Behind the Scenes of "Meet Fen"

Welcome back to the Storied Forest newsletter! I’m so excited to take you behind the scenes of our newest story, “Meet Fen”!

“Meet Fen” started out as I was walking around my neighborhood in San Francisco, which is actually a forest called The Presidio. Such natural beauty abounds, you would not believe— the foggy dense eucalyptus forest, the misty redwood trees, the sandy cypress, the hollows where coyotes and raccoons and hawks make their homes. One thing that we did not get often, though, was sun. I thought to myself, that’s thanks to the fog, and an idea was born.

I imagined my home if it was super sunny like those images of the California I thought I was moving to many years ago— the ones that are all Hollywood signs and palm trees. What would it be like if my forest home felt like that?

When I thought about it some more, I realized that it would be very different, so different that it would not be home to the coyote dens and the hawk nests, the mushrooms blooming and the frogs chirping. It would be too hot for all this wildlife to thrive, and I thought it might be too hot for people too. We would all miss the fog. 

Fen is a trickster to be sure— but SF loves him. 

I wanted to capture the love I have, and my city has, for this special weather phenomenon, which in a time of global warming is even more important and in need of respect and attention. 

In seeking out who could illustrate such a tale, I didn’t have to look far. In fact, I only had to look across the bay to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

I met Claire Tsuruga at a holiday party last year, and we became fast friends. When I found out she was an artist and illustrator, and she found out I was a writer, we knew we needed to collaborate. “Fen” was perfect for two friends and creatives, learning about each other, playing, and making something new.

Claire and I thought to make it in a style inspired by bunraku, or Japanese puppet theater, and so she tinkered and achieved great feats of engineering in the magic of paper craft to make everything move, pop, and otherwise come alive. When telling the story to children and friends it was fun to see their faces light up with joy. 

And in the video, well, it looked like Fen really was alive. When my friends asked how we did the animation, my answer was: it is real!

Claire worked her magic in layered illustrations, and sometimes we’d talk about it at her home in sunny Marin, while her children played and we had lunch, or at my home in the foggy cool Presidio. 

Fen even got his name in the Presidio— when I was thinking of what name would be best for this character, I was walking in the eucalyptus forest up a steep hill, when some children ran along in front of me with their caregivers behind. One of the caregivers called out to the children so that they wouldn’t run so far ahead: “Fen! Don’t run so far!“

I stopped in my tracks.

Fen!

I thought to myself, Fen is a fitting name for the San Francisco fog. When I got home and looked up its meaning, I read that it means a boggy swamp, especially like those in Ireland. It was perfect!

When Claire finished illustrating the story, she presented it to me in a beautiful box, painted with clouds and with a gorgeous ribbon on it, which I have on my bookshelf to this day. It was so exciting seeing the magic of movement when I pulled the different tabs, and saw Fen come to life. We knew it was going to be an exciting storytelling video for us to share.

And now we are so excited to send Fen out on his way, so the whole world can “Meet Fen”!

We hope you enjoy!

Love,

Lauren