Marina and the Fairies: Monsters in the Forest

Monsters in the Forest

In this first book of the Marina and the Fairies series, monsters are running loose in the fairy village. A mixed-up spell has turned the flowers into monsters. What is worse, a greedy imp has snuck into the village, and only the lovely cat Marina and her young fairy friends can see the imp for what he truly is. The grown-up fairies seem to love the shape-shifting imp even as he eats their food and tricks them. He even convinces them that Marina is a Bad Cat! It’ s up to Marina and the young fairies to outsmart the imp and banish the monsters from the village forever.

Monsters in the Forest is fun fantasy adventure aimed at readers from 6 to 11!

The Inspiration

Our cat Marina lived with us for twenty years. The shelter volunteers had strongly recommended her, because she was such a calm and patient cat, a good match for a family with young children. The shelter had named her ‘Beauty.’ And she was beautiful, a sleek black panther of a cat.

We quickly changed her name. We felt silly calling out “Beauty” from our doorstep when it was time for her to come back inside. And each time we called her, it reminded me of the Tennyson poem. I am not a fan of Tennyson. And so she became ‘Marina.’

Marina was beautiful and calm and patient and wonderful with our children. But she would often stare at me with a startled expression, as if she wondered what I was doing in her house. When I set down her food or cleaned her water bowl, I felt somehow invisible. We had other cats: she would not curl up with them, although she allowed them to curl up with her. Then it occurred to me: Marina knew her own magnificence!

Then one day, after Marina had spent the morning in the woods behind our house, we noticed a perfect, fairy-sized white handprint on her black fur.