Announcing a new contemporary fantasy about love and destiny

The Seeker (Garden of Heaven Trilogy), by Malcolm R. Campbell, Vanilla Heart Publishing (April 2013), 224 pages, e-book and trade paperback, contemporary fantasy.

Can we cheat destiny?

Do the rules of life allow us to save ourselves and our loved ones by fighting or running, but not with precognition and magic? Some people believe magic is a way of “getting away with something” that the Universe doesn’t intend for us to avoid, much less survive.

In my new contemporary fantasy, The Seeker, released by Vanilla Heart Publishing this month, lovers David Ward and Anne Hill learn there are consequences to confronting predators and gods.

David knows magic. He learns it from his grandmother, Raven, Eagle and Black Horse. He finds visions in the mountains and wants to expand upon them by climbing the highest peaks on the planet. Yet, as his utilitarian grandfather Jayee sees it, such things are best left alone because the world does not believe in magic and hates people who do.

David and Anne meet when they’re hired as summer workers at a Glacier National Park resort hotel. David grows up on a sheep ranch and loves the Rocky Mountains. Anne lives with her aunt in Florida and has become attuned to the Gulf Coast barrier islands and swamps. Like many others who find each other at a beautiful or exotic location, they believe their intense summer romance will last forever.

From the Publisher:

David Ward develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother growing up on a Montana ranch.  A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.
 
David meets Anne Hill, another seasonal employee at a mountain hotel during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood.  Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven. Together in their hearts, each returns to their college lives.
 
When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her, and leads them both into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

Excerpt from the Novel:

“After they finished the dinner they prepared together, after the meadowlarks’ piccolo-sharp whistles enfolded into the raspy songs of wind and creek, after darkness flowed up out of the cottonwoods, after they watched the stars materialize in the sky above the circle of box elders, after Anne’s Christian Brothers Napa Rose wine connected them to the light of the waxing crescent moon, they fetched an old horse blanket and a kerosene lantern and walked arm in arm up the bright path to the chokecherry tree. David hung the lantern on a limb below the ripe fruit while Anne flung out the blanket. The pale yellow light spun a cocoon within the night, extending outward just shy of the altar upon which the sweet lamb was slaughtered in the eagle’s dawn raid eleven years ago.

“Anne stepped into the center of the blanket and lifted her arms above her head in a long, slow, cat-like stretch. Her figure was fine and young, and when her hair caught the light, the world stopped, cloaking the rising whispers of his blood within an immense silence, suspended and potent. She looked at him over her shoulder, eyes sweeping his body. Then they looked past each other and waited for signs.”

The Trilogy

The Seeker is the first novel in the Garden of Heaven Trilogy. Book two, The Sailor will be released this summer. Book three, The Betrayed is due out this fall. The Seeker is available on Amazon in trade paperback and on Kindle. The e-book edition is available on Smashwords and on OmniLit. The  novel will also be available on Nook in the near future.

While the novels in this trilogy are definitely fiction, they were inspired by my experiences growing up along the Florida Gulf Coast and working as a bellman at a Glacier National Park hotel during the Montana flood of 1964. David’s navy experiences in The Sailor, grew out of my tour of duty aboard an aircraft carrier, and his work as a college teacher in The Betrayed, is a highly “ramped-up” version of my years as a journalism instructor.

I hope you enjoy the series.

–Malcolm

Announcing. . .’Emily’s Stories’

I’m happy to announce the Vanilla Heart Publishing release of Emily’s Stories, my e-book fantasy collection of three short stories about Emily Walters, a sharp, inquisitive fourteen-year-old north Florida girl who loves maps, her rusty old bike, and the forest behind her house.

Sometimes her dreams tell her the future and sometimes her waking hours bring wise birds and other spirits into her life. In these three short stories, join Emily in her adventures and mysteries.

In “Map Maker,” Emily uses her skills to fight against a developer why wants to turn the woods behind her house into an upscale subdivision.

The family travels to the mountains in “High Country Painter” where Emily must learn to paint dreams into reality to avoid a hiking tragedy.

And, in “Sweetbay Magnolia,” she learns the secrets of her grandmother’s favorite backyard tree, the old house down on the driver, and why a certain ghost who comes around for a visit already knows her name.

Excerpt from “Map Maker”

Just yesterday, she asked her dad why his civil engineering firm cared about Barrett Hills.

“When I saw you experimenting with my old case of drafting instruments, I thought the map might provide an interesting learning experience.”

She laughed. “You’re always thinking up interesting learning experiences for what I call doodling.”

“Who knows, Punkin, you may doodle yourself into a career as a map maker,” he said. “But there is another matter you’re not going to like. The last of the Welles family’s known heirs passed away several months ago and his estate wants to sell the property behind our house.”

“How can they part with their The Ancient and Sacred Forest?” she asked.

“Nathaniel Welles is probably the last of the line,” he said. “If no heirs are found, the executor will dispose of all the assets in accordance with Mr. Welles’ will. A developer would want everything from our property line down to Old Welles Road to make a project viable.”

“Viable? What does that mean? What will happen to our woods?”

“Several developers have expressed an interest. With all of it, there’s enough space for 25 new homes and prospective new friends. That’s progress we can watch from our own back yard.”

Emily’s dad sounded upbeat, even excited. Maybe that meant Walters and Associates would design the new streets. If so, she didn’t want to know. The thing was, he was staring out the living room windows while he talked as though something highly interesting was happening between the back door and the Millie Macs.

“Losing The Ancient and Sacred Forest doesn’t sound like progress to me, Dad.”

“I know.”

“It’s regress, you know what I mean? When Mr. Welles’ executor disposes of assets he’s disposing of the shortleaf pine, the blackberries, hundreds of oak trees and the homes of thousands of birds and small critters.”

“Sorry, Punkin.”

“Saying ‘Punkin’ doesn’t fix it, Dad.”

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Enjoy the stories. In addition to Kindle, the book is available in a variety of e-book formats, at $2.99, on Smashwords, OmniLit, and Payloadz.

–Malcolm

Speculative Supernatural Novels and the Growing Fantasy Genre

Today’s guest post by Laura K. Cowan (The Little Seer) examines speculative supernatural fiction and its relationship to fantasy. As authors, we often like to push the envelope, so to speak, and explore new realms. Speculative fiction of all kinds has been a popular arena of late.

It’s difficult to sort through all the variables that make for good fiction as new genres and sub-genres come on the scene, but one important consideration is the readers’ comfort level. Some fantasy readers stick to one area, while others see all the colors and hues of fantasy as a tempting smorgasbord. I’m always tempted to try new treats. How about you?

Speculative Supernatural Novels and the Growing Fantasy Genre

The fantasy genre is a diverse one, from the elves of high fantasy to pookas and werewolves at the intersection of fantasy and fairy tales, all the way to the dark fantasy of authors like Neil Gaiman with mainstream appeal. But a growing number of writers not satisfied with the status quo is beginning to write a new sub-genre called speculative supernatural. What is it and why should fantasy readers care?

Well, as a speculative writer, I suppose I’m biased, but I think readers of fantasy will embrace the speculative supernatural genre for one reason: it’s never boring! In a similar way that science fiction takes a “What if?” question of technology or science and stretches it into the future, speculative supernatural takes a “What if?” question and pushes into the spiritual or supernatural. Everything from weird ghost stories to spiritual warfare novels with warring angels and demons, to the cosmological stories that explore the physical and metaphysical nature of the world can fall under speculative supernatural, and that can take a reader and a writer down a very deep rabbit hole indeed. Isn’t that where all the best fantasy fiction goes?

Angels, Demons and Dreams

This week, my debut novel The Little Seer was pushed to the top of the Amazon Bestseller lists for free fiction when I made the first book of the novella trilogy, Exodus, free for 5 days. We all love free, but what I think really made this book an instant hit with readers was the premise. The story follows a young girl who wakes from a nightmare that her church is destroyed by a tornado and her pastor orders crows to peck out her eyes, only to discover deep cuts on her arms where she was attacked. And it only gets stranger from there, as her dreams unfold in her waking life and she finds herself the focus of a spiritual war over her life and town that could decide the fate of millions.

The supernatural angle of this book is obvious: angels, demons, and a behind-the-veil look at heaven as it manifests itself in our minds and around us at all times. But in order to make this story really gripping, I had to bring the supernatural into the natural in a literal way. “What if your dreams could really hurt you?” I asked myself. “What if what appears to be the safe choice spiritually could not only devastate your soul but risk your life?” “What if God wasn’t who you were told he was, and neither were you? How would you find the truth? ” And suddenly my character was an armchair theologian no more. She found herself diving deep into symbolic prophetic dreams and the depths of her own mind to seek answers to pressing questions, even as her family and church and community fell to pieces.

A Viable Fantasy Sub-Genre

The books I’m working on for the next few years all contain a similar thread of speculative thought and supernatural themes, but I’m excited to see how this work doesn’t fit in a box. It’s too out there for the Christian market even when it does contain angels and demons, but it’s too spiritual for a mainstream market. I think fantasy is the ideal home for my work, because my next novel Music of Sacred Lakes deals with a mystical connection with nature through a haunting that saves a young man’s life, and my upcoming short story collection The Thin Places: Supernatural Tales of the Unseen actually takes 30 separate speculative “What if?” questions and spins them in all directions, from modern mythology to the marriage of fairy tales and time travel. Like I said, never boring, and who knows interesting stories better than fantasy fans?

Welcome to the speculative supernatural genre. Let’s jump in together and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

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On February 19th, Amber McCallister, who often reviews speculative fiction, will overview The Little Seer and provide an excerpt on her Wonderings of One Person weblog. Erin El Mehairi will be interviewing Laura on February 20 at Oh for the Hook of a Book! 

The Little Seer is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

You can also find Laura at her website and on Facebook and Twitter at @laurakcowan. And, I would like to thank her for stopping by Malcolm’s Round Table today.

–Malcolm

Briefly Noted Novel: ‘The White Forest’ by Adam McOmber

Adam McComber’s The White Forest (which I’m currently reading when I should be working) introduces protagonist Jane Silverlake, a young lady with an affinity for man-made objects that transcends psychometry. It’s as though they have souls and agendas that are much more than simply the traces of those who made them or owned them.

The novel is set in Victorian England at a time when some people are interested in the latest frontiers of spiritualism while others think anyone with odd talents is a witch. Jane has only shared her talent with two close friends and, soon after the novel begins, one of them disappears. Jane’s best friend is distraught as well as suspicious, and the police are looking at everybody.

From the publisher

In this hauntingly original debut novel about a young woman whose peculiar abilities help her infiltrate a mysterious secret society, Adam McOmber uses fantastical twists and dark turns to create a fast-paced, unforgettable story.

Young Jane Silverlake lives with her father in a crumbling family estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Jane has a secret—an unexplainable gift that allows her to see the souls of man-made objects—and this talent isolates her from the outside world. Her greatest joy is wandering the wild heath with her neighbors, Madeline and Nathan. But as the friends come of age, their idyll is shattered by the feelings both girls develop for Nathan, and by Nathan’s interest in a cult led by Ariston Day, a charismatic mystic popular with London’s elite. Day encourages his followers to explore dream manipulation with the goal of discovering a strange hidden world, a place he calls the Empyrean.

A year later, Nathan has vanished, and the famed Inspector Vidocq arrives in London to untangle the events that led up to Nathan’s disappearance. As a sinister truth emerges, Jane realizes she must discover the origins of her talent, and use it to find Nathan herself, before it’s too late.

Praise from the Chicago Sun-Times

“What sets “The White Forest” apart from other contemporary novels is Adam McOmber’s careful attention to language. While it is the Columbia College professor’s first full-length novel, “The White Forest” is written with an imaginative and haunting prose reminiscent of H.P Lovecraft.”

Praise from Kirkus Reviews

“Teeming with as many twists and turns and shadowy characters as the narrow Victorian streets in which the tale is partially set, McOmber creates a . . . supernatural mystery that bombards the senses with rich dialogue and imagery.”

Opening Lines

“When Nathan Ashe disappeared from the ruined streets of Southwark, I couldn’t help but think the horror was, at least in part, my own design. I’d infected him, after all, filled im up with my so-called disease. The rank shadows and gaslight in the human warens beyond Blackfriars Bridge did the rest. Madeline Lee, my dearest friend, would come to hate me for what I’d done.”

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This well-written mystery/historical/fantasy has lured me into another world.

–Malcolm

Getting Started in Fantasy Reading

“Fantasy: A general term for any kind of fictional work that is not primarily devoted to a realistic representation of the known world. This category includes several literary genres describing imagined worlds in which magical powers and other impossibilities are accepted.” – The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms

When I tell people I write contemporary fantasy, sometimes they say, “wow, cool” and sometimes they say, “I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was little, but know little about the genre.”

There are so many types, styles, flavors an sub-genres in fantasy, the wealth of material out there to read is often hard to explain to those wanting to know more. I agree with Terry Pratchett when he says that  “Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.” However, here are a few links and ideas that are a bit more specific.

Wikipedia has a decent article on fantasy that works as a starting point. (Click on the graphic to read it.) The main article branches off into a series of additional links for sub-genres, books, and authors.

When people want to know more about the types of fantasies, I often send them to sites like Focus on Fantasy for a quick overview and Top 50 SciFi & Fantasy Novels blogs where they can sample some of the viewpoints and commentary out there.

I like Best Fantasy Books because it introduces newcomers to fantasy by listing books in various groupings and then, for each book, showing others that are similar to it. If you look at this site, you’ll find stand-alone books, books in a series, influential books, and a cool list called “Fantasy That Blows Your Mind.”

To keep up with recent books and new titles, you can subscribe to Amazon’s list via RSS. This puts it on your browser where you can click on it easily and see the names of the titles. You’ll find recent fantasy book reviews on Fantasy Book Critic. This site also displays an excellent blogroll that will send you off on an exploration of fantasy blogs, most of which links you to more blogs.

Once you find a favorite author and genre, s/he will often be another source via comments, interviews and viewpoints in a personal blog or web site.  Fantasy is so diverse, that it’s really hard to nail it down and say that any one book of series is representative of the genre. Personally, I like contemporary fantasy the best because it overlaps are known world as J. K. Rowling did with her Harry Potter series. Rowling, though, is apples and oranges different from, say, Tolkien, or Erin Morgenstern’s recent The Night Circus or Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic Earthsea series.

Kindle, Nook and other e-readers make it easy to sample a variety of fantasy books at a lower cost before adding your newly discovered favorites to your bookshelf in hardcover or paperback. You can even find some of the older fantasies available on Project Gutenberg and other sites as free downloads. Happy exploring!

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy, including “The Sun Singer,” “Sarabande,” and the upcoming “The Seeker” (March 2013).

Announcing a New Fantasy Adventure Trilogy

I’m happy to announce the upcoming publication of The Seeker, The Sailor and The Betrayed throughout 2013 in my new Garden of Heaven fantasy adventure trilogy.

Set in Glacier National Park and Florida’s Tate’s Hell Swamp, The Seeker will be released in March. The Sailor, set on board an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, will follow in June. Wrapping up the trilogy in September, The Betrayed is primarily set within the ivy walls of a supposedly idyllic middle western university.

The Seeker – From the Publisher

David Ward grows up on a Montana ranch where he develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother. A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.

As a seasonal employee at a mountain hotel, David meets Anne Hill during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood. Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven.

When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her and leads them into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

Vanilla Heart Publishing has posted a wonderful trailer for The Seeker on YouTube.

Yes, I know I told you I’ve been working on Florida short stories this past year. That was true. More of them will be released this year. However, I’ve also been working on the exciting project I couldn’t tell you about until now: this new trilogy. I hope you like it!

–Malcolm

The Next Big Thing: a novel in progress

“The Aeon is the symbol for the Rise of Phoenix, it stands for a time of insight, the true understanding of the circle of life, of growing and fading.” – Raven’s Tarot Site

When author T. K. Thorne (“Noah’s Wife”) invited me to participate in a “blog chain” that focuses on the working title of our next book, I faced the same problem she did when she sat down to write her post. Which book do I want to talk about? Should I talk about the collection of short stories or my next Glacier Park Fantasy novel in the series that includes “The Sun Singer” and “Sarabande”?

I’ve decided to talk about the novel.

1. What is your working title of your book?  “Aeon”
2. 

   Glacier Park’s Chief Mountain – M. R. Campbell photo

   Where did the idea come from for the book? When I wrote “The Sun Singer,” I knew the book’s Grandfather Elliott character would eventually return to a mirror-image universe (set in another time period) hidden within the mountains of Glacier Park Montana. “The Sun Singer” was his grandson Robert Adams’ story. Now it’s time to tell Tom Elliott’s story.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Contemporary fantasy.
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I’ve been waiting for Clint Eastwood to call and say he wants to play Billy, an Indian medicine man, in a movie version of “Sarabande.” So far, nothing. Maybe he’s been waiting for the Tom Elliott role to be ready.  There’s a role for Mila Kunis and another for Angelica Huston.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? An aging avatar returns to the land of Pyrrha to fulfill the ancient prophecy, overthrow the evil king and neutralize the traitorous sorcerer, and prepare the land for the arrival of the goddess.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Neither. I will submit the novel to the publisher directly.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I am still working on it.
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Although I write contemporary fantasy and Stephen R. Donaldson writes epic fantasy, Tom Elliott’s quest has some similarities to that of Thomas Covenant in Donaldson’s “Chronicles” cycle. Needless to say, “Aeon” can best be compared to “The Sun Singer” and “Sarabande.”
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book? I wrote “The Sun Singer” based, in part, on my own psychic experiences and my love of magic and Glacier National Park. “Aeon” is the logical next step in the cycle. As the title suggests, I also like the meaning behind the trump #20 in the Tarot deck.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? The story is going to be a wild ride that begins on a Harley Davidson FXE Superglide Shovelhead. After that, what’s the worst that could possibly happen? Among other things, that means the production company for a movie version will have to spend a truck load of money on special effects.

I’ll keep you posted. By that I mean, don’t call me (unless you’re Clint, Mila, or Angelica), I’ll call you.

Now, for the next installment of THE NEXT BIG THING blog chain during the week of November 26th, check out the blogs of authors Melinda Clayton, L. E. Harvey and Pat Bertram.

–Malcolm

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Briefly Noted: ‘The Thorn and the Blossom’ by Theodora Goss

When Theodora Goss’ novella The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story was released last year, the book’s imagery, dual stories and unique construction created a bit of a stir. In the story, Evelyn Morgan and Brendan Thorne meet by chance and become lovers after he hands her a copy of a medieval romance.

In her Bookslut review, Colleen Mondor said: “Slipcovered and with an accordion-fold binding, “The Thorn and the Blossom” is designed so it can be flipped and readers may thus enjoy Brendan and Evelyn’s separate perspectives of the same tale. While the publisher’s work is impressive, it is Goss’s handling of the story itself that really blew me away. You do not have to read these perspectives in any particular order; you can start with Brendan or Evelyn and either way you will not ruin critical moments or spoil the ending.”

Publishers Weekly said: “The fantasy elements are light, revolving mostly around Gawan’s story and Evelyn’s visions of fairies and trolls. Overall this makes the tale align more with old-fashioned romance than pure speculative fiction, but Goss’ appealing characters and modern magic atmosphere will continue to attract a following.”

Some reviewers on Amazon liked the unique look of the book, but found the accordion-style presentation difficult to read because the pages easily fell away in long folds. Other authors with two stories to tell in one book have solved this problem by formatting the stories from alternate ends of the book but with standard binding. Needless to say, the issue becomes a non-issue for those reading the e-book version.

Nonetheless, showing the same story from two points of view is an age-old technique that’s been handled in multiple ways, and whenever it appears it adds both drama and depth to the material. Readers naturally feel some stress when they are told it doesn’t matter which account to read first and also when they see that there will be no resolution to the contrasting viewpoints. The depth, aided in part in this case by Goss’ evocative language, comes from understanding that people see events and relationships differently rather than via the single, linear viewpoint commonly used in most fiction. So, the dual stories show us what we often miss in fiction, though we experience it in our lives.

Available in hardcover and e-book, “The Thorn and the Blossom” is likely to enchant lovers of fantasy, romance, and well-told tales.

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You May Also Like: The Value of Expecting Synchronicity

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of contemporary fantasy, including the gritty, magical adventure “Sarabande.” His paranormal Kindle short story, “Moonlight and Ghosts” was released last month.

Earth Language

“To our indigenous ancestors, and to the many aboriginal peoples who still hold fast to their oral traditions, language is less a human possession than it is a property of the animate earth itself, an expressive, telluric power in which we, along with the coyotes and the crickets, all participate. Each creature enacts this expressive magic in its own manner, the honeybee with its waggle dance no less than a bellicose, harrumphing sea lion.” — From Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram, quoted by Terri Windling in her recent series of posts.

The plots and imagery of my short stories and novels frequently evoke the powers of Earth and invite meditations on and respect for the natural world. This is especially true in my 2011 heroine’s journey adventure novel Sarabande.

The phrase heroine’s journey indicates that this is a woman’s adventure story and that the trials and tribulations will strongly test the main character. The story is written with a feminine point of view, that of Sarabande, the young title character. Since Earth and the forces of nature are often viewed as feminine, the title character’s adventure is supported by “Earth language.”

Sarabande is attracted to rivers, the earth’s life blood and she is healed by an Indian’s Earth-centric approach. And, for a short period of time, she truly experiences becoming animal when she merges with Coyote, a magical creature in the mountains where she finds the ghost who has been haunting her.

I’m attracted to David Abram’s books because they place humans back into nature rather than as creatures at odds with nature. In Sarabande, the title character’s interactions with nature are important to her physical survival and to her inner growth. As readers will soon discover, her life is in danger quite often: knowing “Earth Language” will be essential.

David Abram suggests that rather than describing nature, we should listen to and talk to nature. He relates the story of a man who has trained himself so well to understand “the dialects of trees” that he can be taken blindfolded to any location in the Pacific Northwest. Once there, he will tell you who the nearby trees are. Perhaps our best contemporary fantasies can lead readers back to an appreciation for such skills.

In Sarabande, I hope readers will not only enjoy the adventure, but will take away a bit of Earth language.

Today’s Writing Links

• Why We Have Both “Color” and “Colour” by Mignon Fogarty for Grammar Girl – “Have you ever wondered why the British spell “color” with a “u” and Americans don’t? Or why the British spell “theater” with an “re” at the end and Americans spell it with an “er” at the end? We all know that these spelling differences exist, but not everyone knows why they exist.”
• The Stephen King Guide to Marketing by Jason Kong for Jane Friedman’s blog – “…you need both good writing and good marketing. Many writers see this as two steps. Write first, then worry about marketing once the words are published. The belief is that the writing and marketing processes are distinct.”
• Quote: I am obsessive about titles. Even for my second and third book in the series, I couldn’t move forward until I had the right title for it. With Crewel, I didn’t want it to be so sewing-based that it would be off-putting. I stumbled upon “crewel,” and I thought, obviously this is the title. I take liberties with it. There’s someone out there who does crewel who’s going to say, “There isn’t one crewel work in the book.” – Gennifer Albin, author of “Crewel” - from Shelf Awareness

–Malcolm

Creating Magical Animals in Fiction – Part 2

“The Twa Corbies”, Illustration by Arthur Rackham to Some British Ballads – Wikipedia

In Part 1, I suggested that magical animals in fantasy, magical realism and folktales should start out on your imaginary drawing board as factually accurate as possible. Real-world facts make your animal believable.

Whether your animal can perform overt acts of magic, such as my flying horse Sikimi in The Sun Singer and Sarabande, or mysteriously appears on the scene when important things happen to the characters, such as the crows in Verlyn Flieger’s The Inn at Corbies’ Caw, you can add great depth by linking it to traditional myths and superstitions, American Indian creation myths and real or imaginary local stories and beliefs. When you do this, you are building either on what the reader already believes (ravens hang out in grave yards and bring bad luck) or you are layering the story with information that, while probably new to the reader, helps  make your magical animal three dimensional.

In a recent short story about the rare Florida panther, I noted that according to Seminole myth, the creator placed all the animals into a birthing shell from which they emerged when the time was right. The first animal to come into the world was the panther, and she had certain qualities that made her special. Since my story is set in a long-ago time period before humans arrived, the animals view the birthing shell as real. They mention it in an off hand way because my short story is not retelling the myth; the mythic backstory gives my panther a larger than life ambiance.

Many writers turn to Nature-Speak and/or to Animal-Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small by Ted Andrews for a comprehensive introduction to a large number of animals as they are seen in myth and folklore. The books are especially valid for stories set in the United States since they have an American Indian flavor. I prefer to find out about my prospective magical animals before I start writing so I can build their characterizations and actions around the myths and superstitions rather than pasting a “surface-level” set of qualities on top of an otherwise realistic creature.

The Internet is an amazing resource as long as one double checks everything from multiple sources to: (a) insure the myth or legend is widely known rather than being one writer’s imaginary story or religious belief, (b) locate enough detail to keep your account (including the adjectives and phrases you use) from sounding too much like the one source you located. When setting a story in a real location, a you can start with such online searches as creation myths of the Seminoles (insert appropriate tribe for the region) , panther (insert appropriate animal) myths and legends, and Florida (insert state, city, park, forest or resort) animal legends.

How Magic Do You Want Your Animal to Be?

Magic has to be used carefully, for if you make your main character (human or animal) all powerful, then you won’t have a way to build an exciting story. When your animal is all powerful, then you can build in understood “rules” that keep it from solving all the challenges in the story the minute it arrives. My flying horse, for example, is on the scene to transport my human characters from place to place. But he allows them to decide where they’re going and what they’re going to do when they get there. While he occasionally takes strong action, he generally doesn’t interfere in the fate, destiny or logical plan of the humans.

You can, of  course, make all of the magic indirect. That is, if an character’s totem animal is the raven, the raven need not have Superman-like powers to play a role. He can appear in dreams and visions with cryptic messages, can be seen flying in a certain direction as a hint to the characters to go that way, and can be placed in trees or in flight overhead when things are beginning to get frightening. This approach works well in contemporary fantasy and magical realism where your magical animals generally don’t have the capabilities of science fiction and fantasy animals in other worlds where the rules are different.

In “real life,” an overtly magical animal would attract attention. Of course, if that attention and how the human and animal deal with it, is important to your story, then hiding the animal’s abilities wouldn’t be an issue. Otherwise, magical animals tend to be more overt when they appear in parallel worlds, spooky uncertain regions, and deserted places. You can also blur the level of reality by opening up the possibility that the magical things a character saw and/or took part in, might have been the stuff of his imagination and dreams. You will see when you do your research into animal superstitions and tales, that magic tends to happen in places where the whole world cannot see it. This not only makes the magic potentially more frightening (it happens at midnight where two roads cross, for example), but keeps it from getting out of control in your story.

If your protagonist is a human, the rules of storytelling (depending on the genre) generally call for him or her to have more control over the direction of the plot than the animal. When placed within a dangerous situation, you character—knowing or not knowing the magic that’s “available”— will make choices to run, to hide, to fight, to be heroic, to find hidden strengths, or perhaps to fail. The magical animal cannot run in out of nowhere and “fix” all of the character’s problems. If so, the story become very anticlimactic.

In most fantasy, there are various “rules in place” in the parallel universe and in adjoining or overlay worlds that contain or restrict all the magic. This also makes stories more suspenseful and mysterious and keeps them from ending on the first page. Even Superman can’t do everything and be everywhere at once: the fact that he can’t, is what makes the story a story. The same is true for your magical animals.

–Malcolm