faeries get a bad rep

when i tell people that i like to write our conversation tends to go something like this:

individual: "you write? what do you write?"
me: "i like to write young adult books."
individual: "oh really? are you writing anything right now?"
me: "yeah...a fantasy novel."
individual: "is it about vampires and werewolves?"
me: i hesitate. "umm...no. actually it's about faeries."
individual: *head nod and silence* or "that's cool..." (awkward pause)
me: "yeah..."

if you have told me five years ago(not even five....two or three years ago) that i would be writing a series about faeries i probably would have looked at you and laughed. which is slightly ironic because i've been fascinated with faeries since i was little. i even had a pair of tinkerbell pajamas and a t-shirt from disneyland that my mom bought me. nevertheless, i was a skeptic on more recent faery YA books. most people i know don't jump at the thought of reading about faeries. and every faery book that i've read has depicted faeries differently than i see them. so about a year ago when i finished reading a fae series that i wasn't too fond of, i was determined to write about my faeries. i knew i had to write about the way my mind pictured them.

we can actually thank my mother for their creation. see...she's from finland. she grew up going to this cabin deep in the woods of helsinki every summer near a lake. finland is COVERED in lakes. so my mom loves flower and trees and all things nature. when i was little she would draw this little picture of woodland creatures and toadstool mushrooms and trolls. so when i think of faeries i don't think of tiny pixies in tulle dresses sprinkling fairy-dust about. my faeries are full-grown. they don't wear frilly dress(think more hippy/bohemian chic). they don't fly--they leap. and my fae men DO. NOT. have wings. i wanted to let them keep a portion of their masculinity.

so don't pre-judge. you just might be pleasantly surprised.