Inspiration for Once Upon the Rhine

A very special Fairy TripMother (ftmtravel.com) used her unique powers to send my husband and I away on a magical Disney riverboat cruise down the Rhine River. My second Young Adult novel The Last Crabtree Girl was about to be launched and this was the perfect time to do something new and adventurous. It was one of my first trips out of the country without at least one of our three sons. As we spent a few extra days in Basel before the cruise, I was very curious about the cockatrice statues and we went on a wonderful chocolate tour (www.xocotour.ch). During the cruise, I became ill with allergies I hadn’t ever experienced and wondered how the boys with their medical issues dealt. One morning I woke and took pen to paper to create a family adventure with our three sons and a guardian—or Cockatrice god-parent—to help along the way. Writing this book, I fell in love with the characters and decided to bring Cody the Cockatrice home, and now we travel all over the world together.