A Story About Talking Elk

I didn’t write a story about talking elk out of an overflow of elk knowledge or enthusiasm. I’m sure I had felt passing admiration for the creatures. But elk and I had never been what you’d call closely acquainted. For example, I didn’t know they bugled. (I also didn’t know people bugled in elk-bugling competitions).

I wrote a story for young readers for many reasons. It’s a story about talking elk because of a hike and something my husband said.

A Coastal Hike

A few years ago, my husband and I visited the California coast. At breakfast, a lady told us that if we hiked by the sea, we’d run into a herd of elk. I do think she literally said, “run into a herd of elk.”

Hmm. Probably not, I thought. What kind of elk would let us hike near them? Or into them, for that matter.

Turns out–as it often does–that I was wrong. There was herd of elk and it let us get surprisingly close. They were strikingly noble and almost austere creatures. Yet they also seemed oddly comfortable in the presence of humans.

My husband said something like, “Well, that’s a herd of elk that’s gone soft. It’s almost as if they’ve forgotten they’re wild animals.”

To which I replied, “That sounds like a great children’s book.”

To which he may have thought, “Hmm, probably not.”

In any case, he did not say that out loud. Instead, he asked me to tell him more. And, to my surprise, I could tell him more. Images, characters, themes, settings, and histories flooded my mind and came out of my mouth with astonishing rapidity.

A Story that Stuck

I got excited about the story. He got excited about the story and sent me off to a quiet corner of the B&B to type up what I could. In the following months that turned into years, I plugged away at the story in the cracks of my days homeschooling and raising little ones.

The result was the first book in a series about talking elk–and other animals–in a land called Animalia. Having been steeped in great talking animal stories, I’d always wanted to write one. But I never had a story concept that really stuck.

This one stuck fast and seemed worth pursuing to the end, even if the only people who read it were my kids and their friends.

Now that my kids, their friends, and other folks have read it and given enthusiastic thumbs up, I offer it to you and your family. I believe good stories nourish souls and shape imaginations; I wrote The Elk King with that firmly in mind.

If you read The Elk King, I’d love to hear what you think! Drop me a note here or leave a review here.