A Peculiar Art in Good
Company: Why I Write Fantasy
By John
Paul Tucker
I suppose it should come as no surprise that after becoming a Christian
at age twenty-one (another story), and having been immersed in theatre and
literature since early high school, that the works of C.S. Lewis, Madeleine
L’Engle, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, Walter Wangerin Jr., Flannery
O’Connor, George MacDonald and many other Christian authors would become the
staple of my literary diet. And rather than having my kindled imagination
extinguished at my baptism, the glorious gift of my youth burst into
unquenchable flames.
But writing Fantasy is not so much a phoenix of the imagination, though
it is very much that, as it is a distillation, an art of entanglement similar
to what poetry is to prose. It casts the tangible world, the spectrum of our
emotions, the elusive subconscious, and more significantly, the homely and
resplendent aspects of the spiritual, as actors in a corporeal pageant. The
following is a line from a submission letter describing my latest children’s
fantasy novel, inspired by George MacDonald’s classics for adults, Lilith and Phantastes: “Will’s longing for his father ignites a dramatic and
fateful quest into [Secret Book Title],
a country turned inside out; a land in which the invisible spiritual world has
transformed into creatures of elemental power.”
Merely repeating ‘creatures of elemental power’ sets the calm surface of
my imagination churning. Disillusionment, for example, is no longer “a feeling
of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as
one believed it to be;” it is the worm “That flies in the night/ In the howling
storm:” which has “found out thy bed/ Of Crimson joy:/ And his dark secret
love/ Does thy life destroy.” Excerpt from The
Sick Rose by William Blake. For the author of fantasy the ‘worm’, an
organism corrupting the heart of love, has been cast as the new antagonist in
an epic plot. In fact, Wyrm, has long been a literary type in the genre.
Speaking of history, as an initiate in the genre, a writer pulls up an
old, leather wingback chair at the sage-worn hearth of literary tradition.
Recall John Bunyan’s allegory Pilgrim’s
Progress, whose timeless message still packs a punch, or George MacDonald’s
fantasies for children, such as The
Princess and the Goblin, or his tender examination of gender and human
frailty in The Day Boy and The Night Girl,
or his adult fantasy Lilith, a
haunting tale of obsession and betrayal, a mythic odyssey of death and rebirth.
The author of The Time Trilogy
declared her fantasies [works] are her theology. “Part of fantasy,” says
Madeleine L’Engle, “is moving beyond that which is limited to that which is
unlimited and helps us to grow and develop and be.” And merely whispering the
names of Edith Nesbit, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who set the bar for the
genre, elicits a profound appreciation for their peerless contribution to the
Fantasy Literary genre — moreover, their holistic encouragement to our
spiritual well-being. I am happy to be serving tables among such company.
“He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods;
the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.”
– C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature.
About the Author
John Paul Tucker holds degrees in Theatre
and Theology and has many years experience as an Ontario Certified English
Language Teacher, in addition to teaching mime, puppetry and Drama to teens and
children. His unique journey has furnished him with an eclectic head of ideas.
He is currently celebrating his 50th
article on www.thewriterslessonbook.com,
an educational website he created for writers, featuring writing tips and
techniques harvested from the books we love to read. He has published poems in
the Toronto Sun, Little Trinity Print Magazine and Imago Arts
e-magazine. His poem City Sidewalks won first prize in a Toronto
wide poetry contest. Two of his short stories, The Crooked Tree and The
Debt Collector have each won a prize awarded by The Word Guild and The
Prescott Journal respectively. You will find one of his fantasy
stories recently published in the popular Hot Apple Cider anthology Christmas
with Hot Apple Cider. JP has been busy polishing up The Rooster and the
Raven King & The Rise of the Crimson King, Books II & III of
The Song of Fridorfold trilogy, pursuing Cary, Clarisse and Gregory on
their fantastic adventures.
John Paul is excited to be putting the
final touches to his fourth novel, a YA fantasy inspired by the remarkable
storyteller, George MacDonald. Gather the latest news about JP’s upcoming
novels, enjoy a book trailer, dive into some free stories and poems, contribute
some art work, take a peek at some photos, or for no other reason drop by to
say hello at his official author website www.johnpaultucker.com.
John’s latest book is the middle grade
fantasy adventure, Shelter
Island.
Website Address: https://www.johnpaultucker.com
Facebook Address: https://www.facebook.com/johnpaultucker.author/
About the Book:
Title: SHELTER
ISLAND
Author: John Paul Tucker
Publisher: Brownridge Publishing
Pages: 224
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure
Author: John Paul Tucker
Publisher: Brownridge Publishing
Pages: 224
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure
BOOK BLURB:
Thirteen-year-old Cary and his sister Clarisse must return home every day
after school to mind their eight year old brother, Gregory. “It’s a
non-negotiable,” insist their work-obsessed parents. There is another problem.
Clarisse and Gregory don’t like Cary much, and Cary doesn’t much like anything,
especially being tagged with his gummy-fingered little brother. But their
troubles are about to grow talons.
While bickering over the contents of a small, intricately embroidered
pouch, the siblings unintentionally summon three mail-clad birds, who hasten
their three young conscripts to Shelter Island, refuge to a long divided realm
hidden from the children’s homeland for hundreds of years. Spotted above enemy
territory, the small company is attacked. Clarisse and Gregory escape to the
caves of Husgard. Cary’s captors dispatch him to Vangorfold, a centuries old
stronghold sworn to Husgard’s destruction. Entangled in a centuries old conflict,
the children’s own blur of problems comes into sharp focus, hastening the
fortunes, for good or ill, not only of a forgotten civilization of birds, but
of the children’s homeland.
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