Local author hopes to see her books turned into film
 
 Felicia LeDuff Harry

The characters who live in the Land of Sha Bebe, the mystical place created by author Mary Lynn Plaisance, up to now, have lived in peaceful harmony.

The characters, with whimsical names like Madame Poulette and Madame Plume, have enjoyed their magic and in two books, "In the Land of Sha Bebe" and "The Cajun Fairies," Plaisance has told the story of this magic and how the Sha Bebe dolls help humans deal with the harsh realities of life.

The existence of the dolls has pretty much been idyllic, Plaisance said, and up to now, the only negative character has been Bagasse Man, who hasn't been welcome in the Land of Sha Bebe only because he stinks.

That changes in her third book, "The Wizard of Swamp Alley -- In the Land of Sha Bebe," Plaisance said because she introduces some not-so-nice characters who live "on the other side" and who enter the Land of Sha Bebe trying to steal the magic of the fairies.

The story is centered on Halloween, she said, and it's about how the mean characters emerge and how their land, the Land of Lackluster, is a mirror image of the good world, only ugly and wicked. Each good character has an exact opposite in the new book, she said, and even the queen of the Land of Lackluster, Queen Dabora, has a castle that's raggedy and unkempt, the opposite of Queen Faustina's beautiful pink plantation home in the Land of Sha Bebe.

Although the central Lafourche native won't say exactly how the good characters manage to ward off the evil characters, Plaisance will say that their first attempt is to glue the evil characters to furniture, which doesn't really work.

In this newly released book, Plaisance also introduces new characters who live near the Land of Sha Bebe, but up to now have not been part of the story. One of those characters is Marie La Vie, a traiteurs (healer) who lives in the swamplands behind the house of Madame Plume. She is the one who tells of the Cajun Wizard, Antoine Clement Hebert, the book's namesake. It is the wizard's job to keep the divide between the good and bad lands by playing his fiddle, but near Halloween, he is missing.

Plaisance said the inspiration for bringing in characters from the other side came from the familiar descriptions people give referencing the bayou.

"You know how people say up the bayou, or down the bayou, or this side of the bayou, or that side of the bayou, " Plaisance said.

So, she said she developed the story about a portal that leads to "the other side" where each good character has an evil opposite. The name, the Land of Lackluster, came from the spell checker on her word-processing software, she said, when she was looking for a word that meant boring or dull. Since then, Plaisance said, she's heard politicians use the word in their advertisements although she had never heard it before.

The names of the characters who live in the Land of Lackluster are really stupid names, Plaisance said, mentioning Lady Dunce and Ms. Mad Muriel.

"This is not a children's book," Plaisance said.

It's geared more toward teenagers and adults. That's also true of the first two books, she said, because they are based on adult folklore.

"These are not stories you would want to read to little children," she added. "I love my stories, although it's hard sometime to get people to understand them."

She said she would someday like to see a movie based on her stories.

"I can see an animated movie," she said, "something like Shrek. "

For each character in her books, Plaisance makes a doll. She admits that Clement, the first Sha Bebe doll to wear shoes, resembles her husband, Teddy. Another new character, the ugly baby, however, she said is the ugliest doll she has ever made and it remains nameless and boxed.

Plaisance said when she writes she becomes the characters so she can figure out how they will act or react. For the bad characters, it was no different, she said, but she didn't really want to be bad.

The third book is published by Author House, a publish on demand company. The books are available from the publisher, through Plaisance's eBay store or at her shop, Beb's Place, in the Wal-Mart Shopping Center in Mathews Amazon, Barnes and Noble and some local stores.