What or who inspired you to start writing, and why Faery?
I always wanted to write. I’m one of those writers—you know, the ones who want to write as soon as they can pick up a pen and make marks on a page. Maybe even before then! So I can’t really say who inspired me to write, because it honestly feels like it all came with the package when I first arrived in this world.
The what is a little easier—stories. Stories inspired me to write and to tell my own, because I loved them so much from such a young age. One of my favourite kinds of story when I was a kid, and still today as an adult, were fairy tales. I’m pretty passionate about folklore, and that’s when I first met the many denizens of Faery. To me, all the different lore and mythology around faeries talk about magic and possibility and transformation and hope and danger and adventure—all of that wonderful stuff.
Have you had any real-life experiences with Faery?
I once took part in a Faery workshop. The woman running it was encouraging us to interact with the Faery realm and, to be honest, when I first participated I was a bit cynical. Yeah, I love the stories, but that’s all there was to it...right? That’s what I thought. Then I did this workshop (sort of as research), and I had an experience during a visualization where I was lost in a sprawling wood. My only way out was to follow a path that kept disappearing beneath my feet. So my only way to find the path was to follow footprints that couldn’t possibly have been made by anything human.
Now, I was fully awake when we were doing this group exercise, but my imagination took off, and years later, when I sat down to write The Iron Witch, those footprints came back to haunt me and became the basis for the Wood Monster in my book. That’s a Faery creature who haunts the Ironwood and is controlled by the Wood Queen (the queen of the dark elves). I have to admit, that workshop visualization felt pretty real...
What do you perceive the nature of Faery to be?
For me, Faery encapsulates all stories and folklore—the tales that form us as we grow from children to adults. Those stories, and the people and magical creatures that fill them, act as signposts to help us along the way in our journey. If you read books like Women Who Run with the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, you can see how powerful folklore is—how it shapes us as human beings. Faery is a big part of that.
Do you believe you have a muse?
I don’t think I have a muse in the traditional sense, but there is one piece of folklore that I feel leads me and inspires my work: “The Handless Maiden.” It’s not such a well-known tale as others, but it’s incredibly potent and speaks of a girl’s journey to adulthood—the transformation into a woman. The Iron Witch was definitely inspired by that particular piece of lore, and I think “The Handless Maiden” will be a part of my creative journey for a long time to come. Perhaps that can be considered a muse of sorts.
What is the aim of your work, and what direction would you like it to take in the future?
My work is currently mainly for young adults, and my number one aim is to entertain and inspire readers with the magic and possibility of stories. I have a variety of faerie characters in The Iron Witch trilogy, from the manipulative Wood Queen (leader of the dark elves) to the half-faerie Xan, whom my main character, Donna Underwood, falls for. In the future, I can see including many other types of faerie characters and exploring more of the Faery realm in my work, but there’s just so much folklore and mythology that speaks to me, I wouldn’t want to limit myself! I think as long as my writing keeps feeling exciting to me, then it will hopefully feel that way to others. I specifically like to write strong female characters, and I believe that’s especially important when you’re writing for teenagers.
For more information, visit www.kazmahoney.com.
Cliff Seruntine
Cliff Seruntine is a mystic, psychologist, and woodsman living in the wilds of Nova Scotia, Canada. His first novel, An Ogham Wood, was released in 2011, and he has a number of other titles in the works. He has also written a book about Celtic Druidic traditions, The Lore of the Bard (Llewellyn, 2003), under the pseudonym Arthur Rowan. He is an inspiring figure to anyone who wishes to truly live in harmony with nature, and his very real connection the realm of Faery and nature spirits is evident in his work. He shares some of his inspiration with us here.
How can fantasy writing increase understanding of the truth of Faery?
Fantasy written with knowledge and art can not only shed light on the lore of Faerie but also help the reader develop a broader perspective. Ideally it will help the reader perceive as faerie denizens might. This is important because, let’s face it, most of the old myths and folklore (while beautiful and intriguing) portray the Faerie realm from an entirely anthropocentric perspective. Think about it: how many fairy tales have you read where Jack’s goal was to rob from the faeries, yet he is portrayed as the good guy? Jack sneaks into faerie lands and faerie households and steals treasures of gold, marvellous magical artefacts, perhaps even a lovely faerie damsel. But then the faeries are portrayed as cruel and hostile when they hunt Jack down and take back what’s theirs. In fact, when you think about it, it’s really the humans that are the bad
