* Main-Echo Aschaffenburg *

Date of publication: 15th September, 2005, published by Main-Echo, Aschaffenburg

The magic of ideas

The enchanting story of Wonderdreamland

Kleinostheim. Beate Plechatsch and Katja Drinkguth are two humorous sisters living in Kleinostheim. They like laughing, even when they talk about their book. This indicates how much joy they had working together on their first publication "The enchanting story of wonderdreamland or How the world was saved." "We share the same interests and sometimes exchange books", Beate und Katja are describing their harmony. Their course of life has only for a short time separated the sisters who were both born in Gross-Zimmern. The industrial clerk Beate Plechatsch (39 years old), mother of two children and housewife, moved to Kleinostheim 12 years ago. Katja C. Drinkguth (31 years old) followed her only a year later when she first met her later husband in Beate´s new home-town. Katja Drinkguth, who earns her living as a construction site sketcher at the Office for Construction of new Water Ways in Aschaffenburg, is besides her merely sober profession quite open towards mysticism: She ist fascinated by other ways of thinking, topics like Feng Shui (the art and science of living in harmony with the environment) or Palaeo Seti - the kind of alternative archaeology connected with Erich von Daeniken which assumes that extra-terrestrials have had an influence on the development of mankind.

As an explanation for this approach and as a quasi-preface of the story itself, one notices an utterance of Albert Einstein: "A new kind of thinking is essential if mankind wants to stay alive and to reach a higher level." When talking to the authoresses, this sounds more simple and sober. They say that the ideas for the book were developed rather coincidental. "At the beginning, we did not know exactly how it would end", says Katja Drinkguth. "We always added new ideas to the story." On their mutual exchange of thoughts the little stone-helper Beryll and his girl-friend, turbo-turtle Raidho were being born. Both of them love adventures more than anything else and like travelling very much. They set about to find the crimson carbuncle heartstone. But before its magic power can save the sick planet earth, both actors have to come up with lots of new ideas. Unexpectedly, they are getting help... .

The fictional story with lots of illustrations (Beate illustrated the book and Katja designed the front page), takes its readers into a world in which friendship, wisdom and helpfulness are the keys to a peaceful living together of all human beings. As a helpful message they want to tell their probably mostly young readers: "Friendship is important, each creature with its specific talents is essential for the sake of all of us!"

For this additional reason, the enchanting story of wonderdreamland should be more than just a book for children. "We found it difficult to agree upon a recommendation of age the children should have", says Katja Drinkguth who would have been much more satisfied with the term "fantasy novel" than with the term "fairy tale". The little book shall tell its readers that nothing in life is fixed, that one must dare to dream an idea to its very end and that ideas can lead to a new goal. Like the idea of writing this book which finally found a successful end despite lots of adversities. "At the beginning, we started the whole thing in a very naive way because we did not know what the publishers want", Beate Plechatsch and Katja Drinkguth are recalling. "So reworking the manuscript nearly took longer than writing it!"

They had sent their manuscript to different publishers and only learnt after some time that most of the lectors only consider such a piece of work worth reading if the appearance of the design is acceptable. Furthermore, the lectors at first do not want to read that much. Most of them prefer reading an exposé which summarizes the highlights of the story in a few sentences and vividly describes the basis and the actors of the story.

When taking all this into consideration, Beate Plechatsch and Katja Drinkguth can already be satisfied: For them it is "a success that the book was printed." Wolfgang Dreikorn

Beate Plechatsch and Katja Drinkguth: “The enchanting story of wonderdreamland or How the world was saved”, Triga publisher Gelnhausen, ISBN 3-89774-434-1, 68 pages with pictures, 8 Euro, www.wundertraumland.de

Photo: Stefan Gregor

»We thank Marion Jansen for the translation of the press article.«