Where the Magic Begins
By Vonnie Winslow Crist
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As I sit with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
open on my lap, I'm thankful for the wonderful speculative fiction that I read
as a child. It was those books from long ago that stirred my imagination and
inspired me to write stories like my new epic fantasy novel, The Enchanted
Skean – Book I of the Chronicles of Lifthrasir.
I still have a stack of 10-page fairytale
booklets published by The Platt & Munk Co., Inc. in the early 1930s given
to me one at a time for “something to look at” when my parents visited with an
elderly friend on the other side of Baltimore.
Before I entered kindergarten, I'd taught
myself to read during those visits using Cinderella, Chicken Little, Dick
Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Tom Thumb. And who knows,
maybe the seed for the precocious cats in The Enchanted Skean formed as
I read Platt & Munk's Puss in
Boots.
Three of my favorite books when I was a
second grader were Ruth Stiles Gannett's My Father's Dragon series. In
her tales, right under the noses of people in the “real world” lived a family
of blue and yellow dragons. I had such vivid memories of the
beautifully-colored dragons, I didn't realize until I bought a copy of the
books years later as an adult that the pictures were rendered in pencil. The
stunning hues of the dragon family had been imagined by me. And dragons remain
one of my favorite things to draw and write about, so I put a blue dragon in The
Enchanted Skean.
Perhaps the most serendipitous introduction
I had as a preteen student to the world of magic and folklore came from the
librarian at Perry Hall Elementary. In the fifth grade, I'd rush through my
regular classwork, and then, ask to go to the library to help put books back on
the shelves. By the end of the year, not only did I know the Dewey Decimal
System quite well, but the librarian gifted me with 3 slightly damaged books.
The first gift book was Lupe de Osma's The
Witches' Ride and Other Tales from Costa Rica. I was immediately infatuated
with the ghosts, witches, fairies, and other magical beings written about in
that book. The beginnings of the wisewomen and owl sprite in The Enchanted
Skean? The second gift book was about prehistoric creatures that never
existed. Among the critters written about were merfolk. The beginnings
of the sea-hags in The Enchanted Skean?
Writers tend
to write about what they know. What I've known since toddlerhood were fairy
tales, folktales, myths, legends, and magical creatures introduced to me by
books. Still an avid reader, I gravitate to work by Neil Gaiman, J.R.R.
Tolkien, and Charles de Lint. It's the fantastical and sometimes dark worlds
created by these writers that draw me in. And as a writer, I strive to create
my own darkly magical worlds for my readers to enjoy.
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For a taste
of the world of The
Enchanted Skean, here's the link to a 3-chapter excerpt: http://vonniewinslowcrist.com/books/the_enchanted_skean_excerpt and a link to the novel's book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-8C9OkyJCU
You can find
The Enchanted Skean and other books by
Vonnie Winslow Crist on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/Vonnie-Winslow-Crist-Amazon and elsewhere.
Born in the
Year of the Dragon, Vonnie Winslow Crist has had a life-long interest in
reading, writing, myths, folklore, fairy tales, legends, and art. A firm
believer that the world around us is filled with miracles, mystery, and magic,
Vonnie still sees fairies amidst the trees, mermaids on jetties, and ghosts and
goblins of all sorts in the shadows. Visit her website: http://vonniewinslowcrist.com and blog: http://vonniewinslowcrist.wordpress.com Become her friend and
fan on Facebook: http://facebook.com/WriterVonnieWinslowCrist and Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/vonnie_winslow_crist And follow her tweets: http://twitter.com/VonnieWCrist
Jennifer, thanks for asking me to stop by. I hope your readers enjoy the post. - Vonnie
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they will! Thanks again for visiting!
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