{"id":9295,"date":"2015-11-30T07:44:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T14:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=9295"},"modified":"2015-11-30T08:01:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T15:01:44","slug":"true-story-montana-setting-inspire-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/11\/true-story-montana-setting-inspire-childrens-book\/","title":{"rendered":"True story, Montana setting inspire children’s book"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trout\"<\/a>

Among the characters in Lynda Bourque Moss’s new children’s book, “A Montana Love Story,” is the helpful Mr. Trout.<\/p><\/div>\n

Some 15 years ago, Lynda Bourque Moss\u2019s friends in the Paradise Valley told her of an adventure involving their dog, Nubbin, and their pygmy goat, Frosty.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the family had left one morning, leaving no food for Nubbin and Frosty, and for some reason the two animals decided to go visit Nubbin\u2019s best friend Bucky, a \u201cmovie star dog\u201d who lived on Mill Creek five miles from Nubbin\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

\"Moss\"<\/a>

Lynda Bourque Moss<\/p><\/div>\n

They made it, but only after trekking all day, spending the night outside and arriving tired and wet from having crossed Mill Creek on the way.<\/p>\n

Moss, who had a cabin on Mill Creek, knew the area well, and she knew the animals involved. In fact, the pygmy goat had been her \u201cranch-warming gift\u201d to her friends when they moved to the Paradise Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been this wonderful story I shared with my friends,\u201d Moss said of the overnight adventure.<\/p>\n

It started to become something more than that a year and a half ago, after Moss met DC Ice, an illustrator living in St. Paul, Minn., where Moss had gone in her role as a board member of the Northwest Area Foundation.<\/p>\n

They met at an artist-run co-op, and Moss was so taken with Ice\u2019s charming pen-and-ink drawings that she soon proposed collaborating on a book. The result is now in print, a children\u2019s book called \u201cA Montana Love Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moss said it\u2019s mostly a true story, though she had to embellish the details of an adventure that will remain a mystery. Moss wrote the text and then Ice worked up drawings based on photographs of the dogs, the goat and the ranch house, plus some careful research into the plants and animals prevalent in the Paradise Valley.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>On their way to Bucky\u2019s place, Nubbin and Frosty enlist the help of Mr. Owl, Madame Marmot, Mr. Trout and Mother Fox and her kits, among other creatures. They also have a brief, frightening encounter with a black bear. In doing research for the book, Moss said, she learned that children \u201clove danger. You have to have danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the book there are notes on Mill Creek and Paradise Valley, with descriptions of some of the habits of the area\u2019s human and nonhuman inhabitants. There are also some questions for young readers to ponder, including \u201cHow do animals, without maps or any directions, find their way?\u201d Another is, \u201cCan trees, fish and animals help people know where to go?\u201d And, \u201cCan animals have friends like people do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mosbook<\/a>Moss is a former two-term state senator from Billings who is now returning to her roots as an artist and writer after a career of executive positions with foundations and museums, including a stint as director of the Western Heritage Center in Billings.<\/p>\n

She has a master\u2019s of fine arts degree from Montana State University, and a fondness for animals that manifested itself during her time in the Montana Senate, where she introduced a bill to designate a state dog. It failed, alas. She was also known for campaigning with her very large dog, a bouvier, that became known as her \u201cmoving yard sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ice has a BFA from the College of Visual Arts and she has illustrated nearly a dozen children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

The handsome hardcover book has been published in a limited run of 200 copies, which Moss is selling for $40 each. She will have a book signing Saturday, Dec. 5, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Toucan Gallery, 2505 Montana Ave. Another signing is scheduled at Chico Hot Springs on Saturday, Dec. 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some 15 years ago, Lynda Bourque Moss\u2019s friends in the Paradise Valley told her of an adventure involving their dog, Nubbin, and their pygmy goat, Frosty. Everyone in the family had left one morning, leaving no food for Nubbin and Frosty, and for some reason the two animals decided to go visit Nubbin\u2019s best friend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3446,3444,3445,1154,215],"class_list":["post-9295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-dc-ice","tag-lynda-bourque-moss","tag-mill-creek","tag-paradise-valley","tag-western-heritage-center","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}