Meet the Moths: Miss Molly Mae & Miss Maple Margaret
Have you ever wondered how a writer’s characters evolve?
My bio refers to characters nattering in my head, but often it is an image out of someone else’s creative brain that sparked my imagination. I have a collection of unsent greeting cards I bought because the art grabbed me. I have one that depicts a pale blonde girl’s ethereal face with moths flitting nearby that I think is meant to be a ghost story. The moths remained all a’flutter in the back of my mind.
About a year ago, what I thought was a hummingbird zipped by me and I became fascinated when I realized it was an insect known as a “hummingbird moth.”
Nature is grand.
A deep dive into hymaris thysbe followed. Okay, I did not learn enough to write an academic paper, but I did find out a lot of fun facts. Here’s 2:
Hummingbird moths make a cocoon under leaf matter on the ground. Mind, I had to change my working draft because I had Molly’s cocoon hanging in a tree.
Scientists think the clear panes on their wings aid in camouflage that enhances the illusion that they are not moths, but hummingbirds. Illustration note made!
Miss Molly Mae Moth is the character born of that. She is not named for anybody. I simply chose her name because it is alliterative and rolls off the tongue.
This rambling is also about my second favorite moth.
In my upcoming read-aloud picture book, I needed a nocturnal moth that would tell the bugs at the butterfly ball that they needed to go home.
When a fuzzy pink and yellow Maple moth flew across my screen, well, it was meant to be. I named her after my Aunt Peggy; Margaret matched the rhyme scheme.
You’ll meet them along with Sadie Southwest Butterfly in Molly Mae Moth’s First Butterfly Ball. The book will be released in November, 2026.
Molly Mae Moth, Sadie Southwest Butterfly, Margaret Maple Moth, and a honeybee.
