Do You Believe in Magic?

I was introduced to urban fantasy through Emma Bull's War for the Oaks.  I loved the mix of realism and fantasy, I loved the characters, and I loved the concept of faeries.  I had picked the book up on a whim, and still remember the event distinctly.

One afternoon, a friend, my mom, and I went to the mall.  I probably in middle school at that point and an avid reader.  There was a bookstore at the mall going out of business so we went inside to get some cheap books.  My friend, who was not an avid reader (nor do I believe she is now, though I haven't seen her in years so I can't say for sure), wanted to get out as quickly as possible.  I was content to browse the shelves of misplaced books, not looking for anything in particular, but eager to see what was available and not miss a single cover.

I don't remember what made War for the Oaks stand out for me.  I imagine it had something to do with the cover.  That's typically what draws me to a book.  A librarian in my middle school once said to my class that we should, in fact, judge books by their covers -- if you do not like horror stories, then you should not pick up a book that has a picture of a skeleton and a ghost on it expecting it to be a book about princesses and unicorns and rainbows.  So maybe it was the stark, grungy spine that drew me to the book.  I don't know.

I hadn't really found anything in the store to interest me at that point.  Usually all of the good books are gone pretty quickly when there are books on sale.  Although I wasn't ready to leave, my friend kept nagging.  She was bored.  She wanted to go somewhere else.  I was frustrated but, for once in our relationship, we were going to do what I wanted to do, not what she wanted.  So I took my time browsing until I came upon this novel.

I was vaguely interested in the summary presented on the back of the paperback book.  The heroine was a guitarist and I was getting into guitar myself.  She seemed pretty cool and kick-ass and fantasy novels are usually intriguing, so I decided to get it.

We paid the books we had selected (though I believe that was the only one I got that day, Mom got others) and left the store, my friend sighing in relief.

When I read the book, I was utterly struck by how beautiful it all was, despite the dark, grunginess of the novel.  I loved how well-crafted the world of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were.  I loved the Phouka, even though he didn't have a real name, and I loved Eddi, who was a girl, despite her traditionally masculine name.  I loved Hairy Meg and I loved Carla, and I especially loved Willy Silver.

I have now read this novel a handful of times.  I would read it more if I wasn't afraid of wearing it out.  From War for the Oaks, I started looking for more urban fantasy -- specifically faerie fantasy, based on Irish and Scottish folk lore having to do with the "Good Neighbors" or the "Fair Folk."  I found Holly Black's Tithe in the library and liked it so much I decided to write to her.  I asked her several questions, regarding both her life and her writing.  She responded with a long hand-written note which answered all of my questions along with several stickers, one of which boasted her signature.  I was ecstatic.  I read Holly Black's other novels (at that time, they were Valiant and Ironside -- I eventually found the first of the Black Cat series, but didn't like it as much as I enjoyed her faerie novels), and continued to look for more.

I have since read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin (based on my favorite faerie ballad), some of Frewin Jones' novels, O.R. Melling's The Hunter's Moon and two of the novels which followed that, and most other faerie novels I could get my hands on.

I've tried, too, to write novels that are similar.  Though I've had some ideas, none seem quite as romantic or true to the faerie lore as Emma Bull's and Holly Black's.  Despite this, I continue to try and am always throwing my sensors out to detect any kind of nonfiction I can find on the subject -- that is, information about the folklore from which these authors draw.

Part of what I love about these novels is that there is so much information on the lore out there that part of me believes it must be true.  It is largely how I feel about religion -- all of these stories are so similar, so there must be some truth in them.  And it is my love of these kinds of novels and this belief that gives me hope that one day, there will be just a little magic in my life and an impish pixie and a faerie queen to take me on an adventure.