I’ve been exploring an idea for a picture book that involves General Santa Anna, of Alamo fame, and Thomas Adams, a would-be New York inventor. As the story goes, these two men met in 1870, with Santa Anna handing over a chuck of chicle, a gooey tree resin from Mexico, to Adams in hopes that the inventor could use it as a substitute for rubber. Such an invention would have made the men the two men filthy rich, and Santa Anna was planning to use his share to raise and army to overthrow the Mexican government. But the invention was not to be, and Santa Anna lost interest and left, while Adams kept at it until he had his invention – not a rubber substitute but a new, improved chewing gum.
I have tried the story several different ways, but none seem to work. After a few weeks on the project, I am officially putting all my drafts and notes into a folder and gently filing it away. A possibility for another time. A wasted two weeks? Absolutely not! This was time well-spent doing some basic research as well as shaping the information into some sort of story. That it didn’t work out, while frustrating, is a necessary tool for creating something that will be worthy of others reading.
Onward…
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