The early days of fantasy:

Some time in my preteens, I came across fantasy books. Terry Brooks, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Peter S. Beagle, and Anne McCaffrey.

My world took on an entirely new look. “What if?” became my favorite question.

But that doesn’t explain how my writing genre settled on fantasy. I explained in a previous post how writing a guest blog post led to my writing the first book in my Standing Stone series.

What I might not have included in that post was that the first book in that series was the first fantasy book I’d written. Prior to that, I’d been writing science fiction. I’ve a whole other set of SciFi authors I could name.

The first fantasy novel I wrote:

After The Sharded Boy, Book 1 of Standing Stone, I was compelled to write the next book and then the next in the series. Writing fantasy came so easily. I was writing between 1,000 and 3,000 words a day, on average 9-10 thousand per week (while working a full-time job that demanded 70 to 80 hours a week from me).

So why do I write fantasy? My brain loves creating worlds with magic, unusual animals, and a fresh set of rules to follow rather than the mundane world’s rules. I needed an escape. Teaching has many rewards, but it can also squeeze one’s life into a very tiny, busy space.

Realization:

It wasn’t until I started writing the Solstice Dragon World that I realized I wasn’t a “catastrophic event” fantasy writer. I prefer to avoid death and destruction. I like my characters to face their inner struggles and change themselves. Not just by looking inside, but also by bringing others closer. I didn’t know it at the time, but “Found Family” was my favorite trope.

When I was a kid, we moved frequently. I was constantly losing friends. My way to fix it was to make friends upon arrival in each new neighborhood. Out the door I went, and I joined the first set of kids my age I found. I’d make friends with those who had positive outlooks and broad imaginations. It was nothing to me to walk a couple of miles to spend the day with a favorite friend.

How can anyone manage without a village of people there to listen, give constructive advice, and care about them? I know my characters can’t. They succeed because they pull positive people close or draw those who need family to them.

Today:

For me, worlds of fantasy welcome close relationships.

My characters need each other. They have the courage to examine themselves and make changes. They don’t let others, at least not for long, decide who they are and what they can become.

It’s not that people reaching out to others can only happen in fantasy, but it’s where I find my writing is most productive.