In other worlds . . .
My stories are not allegories. The Christian truths that pop out here or there are the natural ones that flow from a story couched in Christian reality.
Funny example: Several times over the past few years, I’ve had the experience of remembering something I’d read. The memory was helpful to me at the time and it was only later that I would realize it came out of one of my own stories. That may sound strange, but it really has happened.
Some authors say that their characters get out of control and do or say things the authors never meant them to. I haven’t really found that to happen. My characters are usually in full agreement with what I want them to say. However, the SITUATIONS can develop in ways I didn’t plan them to–which makes writing fun!
I write about other worlds because it’s fun and because I grew up on C. S. Lewis and Tolkien’s books. When I first started, I wondered, “What would I make a world look like?” Tarth emerged. And then I wondered, “What would a world of mountains be like? Montaland emerged.
Tarth has different colors (a purple sky, blue leaves and grass, green water) and different types of creatures (big-headed Root forest people, dogs that understand human speech, people that live underwater, boulders that walk). This came about because it was really fun to imagine.
Montaland is all mountains of different sizes, except for a large lake that has mountains rising out of it and the Kingdom of Mount Pasture, which has hills instead of mountains and shouldn’t have been allowed in a mountain world, according to Janna, the main character. This came about because I LOVE MOUNTAINS.