Here in Southern California, we've had a spate of cloudy/drizzly/downright rainy days recently (I had to use my windshield wipers on the way to work this morning! joy!), and every single time I am filled with hope, with flutters of possibility. Dark clouds
always feel like something big, something good, is about to happen. I feel like I'm living in a movie, or a fairy tale.
this is where my daydreams live
And that got me wondering about others' go-to mythologies, the ones they are always drawn to, whether it's the comfort and nostalgia of revisiting childhood daydreams, or the allure of otherness, the unknown, the endless
what-ifs.
So I asked them, and got some great answers. For my part, as I mentioned above, I think I will always be drawn to British & Celtic fairy tales & mythologies, and two recent releases build on and use them in very different ways. Maggie Stiefvater's
The Raven Boys is about the search for a centuries-old dead and missing king, which is such a weird premise I had no idea what to expect (hint: it's pretty amazing), and Talia Vance's
Silver has descendants of the goddess Danu (the forebear of the Sidhe in Ireland) mixing it up with other fey-type folk.
Speaking of Celtic mythology, here's what Erin Cashman had to say:
I love all kinds of mythology. As a teenager I was obsessed with Greek mythology. I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson series. Since my mother was born and raised in Galway, Ireland, and always shared Irish stories, I am particularly drawn to Celtic mythology. My WIP, Legend of the Four, is loosely based on the Tuatha Dé Danann from Celtic mythology.
Kate Milford:
I'm a folklore girl, and for no particularly good reason it appears to be that Americana's my default. I particularly like hunting down regional lore, and I like finding obscure stuff best. Since American folklore draws from the traditions of all the cultures that emigrated here, I often wind up following strings elsewhere, which always feels to me like following old roads around to oddball towns. :)
The Jack tales and crossroads lore are big inspirations for me; the big villain in the background of The Broken Lands (and a character in
The Boneshaker) is Clever Jack, and the story in which Jack beats the Devil after getting three wishes from Saint Peter is a big part of the mythology of both books. Both The Boneshaker and The Broken Lands are based on the idea that there's great power to be had at a crossroads, because a crossroads is a place of potential and choice--and the crossroads is a perfect example of a bit of folklore that has variations all over the world. So while The Boneshaker plays with Southern crossroads traditions, the crossroads in The Broken Lands is very different.
As a reader--I guess as a reader, I gravitate toward obscure stuff, too. I'm trying to think of examples, but frankly, I've been reading 1812 histories and Civil War stuff for about the last year with no end in sight, so frankly I can barely remember what fiction I've read in the meantime.
And gallons more under the jump!
