Sometimes it can take years for a book to come together. I have been researching my soon-to-be-released children’s book, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties, for a very long time—more than thirty years, in fact. As a kid, I was a fairy-lore addict: I sat in a dark circle of backyard grass that I dubbed the “fairy ring,” left food out for fairies like most kids leave out cookies for Santa, and tried to make modern versions of the “fairy-sight” potions described in my fairy books.
I started working on the book—which is a guide to fairy life in the comtemporary world—over five years ago, just after I finished Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters. And yet two books (The Rising Star of Rusty Nail and Tennyson) would be completed before I could really get to work on Modern Fairies. I finally finished it last fall.
And even once the book is fully written, it’s still just a bunch of words on a nondescript stack of white paper, like something you’d see in an office. Then comes this very magical day when the book is officially made and arrives on your doorstep. It’s real at last.
That day has just arrived: four early copies of Modern Fairies turned up at my apartment yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to share the new cover with all of you (it’s not even up on Amazon yet!):
This gorgeous work of art was created by my Modern Fairies collaborator, illustrator David Foote. I am completely cuckoo about it. Look carefully at the illustration across the bottom of the cover: the more you stare at it, the more objects and faces reveal themselves - each with a role and symbolism in the book. This sort of hide-and-seek imagery is David’s specialty, even in some of his fine-art paintings for adults.
You will meet all of the fairy species drawn here on September 14, when the book is officially released. They include curious, never-seen-before creatures, such as:
* “Libretto fairies” (just don’t strike a bad note of music around them!)
* “Pyrofairies” (are you sure that was lightning in the sky? Or something more sinister ...)
* Devious, subway-dwelling goblins
* The “Fades” (you’ll want to sleep with a shower cap on, once you learn what they do to your hair while you’re sleeping)
* A strange breed of urban dwarves with some shockingly repulsive habits
... and all sorts of other nasties.
In the months leading up to September, I’ll see if I can give you some more sneak previews of the art.
And as the narrator says in the book’s introduction, once you’ve read Modern Fairies, “you will never see the world around you in the same way again.”
- lmmb
