Book Chat: Building a Fantasy World with Rachel Morgan, author of The Faerie Prince

 

 

Building a Fantasy World

I write fantasy, and the great thing about writing fantasy is that I get to make up so much stuff! My characters are faeries who are essentially as "human" as you and I are when it comes to their personalities, faults, dreams, fears etc. But the world they live in is vastly different from ours, and I had a lot of fun creating the fantastically magical realm of Creepy Hollow.


I'm sure we all have a picture in our heads of what faeries and a magic forest should look like based on traditional fairy tales. But I wanted to put a modern twist on that picture. Why shouldn't faeries' magical "technologies" have advanced along with advancements in human technology? Why shouldn't they have their own versions of social media, for example? Faeries interact with the human realm, but should all their words be the same as ours? Where do they go shopping? What are their magical equivalents for the things we humans use every day?

Here are some examples:

Computer/tablet – Faeries use mirrors for a lot of communication. They can use social media spells on them, or they can see and speak to each other in them. To quote Nate from The Faerie Guardian, a mirror is ... "Like the faerie version of Skype?"(And Vi had no idea what he was talking about, but she nodded anyway.)
Cell phone – Instead of a cell phone, faeries carry a rectangular piece of amber around with them. They use a magical stylus to write on the amber and send messages to one another. Just like with cell phones, you get different kinds of amber, with different levels of spells worked into them (Ryn rudely refers to Vi's old amber as having spells from the Stone Age on it.)
Bath and shower – Faeries refer to the bathing room where instead of a bathtub they have a self-cleaning pool to take a dip in. These pools often come with mini waterfalls to be used as showers. The bathing room is usually filled with grass, flowers and plants to give the feeling of being outside in nature.
Electric lights – Rooms usually have a shining glow-bug stuck to the ceiling to provide light. Unlike a light bulb, a glow-bug has a mind of its own and can sometimes choose to squirm away when you're not around, leaving the room in darkness.

And along with that are the different foods, the different animals, the different plants and trees, the different forms of transport. It's fun to come up with, but I also have to remember everything I've created!

If you want to lose yourself in this magical world, get yourself a copy of The Faerie Prince from the following online retailers (and if you haven't yet read the first book, The Faerie Guardian, you can find out where to get it on this page):

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Nook

Apple iBookstore

CreateSpace (print)

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Rachel Morgan was born in South Africa and spent a large portion of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. After completing a degree in genetics, she decided science wasn’t for her—after all, they didn’t approve of made-up facts. These days she spends much of her time immersed in fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults.

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