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Today my editor sent me my official contract as well as a copy of Mythical Fairy Tarot Cards. I don't read tarot cards, or even know how (can someone clue me in?) but they're published by Llewellyn, the New Age half of Flux, and they have fairies on them, so how could I refuse? They're devastatingly pretty.I can't really remember a time when I wasn't interested in mythology and folklore, especially the Celtic stuff (though the more I research the more I find out a lot of it is related and/ or derivative . . . Wales, I just wanted to let you know that the Scandinavians will be suing you for copyright on that whole sleeping warrior legend). The decision to write fantasy was a "duh" moment in the best sense of the word. The idea of throwing people into that mythology -- love it.
I know a lot of fantasy writers make up their mythology as they go along, but I feel more comfortable if I have at least one size 7 foot grounded in tradition. And if I ever get brain block on any of my scenes, throwing myself into one of my reference books usually gets the juices flowing again.
What I want to know is what you guys read for "reference" material (ye Gods I just typed that as frerence . . . somebody take away my keyboard). My novel coming out in fall 2008 is based in British fairy legends, but my library stretches a bit beyond that. I've got:
The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries, by W. Y. Evans-Wentz
Medieval Folklore, edited by Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, and John Lindow
The Poems of Ossian, edited by James MacPherson (and mostly made up by him if you believe his detractors)
Conceiving Spirits, by Jennifer W. Nourse
The Portable Medieval Reader, edited by James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin
The Encyclopedia of Fairies, by Katherine Briggs (LOVE THIS ONE)
The Golden Bough, by James George Frazer.
There's more, but they're probably sequestered in hidden corners of my house. For a small house, mine seems to have a lot of hidden corners.
What else are people reading for their basic traditions? I wanna know.
By the way, today's pic courtesy Maxfield Parrish. He's dead, but I know he appreciates the mention anyway.
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