Story Idea:

this story was one of the easiest to develop for me.  It involved absolutely no effort on my part.  some people don't believe me when I tell them to story of how this book came to me, but it's true.  i was cleaning my boys' bathroom one day, and the steam mop was in the hallway heating up so i could mop the floor.  the mop i had at that time was old and actually didn't last much longer after this incident.  when it would heat up, it made all kinds of crazy hissing noises.  so as i stood there scrubbing the sink and listening to the hissing and boiling and bubbling, i thought "i wonder if that could be what a dragon breathing fire might sound like."  from there, my brain went into overdrive thinking about dragons and dinosaurs and how there really is no way for us to know what they actually sounded like.  i had recently finished a bible study at my church about dinosaurs in the bible which included biblical passages that could very easily be talking about those extinct reptiles.  we also discussed numerous first hand accounts of people having seen or heard these creatures in the most remote areas of the world including the congo river basin.  and so, the idea of two boys journeying into the heart of the jungle in search of a dinosaur was born.

 

Names:

The names chosen for Eyelids of the morning were very easy to choose.  The two main characters, Ethan and Rory, are named for my two sons.  aT that time, both of them were very interested in dinosaurs, and when the idea of the story came to me, I knew i had to make this story for them.

 

Uncle Paul is named after my Grandfather.  Originally, his name was Uncle Friedrich (Uncle Fred for short) but when the Delmar books began, I stole the name friedrich for one of the characters there.  i didn't think i should reuse the name, so i changed it.

 

Maggie:  Truth be told, i had the image of Maureen O'Hara playing maggie in the original Parent trap movie in my head.  I always loved her sassy red-headed ways in that movie, and since my maggie was an irish red-head, i figured "why not?"

 

Mokele Mbembe:

The Congo River Basin covers about 3.7 million square kilometers and is very heavily forested.  it seems a very likely place for an elusive, large species to remain hidden. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mokele MBembe is a lingala name for a creature and means "one who stops the flow of the river."  there have been reported sightings in the congo area, particularly around lake tele, for over two hundred years.  some believe the creature is real while others claim it is a spirit.  some say it is an elephant or rhinocerous while others claim it is a sauropod (also known as an apatosaurus or brontosaurus to those of us old enough to remember the flintstones.)  there are no known photographs of the creature, and no remains have ever been found, but many locals believe that they have seen it.