Brave Mouse Finds Publishing Friends on Orcas

Molly Coxe with her creation, Benjamin Middlemouse

Children’s author Molly Coxe has brought Benjamin Middlemouse and BraveMouse Books publishing company  to life, and won a Nautilus Gold Award in the process.

Coxe, who with her husband Craig Canine and daughter Francie  moved to Orcas four years ago, has developed her love of art and children through years as a preschool/kindergarten teacher, a children’s book author/illustrator.

But when she moved to Orcas from the San Francisco Bay area, she felt she had tapped out her drawing abilities and had grown disenchanted with mainstream publishing.

“Mainstream publishers are all huge, global enterprises at this point, so the process can be impersonal and frustrating in many ways.  The editors, who are immensely talented and creative individuals, have to feed a monster which demands ever increasing revenues, so they have less time to edit or to nurture a book after it is published,” Coxe says.

“It’s not completely satisfying for anyone, I don’t think. I thought it could be an interesting and fun challenge to take a book from creation through publication, and my husband, Craig Canine, a wonderful writer and editor, agreed to join me on the adventure.  He took the work-in-progress to New York, found a good distributor, and figured out pretty much everything about the publishing process that he didn’t already know, while I worked on the book.”

Coxe’s favorite part of creating Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue was making the characters. “You start out with a length of wire, a wad of sheep’s wool, felting needles, and fabric, and slowly a character emerges. You know you’re done when you can feel the character’s presence, as if it might take a deep breath at any moment and run off to do something. (What it might do is the interesting question.) Then you add more juicy details to the character’s appearance until you feel that one more detail would be too much, one less—too little. The process is full of surprises and discoveries. It’s hecka fun, and why wouldn’t it be: it’s playing!”

Coxe describes the most distinctive features of Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue as the handmade characters, and the richly-detailed and beautifully lit cinematic photographs taken in a medieval village by her friend and collaborator, Olivier Toppin.

There’s a robust plot with twists and turns, real suspense, and a satisfying and surprising conclusion.  Coxe adds, “If parents are looking for a bedtime story that will lull a four year old child to sleep by page twenty, this is not it!”

Marilyn McGuire, of Nautilus Book Awards, praises the imagination in both the creation of the characters and the plotline, and says, “It is so nice to have a book of that caliber in the Nautilus Awards. I am very impressed with Molly’s energy; she’s an amazing person.” Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue won a Nautilus Gold Award in its category, in large part because Coxe took visual risks in venturing into three-dimensional art, and because the conflict resolution in the story is consistent with Nautilus values, books  \ that promote spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change.

Antoinette Botsford, who serves as a consultant for the children’s section of Nautilus Book Awards, recused herself from the judging because of her close working association with Coxe ( she recorded Benjamin and Bumper), says that Coxe’s book took top prize because “it obviously was the best book in the children’s category.”

Botsford adds, “I’ve never heard Molly say something was ‘good enough.’  I love working with a person who won’t settle for anything but the best, without losing a sense of humor.  That’s what it’s like to work with Molly.  And I love her book and her ideas for related activities.  She has a childlike sense of whimsy combined with real discipline.”

Coxe was one of 30 Gold Award Winners who signed during the recent three-day Book Expo America (BEA) annual exhibit. Coxe found the exhibit  in mid-town Manhattan to be overwhelming, “with hundreds of acres of fluorescent lights;” but she was touched by the personal connections that came her way during the book signing: the children’s librarians, the bookstore employees who personally “handsell” Coxe’s book, the psychic, the Buddhist child-rearing expert, the Quaker chaplain newly home from Iraq.

She also appreciated meeting her book’s Chinese printer in person. “It’s nice to attach a human face to the people you are doing business with.”

Still, she’d rather be home in her studio working, and creating more adventures for her brave little mouse. “The first book involved learning to do so many things,” she says. She picked a mouse as her protaganist, because she knows children relate to the smallness and powerlessness of the little creatures.

Benjamin and Bumper to the Rescue will be followed by “zillions” of stories, says Coxe. “The next story will introduce new characters: Paprika Pantrymouse, a feisty five year old who is Benjamin’s friend, a very small dragon named Char(lotte) who burns things up whenever she doesn’t get her way, and/or a mysterious baby mouse Benjamin and Bumper find in the forest. There will be a bad guy–possibly a beautiful, vain, and very dangerous white weasel, but I’m not sure yet.  Many of the ideas I start out with won’t wind up in the story.”

Coxe describes the book-making process as “always learning, always discovering something more. I’m like the conduit or midwife for things that come from a mysterious place.”

Starting a publishing company on Orcas Island has been a “fabulous!” experience, says Coxe. “You can find someone wonderful to do anything creative that needs doing. Steve Gropp, blacksmith, made a beautiful little sword for the cat in the first story. Julian Glasser, who recently graduated from Orcas High School and is currently working at Wildlife Cycles, made a small fold-up scooter for Bumper the elephant out of wood and antique window hardware. Antoinette Botsford recorded the charming narration for the eight-minute video. Steve Alboucq wrote an original soundtrack that I adore. Gene Nery handled all the sound engineering. Laurie Mayhew, my neighbor, sewed a hundred Make-a-Mouse kits. Another neighbor Martin Taylor, helped overhaul the website (www.bravemousebooks.com)  Jenny Pedersen at Darvill’s has been hugely supportive and is always open to event and promotion ideas.

As a newcomer to the island, Coxe made her first connections through the public school, which her daughter attended. Then came the rowing team parents and coaches the local road association, the yoga classes, where Coxe “found my people, who were incredibly open and creative — so game for doing creative stuff.”