Derek Mazula

A Drifen's Tale Derek Mazula

The name "Drifens" is an anagram for "friends" and "finders". A fitting name as the story was written for a best friend and grew into a mission to provide substance abuse services for those looking to transform their lives. This timeless tale is written as an allegory with beautiful lifelike images. This means it can be read from at least two perspectives. The first is as an entertaining children's book that starts out with a white mouse named Drifen who has a "restless feeling inside". Drifen is considering whether to start an adventure despite scary past encounters with cats. The tale describes Drifen's journey, the other characters that are met, and the transformational choices that are made. The second way to read the story is to engage more directly by creatively entering it through the characters. By transforming oneself into a character the reader is able to experience the unfolding events. You'll notice that the characters are not labeled from a gender perspective. This makes it easier to see yourself in any given character's shoes. Reading the story for a second or third time (easy to do if you are sharing the story with a child) and "becoming" different characters allows the reader to see things from different lights. The story also makes extensive use of symbolism in its characters including mice, cats, a wolf and a wise old tree in the center of the forest. The use of black and white was by design and offers the ability to see a wider range of gray as we sort out life's implications. And the events depicted in the tale, along with the transformational sequences may evoke deep association to things that we as readers have faced figuratively in our own lives.