LUNA LILY: Against the Audes, A 240-page, middle-grade sci-fi/fantasy graphic novel.
Lily Aude, a ten-year-old, lives in a secluded New England valley, in a mansion overshadowed by her parents' nature park, MOON VALLEY. Dressed as Mother Nature and The Man in the Moon, her workaholic parents run the "silly fantasy park," causing Lily to yearn for a normal life like her friends, Addie and Theo—dubbed "The Lunatics" at school.
The Aude family is shunned by Lawson's townsfolk, who whisper of odd creatures and vanishings linked to their home. One day, Lily risks a lone exploration of the valley that leads her to a magical beast that entrusts her with an empty locket and a mysterious quest to restore its lost contents. As Lily grapples with the beast's cryptic mission, a wealthy heir arrives, claiming his ancestors had it stolen, and wins most of the town over by promising to turn the secluded valley into a high-tech industrial complex. Realizing the quest's potential to save her home, Lily, with Addie, Theo, an old groundskeeper, and his wife's aid, seek to find the locket's mysterious contents hoping it contains the magic to save her family's legacy.
Why this story?
I worked in education for over twenty years, and science is an area I enjoyed the most creating content for. My goal is to foster a love for this fragile blue orb we all live on in space. Conservation is my underlying theme. Topics like alternate energy sources, saving endangered species like bees, and climate change get woven into the story to help bring awareness and encourage children to be caretakers without being preachy. I want the reader to discover the real magic that is NATURE! The imaginative fantasy setting lets my main character talk to animals, and make plants grow. Lily doesn’t always make the right decisions but follows her heart and gains strength by helping others. Lily learns she can help the world better by being herself rather than relying on magical powers. An optimistic message that lets children see that they can make a difference.
Creating a graphic novel is a journey of a thousand steps, but having friends to share the trip makes it much more meaningful and fun. I hope you decide to come along and see me create this idea into a book you will love and share with others.
— Bob
In 2005, I did a doodle of my four-year-old daughter Lily in a cute space suit and thought, “I‘m going to write a children’s book. I can draw and write. "How hard could it be?" Pretty hard! :) The story took many forms over the years. I wrote a blog about it. If you're interested in learning more click here, Luna Lily: Origin Story.