A 9-year old boy named Kellen, with a trans-dimensional portal in his closet (operated by a race of technologically sophisticated mice) has adventures in the Purple Woods, where he tracks a pair of raccoon sock thieves, eats donuts with Joe the Sky Pig, and mines for moon cheese1….amongst other adventures.
The series interweaves themes from science fiction, technology and fantasy into a children’s adventure story that extols lessons in honesty, fairness, kindness and personal responsibility.
The book’s attractive visual style is the product of 3-D modelling software, used to create eye popping images that are a fresh departure from typical children’s book illustrations.
The Purple Woods
The Purple Woods is the name of an alternate dimension that piggybacks our own reality. It is a fantastical forested realm divided into several regions, each with its own unique biome. The creatures that populate The Purple Woods are much like those on the earth. Stuffies are an interesting exception. They tend to be quite common in The Purple Woods and represent an altogether new lifeform.
Stuffies
The stuffies in The Purple woods are living creatures and often difficult to distinguish from regular animals. The forest creatures are also anthropomorphic meaning that their behaviour is human like. Interestingly, there are very few actual human characters in the stories other than Kellen.
Portals
The Purple woods is accessible through portals that connect it with Earth. The field mice are responsible for operating and building the portals using an unknown technology. Although, some naturally developing portals do occur, they are difficult to navigate and control.
The Sock Thief
Although the DNA of Kellen's story had been evolving for several years, it was not until around 2018 that work began on writing. The first book, titled Kellen and the Sock Thief is Kellen’s first adventure into The Purple Woods. The story introduces the reader to many key concepts, themes, and characters. During the writing process we wanted to layer some science fiction into the story's background. One of the main ideas in the story revolves around inter dimensional travel from Kellen's closet to the tree trunk in The Purple Woods.
1Moon Cheese – a source of clean energy used in the operation of the aforementioned trans-dimensional portal system.
