User:Max263/Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure

Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure is 2020 novel by Jeff Kinney, and is a spin-off of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Unlike the main-series books, which are written from the perspective of Greg Heffley, Awesome Friendly Adventure is written from the perspective of Greg's best friend, Rowley Jefferson. The book, a New York Times bestseller, depicts Rowley (and for some time Greg) writing a fantasy story. The book was released on August 4, 2020, delayed from an initial release date of April 7, 2020. It is a sequel to Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal.

Plot
The book alternates between a fantasy story and the story of Rowley writing it.

Main story
Once upon a time, there was a young, sheltered boy named Roland who lives a quiet life, but wishes he could go on adventures like his grandfather, Bampy the Brave. One bright summer day, when Roland's dad was out on a business trip, Roland wakes up to snow outside his window. When he tries to find his mom, Roland finds out from a neighbour that a villain by the name of the 'White Warlock' had kidnapped Roland's mom and is keeping her as his prisoner. After hearing this news, Roland decides to go on an adventure to rescue his mom.

Roland is feeling slightly scared about going on his adventure, so he recruits his friend Garg the Barbarian to help him. They go to buy supplies at the village shop, and Roland uses his last gold coins to buy a map of the surrounding area.

Roland and Garg set out on their adventure, where they arrive at a village, which consists of villagers seemingly unable to do basic tasks. They team up and teach the villagers these skills, as his mom had always told him to help people.

They eventually leave the village, with the residents' blessings, and while traveling through the Tangled Forest come across a group of pixies. The pixies tell Roland and Garg that their village is so beautiful as they "don't have garbage piled up everywhere like those filthy trolls." Before Roland and Garg leave, the pixies say that the pair will need weapons if they are to survive on their travels; Garg receives a giant spiked club, while Roland is told that there is a sword that would be perfect for him, only that it is stuck in a rock. According to the pixies, only someone with a pure heart will be able to wield the sword. While Garg, with all his strength, is unable to obtain the sword, Roland pulls it out easily and is proud as this proves that his parents raised him right.

After leaving the pixies, Roland and Garg fall down a hill, where they meet a group of trolls, which appear to live up to the pixies' description. After speaking with the trolls' leader, Roland and Garg find out that their garbage-laden state is not their fault: the pixies dump all of their rubbish into the trolls' habitat. Roland is frustrated by this and decides to broker a peace deal between the pixies and trolls, which is successful.

While traveling through the Razor Range towards the Boulder Pass, Roland and Garg get caught in a terrible thunderstorm, so they decide to shelter in a nearby cave. Inside, they encounter statues of various mythological creatures and literary characters, such as a minotaur, Huckleberry Finn, Thor and Sherlock Holmes, who informs the pair that he is investigating cases of missing locals, which he says is the work of Medusa. She appears, and Garg and Holmes both get turned to stone. However, Rowley suggests using a gentle shampoo to calm Medusa's hair, which works.

Roland asks Medusa if she can de-statue Garg and Holmes, but she says that the only person available to do that is the One-Eyed Wizard who lives in the Burnt Swamp. Roland travels to the Wizard's hut, where the Wizard tells him that he has been watching his progress, and reveals that the White Warlock wants to make it winter forever and make Roland's mom his queen, which Roland is furious at. Finally, the One-Eyed Wizard says that Roland only has 10 days left to save his mom.

Roland and the Wizard arrive back at the cave, where Medusa has left. After unfreezing Garg and Holmes, the Wizard goes on a roll and unfreezes all of the statues. Some of the characters stay behind to thank Roland and hear his story, and after hearing it decide to go on the adventure with him.

While being attacked by ogres, the One-Eyed Wizard creates a giant magical hand to protect them, which they later name 'Lefty.' As it's now too dangerous to travel out in the open, the gang decide to travel underground in the "Mines of Murlack", where they encounter multiple problems before meeting a group of dwarves. The two groups get into a mine cart chase, but Roland and his team are able to escape, with Roland using this instance as an example of bullying, and he says the bullies are only trying to get a reaction - the team agree this is good advice.

While trying to find shelter for the night, the group meet a vampire. The vampire, Christoph is introduced by Shae'Vana to the team, meaning that they can now only travel at night (due to vampires burning is they are exposed to sunlight.)

The group are continuing on their travels, when Christoph suddenly transforms into a werewolf. He states that he only turns into a werewolf when the moon is exposed, meaning that the group can now travel at neither day nor night, which frustrates Roland. Shae'Vana discovers the code to a secret entrance to the White Warlock's Ice Fortress. However, when Roland wakes in the night he discovers that the map has disappeared, along with Shae'Vana. Holmes concludes that Shae'Vana has stolen the map to try and retrieve a special ruby from the White Warlock's staff that can supposedly cure Christoph's curses.

Development of main story
Rowley Jefferson has just completed the first chapter of his book. He shows it to his best friend, Greg Heffley, who has a lot of problems with the book, from it being a fairy tale (which Rowley says is intended) to Roland seeming too much of a baby (which hurts Rowley as he is very similar to Roland.) They strike a deal, where Rowley will focus on the writing while Greg will concentrate on the merchandise side of business.

Rowley shows Greg the second chapter, and Greg loves Garg, as he says he is a better and more desirable character than Roland. He also is excited by the map, as he says that they will be able to sell many different action figures off of it, however, he is annoyed about the illogical layout and places (such as the story being fantasy but having the North Pole on the map.)

Rowley likes that the villagers' chapter shows helping people, as he thinks that Roland and Garg will serve as role models and appeal to parents. Greg massively disagrees and says that the book was supposed to be an adventure but is instead "just two guys doing a bunch of chores," and that Rowley should put monsters into the book to make it more exciting.

Greg doesn't think that Roland would be able to pull out the sword while Garg couldn't, which Rowley contests with a whole backstory of the sword. When asked of its name by Greg, Rowley blurts out "Jeremy," which coupled with the fact that it has "the power to turn bad guys good," causes Greg to enter a state of hilarity.

Greg likes that there are finally monsters in the book, but isn't crazy about the recycling message, which Rowley says is part of his plan to include a bunch of messages within the book. Greg shows Rowley a book of mythological creatures, and says that it's fine to include them in their book as the characters are in the public domain, citing characters such as Tarzan and the Tin Woodman.

While Greg likes the new characters as they will increase appeal and merchandise opportunities, he is unsure about Sherlock Holmes having a pipe, but Rowley says that it is just part of his costume and doesn't have anything in it, which Greg is more OK with.

Greg says the new chapter is pretty boring, but is OK with it as it can provide a handy drink-refill break for the movie adaptation. He also thinks that Rowley needs to include more girls in the story, and some of the ideas are unoriginal, such as the everlasting winter. Rowley decides to keep it in, as he can't think of another season that everybody hates.

Greg thinks that it is another boring chapter, but likes having lots of new characters as when the movie comes out they will be able to make lots of posters featuring each one. Greg and Rowley disagree over a few of the characters, such as the she-elf Shae'Vana and half-man, half-cow Stephen (Rowley's attempt at making a centaur.)

Greg is not a massive fan of the anti-bullying message, but loves the mine cart scene, saying that it would make an awesome theme-park ride. He decides that the book needs two things; comedy (Rowley's suggestion of knock-knock jokes is dismissed); and romance (the pair argue about who Shae'Vana would be more attracted to.)

Greg really likes the vampire, and has lots of business ideas already lined up. He suggests introducing a plot twist, but Rowley is confused, as he thought that the vampire was already a plot twist. TO BE CONTINUED

Development
After writing his first spin off book for Rowley, Kinney expressed interest in writing more books from Rowley's perspective, saying that he would "really like to write more Rowley books," because "it's a lot of fun, and I think it's really fresh, and [Rowley] can write in lots of different styles about lots of different genres. So I'd really like to get to there, where Rowley is authoring lots of books."

In July 2020, Kinney embarked on a nine-day tour spontaneous (he did not know the locations in advance) to promote the book,  and said that the experience (in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic) was "taken aback by how enthusiastic the participants were. Cars full of parents and kids would pull up, ecstatic to have something to do, something that wasn’t canceled." He also made house calls to bereaved families and children of frontline workers, which he said "was really the most rewarding part."