Parts of Phantasmagoria were inspired not so much by actual events but rather by the idea of what summers could be, what two friends like Hattie and Shep might do with their time before they got older and needed to work and move on to more adult activities.

It was also inspired by the books I read about other kids and their adventures. My vision for the Shelton’s Cove series is that Hattie’s narrative will be told in a series of short stories about him, and his family, Shep, and other friends, including one of whom we’ll meet tonight. I loved that style of episodic stories, like John D. Fitzgerald’s The Great Brain series, which reveals the escapades of T.D Fitzgerald as told by his younger brother, J.D., in late 1800s Utah.

But there were others that told the stories of kids, who I imagined might be me, and their adventures. There was Bob Fulton’s Amazing Soda Pop Stretcher by Jerome Beatty, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron, Alan Mendelsohn, The Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater, and one that sticks with me to this day, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.

All of these harken back to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer in some fashion. All tell of adventures, and all feel like something that could have happened during summer vacation on the Cape, at summer camp, or among the tree-lined streets on which I grew up.

So let’s put pencil to paper and continue with Hattie’s summer in Phantasmagoria, part two.