Characters.

They’re demanding little buggers. I have made the acquaintance of many and really gotten to know a few.

That’s the way a story begins for me as a writer. I meet a character who materializes in my brain as nothing more than an impression, a thought, a fleeting glimpse of a person whose story I might want to explore. And then something happens. The impression becomes a permanent imprint,  the fleeting glimpse becomes a fixture and suddenly the ‘might explore’ becomes a must.

The stories I write are for the characters who’ve passed through my mind and made enough of a fuss to get a book’s worth of attention.

The ones you’ll meet in The Stranger Maiden are just the sort you’d love: quirky, vibrant, stubborn and brave.

I hope you’ll someday meet Darcie – the girl who left home to become a hero. Or Amos – the boy who was brave enough to fall in love. I hope someday you’ll walk the fairy-lit paths of Eyelet Forest. But for that you’ll need to bravely enter into the world I have created.

I don’t think you’ll regret it.