It came to me in a dream…
A daydream, but that’s close enough. Besides, daydream detracts from the mystical, the muses whispered it in my ear, shifting smoke and spoken prophecies of it all, and frankly, being an author is a lot more slamming your head against a table because the people you made up aren’t cooperating (and you’re still confused by the whole tax situation) than I once naively believed, so let me keep the fragments of mystical woo woo creation where I can, okay? Okay.
So, it came to me in a dream. You’re wandering through the woods, as one does, and you come across a fairy circle. You are of course eager for mushrooms and, not considering the potential consequences, enter the ring to bulk up your elevenses menu. A fairy appears, binding you in their magical trap. Or so they believe. You, being a weird motherfucker, are unaffected by magic. But the fairy is hot, and you’ve been going cuckoo wandering the woods alone, so you decide to play along and see how far it goes. For the plot. And that is how Lauralynn and Anne were born.
They took the wheel after that, like good characters do. Suddenly there’s a kidnapping, an evil uncle, mysterious presumed dead gods stirring in the background, fervent pain soaked kisses as they desperately try to save each other. Good times.
Seriously though, this book evolved from that dream into something more as I put words to the page and wondered how my contribution might fit in the tapestry of tales humanity has told, in a thousand different forms, across a thousand, thousand lifetimes, as a way to face down the painfully real problems of life with comfortable distance and, in the best ones, a respectable dose of magic and fantastical creatures. Folklore, fairy stories, myths, tales shared across culture, their cores remaining even as the details shift with each telling, a living testament to the tellers who came before. We may not sit around the fire performing them aloud as we once did but our desire for stories hasn’t changed, just the way we share them.
In modern times they have found a home in fiction, growing in breadth as printing became cheaper and literacy rates rose, uncounted worlds born tucked between pages that we all might find the dreaming home that suits us best. And even as we explore these infant worlds, familiarity creeps in on little threads tracing back to stories millennia old. The same stories we’ve been telling ourselves as long as we’ve existed. Not because we’re uncreative hacks who can only rework older tales as some people obsessed with the individuality this capitalist society teaches us to prize so highly might claim. But because we are all human having a shared human experience.
(To clarify for any production executives who might have wandered in, this does not apply to endless sequels and live action remakes. Stop digging for gold in exhausted mines, like a dog that can’t leave a spot alone because one time it found a piece of bacon there. Let the multitude of writers who are begging to bring something new to life have a turn and accept that there are no guaranteed returns in this life.)
The unique joy each story brings comes from the details, the little pieces adding up to a whole that stirs the heart, touching some deep emotional place that day to day life tries to make us forget as we press on, another day, another cog in the machine. We see ourselves in the story and feel less alone knowing such characters exist, knowing someone went to the trouble of lovingly crafting them from ink and air to be preserved forever on that page. That’s really all any of us want isn’t it? To be seen and loved for it.
And that is what I poured into this book, love. Love for all the fairytales, old and new. Love for the eternal evolution of our stories as they grow and change just as humanity does. Love for these characters as they revealed themselves in all their imperfect glory. I hope everyone who takes the time to read this novel (which, first of all, thank you) feels the love and care that went into its creation. And the importance of media literacy. Like, please, for the love of all things good in this life, if you aren’t already familiar with the particulars, or you just want to brush up, PLEASE follow the link below and read up on some habits you can employ in your own life to help avoid misinformation and propaganda.
That particular soap box aside, I hope you enjoy Breakfall as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing this project to life! Happy reading!
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