When I was 16, having read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for the fourth time, I tried my hand at writing
fantasy. A dismal failure. Way too derivative. I gave up, except for one
university assignment where I successfully told the Beowulf story from the queen’s
perspective.
For the next few years, I wrote a little poetry and got busy
in community development work. Then, I got a job where I had to tell two
stories every week. I needed to delve into old myths and let them shine light
on modern everyday questions. This was really good practice (I work as a
protestant minister.)
So about ten years ago, when the itch to write fantasy could
no longer be resisted, I delved into the myths of Greece. I immersed myself in
that world and began to tell the story of a girl who meets a centaur.
Eventually I enrolled in a correspondence program in creative writing and
learned how little I knew about setting a scene and narrative arc. I revised and revised and revised. Learned a
lot! That story waits in a drawer for rebirth one of these days. But I had the
bug, and a bit more of the knack. I picked up another theme, the captive
princess/ Helen of Troy story. Once more I plunged into the world when the gods
of Olympus were young. The novel Moon of the Goddess published here at Prizm Books came to be.
This novel required two research trips to Greece, a
wonderful side benefit to the choice of setting! And it took lots of revision,
and some patient, helpful readers. But I enjoyed the project from start to
finish. I hope you do too!
So, if you dream of writing, or whatever, don’t give up! The
princess in Moon of the Goddess
didn’t. I didn’t. Keep at it and amazing things can happen.
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