Mountain of Mystery

Every summer on the long drive to visit my grandparents in Oregon I’d ask, “Is that the mountain with little people?” I’d peer out the station wagon window and search the landscape for the tallest, snowiest mountain. Dad had told us that little people lived inside the small mountain next to majestic Mount Shasta. I loved looking for magic, and imagining tiny people hidden underground added excitement to a boring 600-mile drive.

As I grew older, I realized Dad’s story was just a wild tale to entertain four energetic kids on a long car trip. I didn’t believe in magic or little people anymore. But decades later, on a trip to Mount Shasta, I saw a book on local legends and was amazed to read about magical little people. There was even a mention of Mount Shastina, the small mountain next to Mount Shasta. How much of Dad’s wild tale was fantasy and how much was truth?

When it came time to write a second book in my Strange Encounters series, I remembered those little people. Mount Shasta would be the perfect destination for the traveling Strange family. And this time Cassie would share her adventure with her brother Lucas.

After writing plot notes and playing with ideas, I planned a research trip. My husband and I invited my parents along for their anniversary, and we spent a lovely weekend in Mount Shasta City. The picturesque town has beautiful mountain views, crisp pine-scented air and a quirky personality. Walking along a shady sidewalk, we passed a holistic medicine office, a fence with P-E-A-C-E spelled out and a yard decorated with a crystal ball. I was thrilled to find a half-dozen bookstores, mostly New Age ones with hanging crystals, tinkling chimes and the sweet scent of incense.

I couldn’t resist going into a fascinating mystical store called The Crystal Room. I was really impressed with the giant chunk of natural crystal rock on display. It was so huge that it filled half the room. The clerk invited us to run our fingers over the smooth crystals. When this clerk saw that my mom had a sore arm, she ushered us into a back room and invited Mom to put her hand into a healing crystal bowl. There was a humming sound and the vibrations gave me goose bumps. Then, after a hike at Castle Lake, we had dinner at the fabulous Black Bear Diner. Research never tasted so good!

Once research was completed, my next trip was into my own imagination. Trips are a theme with Cassie and her “strange” family. In Oh No, UFO!, Cassie found aliens while camping. For the second book in this series, I planned for her to stay at a resort hotel in Mount Shasta where a prankster is putting slime in the toilets and scaring guests with booby traps. There are rumors that the culprit’s a leprechaun, so Cassie’s father plans to investigate for his cable TV show.

My original idea was to have Cassie search for leprechaun gold. But the information I’d found in my research of Mount Shasta said that the little people in the local stories weren’t leprechauns, although there were similarities between the two. As a result, I switched my plot around and changed the title from Leaping Leprechauns to Shamrocked.

This fantasy adventure includes an alien pet, treasure maps and a secret world of magic. I mixed reality with fiction to create this book. Here’s an excerpt where this blend comes through:

I wandered over to a display of books on Mount Shasta. A larger spiral-bound book caught my eye: Mountain Mysteries and Lore. I skimmed through the table of contents. History, geography and photos of tourist sites didn’t interest me. But my heart quickened when I found a chapter entitled “Big Secrets about Little People.”

The story made me think of tall tales whispered on dark, stormy nights. A lost civilization of mystical people who could fly, talk without speaking and teleport using mind-power. They existed in harmony with nature — until a terrible flood destroyed their city. Survivors moved into secret tunnels under Mount Shasta.

It was only a legend, the author of the article explained. But many people reported seeing strange lights and unusual sounds around Mount Shasta. One person even claimed to have a picture of a magical little person. I turned the page to see this picture, and gasped.

A quest for treasure leads Cassie and her brother into the hidden world under Mount Shasta, but it will take an additional quest for truth to show them the way back home. Ultimately, they’ll discover that the truths that matter most are hidden inside themselves.