art and human perception" in San Francisco that caught my attention when I read through the Wikipedia entry on the city. It is housed in the Palace of Fine Arts, which was built in 1915 and is a landmark in San Francisco (photo is from the Wikipedia Commons and can be accessed through the link above).

The Exploratorium is over near the Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio. So it's unlikely that Ollie would just wander over there. It could be a day trip with Delia and her Grandpa, and thus also an opportunity to develop those characters further.

The dilemma I've got, however, is that I introduced Ollie at the beginning of "Ollie on the Trolley" as a full grown cat. But if I want to keep Delia in the story, I either have to keep Ollie young or create a further reason why Delia is staying with her grandfather more long term. Should Delia's visit in the first story be a brief one, then later on she comes to stay with Grandpa for a period - a summer or longer?

Back to the Exploratorium. It is purposefully interactive and has a diverse array of sections, about topics ranging from biodiversity and space weather to earthquakes and languages. There is even a special section of the museum devoted to Frogs!

The plot outline could be: Ollie and the trolley gripman (by the way, I'm considering changing his name, as Herb just does not roll off the tongue) have their routines. Ollie spends his days riding the trolley and cruising the restaurants of Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown, keeping his coat shiny and sleek with plenty of fresh fish and seafood. Herb has #24 and his work buddies, and on his days off putters around making small renovations in the row house or meanders about the neighborhood, chatting with Annie (the owner of the corner store, who has a bit of a crush on him) and other locals. Sometimes he even tries to draw out that old curmudgeon downstairs, Mr. Bailey - Delia's grandpa. Delia's arrival for the summer shakes things up. Mr. Bailey is forced to get out and about in order to keep her entertained and busy. And their lives become intertwined with Herb's, due to Delia's connection with Ollie, which is still strong after a year apart. Her playfulness and affection draw out both men, changing their perspectives on family and community. And Mr. Bailey finally starts to thaw out regarding Ollie, who he has mainly viewed as a nuisance, due to Ollie's habit of meowing at his door early in the morning, wanting to be let out of the building.