As a lifelong fantasy enthusiast, my instinctual response to this question has to be: Why not?
There’s nothing I love more than the hint of magic when I open a new book. A glint of dragon scales, the faint whisperings of adventure and the distant call of a horn and I’m sold! And this has been the case for longer than I can remember.
As a child I was drawn to Roald Dahl’s crazy cast of characters, Beatrix Potter’s furry friends and Enid Blyton’s enchanting world of The Magic Faraway Tree. As a teen I fell in love with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia and J.R.R Tolkien’s hobbits. Then came the day I opened the first book of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series – The Eye of the World – and stepped into the wide and wonderful world of fantasy for adults… and never looked back.
I’ve branched out over the years. I’m now quite comfortable admitting I love historical fantasies along the lines of Outlander, science fiction sagas such as Dune and The Martian, dystopian YA series like Divergent and The Hunger Games, paranormal romances akin to A Discovery of Witches and much much more.
Then I had kids and finished a degree in school library science, and guess what happened? I fell in love with kids fantasy books all over again!
So what’s the draw? The escapism involved in journeying into a new world far far away from this one? The suspension of disbelief and yearning for abilities we can only dream of? The thrill of adventure and desire to see good triumph over evil? The ever-growing cast of characters I would love to call my friends? Yes. Yes to it all!
So, knowing what you now know about the books I love to read, is it so surprising that, when I first decided to write myself, I would choose to write a fantasy story?
I think not!
Over the next few posts I’d like to dedicate some time towards the fantasy story, its cast of characters, its setting and its attraction to the young reader. I hope you find them interesting.
S.Veelo - Author 