The Enchanted Bookshop to be published

People often ask me where I get my ideas. The answer is complicated. Ideas come from all sorts of places.

Sometimes they come from dreams (Wicked Is As Wicked Does). Sometimes they come from brainstorming (Rumpelstiltskin, Private Eye). And sometimes they come from old Warner Brothers cartoons.

That last one was the case with The Enchanted Bookshop, a large-cast comedy which Pioneer Drama Service just accepted for publication.

I've always loved those old cartoons that featured book characters who come to life. The relentless onslaught of literary puns is a big part of the fun.

But there was one flaw with these cartoons. They always devolved into a big chase scene.

Call me weird (and you wouldn't be the first), but I didn't want a boring old chase. I wanted to learn more about the characters. I wanted to hear their backstories. I wanted to see them struggle and yearn and grow.

So I came up with a story about six famous characters--Dorothy, Robin Hood, Heidi, Tom Sawyer, Pollyanna and Sherlock Holmes--who team up to defeat a band of jewel smugglers.

There's just one problem. By fighting the smugglers, they risk their very existence. One glimpse from a human and--poof!--they're gone.

Like my more recent plays, this one has a message too. Reading is vital. The reason these book characters were granted life was because no one was reading their books anymore. So their struggle is less about smugglers and more about staying relevant in a culture addicted to TV and video games.

Whoa! That makes the play sound pretty heavy. Trust me, it's not. The characters have a lot of fun too, especially when they argue about their back stories:

HEIDI: Was ist los? 

ROBIN HOOD: Was ist los? This is los! I mean this is the matter! That fetid feline stole my hat! 

DOROTHY: Wait a minute. Don't you steal from the rich? 

ROBIN HOOD: What? Oh, uh, sure. But that's different. I give everything I steal to the poor. 

DOROTHY: So it's okay to steal as long as you don't keep the stuff yourself? 

ROBIN HOOD: Yes! Well, not exactly. I mean it's complicated. 

DOROTHY: Not as complicated as you make it out to be. 

TOM SAWYER: I wouldn't talk, Dorothy. Didn't you swipe the Wicked Witch's shoes? 

DOROTHY: What? No! The Good Witch gave them to me! 

TOM SAWYER: Oh. So it's okay to keep somethin' that was swiped as long as somebody else did the swipin'? 

DOROTHY: If the person is dead, it's not swiping!

The play may get a title change before it's published. It's targeted for high schools and middle schools, but Pioneer's editorial staff believes that the word "enchanted" makes it sound younger.

They have a good point, but so far we've been unable to come up with a better title. Suggestions are always welcome!