Winter Tales

Winter Tales -  Three original stories available from Pegana Press.

I'm really excited to announce the upcoming release of my first published works.  Three short stories of fantasy inspired by the winter season, collected together in a hand letterpress chapbook under the title Winter Tales.  Available through Pegana Press.

A Little Background

Winter Tales was first conceived by my husband Mike who wanted to have a special chapbook to release for the winter season.  Together we run Pegana Press.  He is the letterpress printer who lovingly and painstakingly sets each individual letter and space of type for each book created, and then takes each block of type apart to use those letters and spaces in creating the next page.  It takes months for him to create a book.  Once the book is finished, he hands it to me for binding, which I do by hand.  For almost 6 years we have worked to create the kinds of books we ourselves would enjoy reading, with works from some of our favorite authors.

Since we typically publish works by authors known to collectors of fantasy, Winter Tales is a bit of a departure for us.

The Stories

Stories tell themselves to me constantly, right out of ordinary day to day experiences.  And if I'm present and focused, I am able to recognize it as such.  My brain says, 'Hey! That's a story.' and then I will  rush to my computer and write it down.  And because I see ordinary daily occurrences as magical, the stories typically feel like fantasy.  I am told that this style of writing is referred to as magical realism.  I like that phrase.  I joyfully inhabit that realm of magical realism in my perception.

An example of that is conveyed in the first story of Winter Tales, entitle The Voice of Fire.  That story was inspired by simply sitting by the fire and listening to the sounds it makes.

The second story, Where the Snow Folk Live was inspired by the legend of the Yeti.  And the third story, Cup of Cheer was inspired by a photograph I saw years ago.  I used it in a blog post, but when it came time to write the story, the only thing that I kept was the title.  The story had by now, evolved into an idea inspired by the Northern Lights.

In the next day or two, I will include some excerpts read from Winter Tales.  I hope you will enjoy.