The Place between Stories…

What do you do when you end up lost between projects, books, stories, other worlds?

Latest Writing News

I’m thrilled to announce that I was awarded Editor’s Choice in the 2022 CNF Award by CRAFT Literary. My short memoir, “All the Pretty Little Lies” will be published on CRAFT’s website on June 9th. Also keep an eye out for my short fantasy story “We Are Made to Bloom“, which will be published in August through Uncharted Mag.

The Wood between the Worlds

Ever since I first read The Magician’s Nephew — the prequel book to the Narnia series, published just a year before The Last Battle — I have been haunted by the image of the “Wood between the Worlds”. While Lucy and Peter fans might have been looking for doorways to other realities in the back of wardrobes and linen closets, I sought my portals in the green and wild places, among still pools and crowding trees.

I remember the late Katherine Min, one of my undergraduate writing professors, telling us that every story acts as either a mirror or a window; however, for me (as for many fantasy writers, I think) stories have always been more like a gateway. Every time I step over that threshold into a different world, it shows me reality in a new light.

In some way, shape, or form, the essence of the Wood has wormed its way into every world that I have written. But more than that, there are times when it feels like I am there, wandering through the slender trees, wondering which universe I should dive into. It’s not just the Wood from Narnia; it’s the place between stories. It’s the feeling I get when I’ve finished with a book — either writing it or reading it. I wander back to the bookshelves, set down my doorway, trace my fingers over the spines of its neighbors, and wonder: where to next?

Just this past week, I finished a draft of my rewrite for A Lullaby of Stolen Stars. With the manuscript now out for beta reads, I find myself once again in this inbetween. Should I return to Ravenscourt, move forward with my adult fantasy duet, dabble a bit in short stories about Adderix and co? Appropriately enough, I’ve been working through Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series at pace, but having ended up lost in the Wood, I can’t help questioning where my own doorway will lead.

Perhaps there’s little to do but keep wandering. For better or worse, we all find our way eventually.

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