I’ve been fascinated by fairy tales and fantasy since before I could read. My earliest memories involve riding the backs of wolves and running away from hags riding pestles. My mother has repeatedly tried to explain to me that these things never actually happened, but I still don’t believe her.When I was old enough to write, my friends and I created an alternate version of Narnia, called Wreathlea (I don’t know? It had a lot of wreaths maybe?), with a Stone Witch instead of a White Witch, and an enchanted princess who had been turned into a Golden Evergreen. Instead of playing with toys, we would go outside and look for cloud formations in the shape of lions (Aslan, you know). Except in our version, he was called Seaze. You can imagine what a silly picture we made, standing outside, staring at the sky, screaming “Seaze! Where are you?” with all our might…Other derivative masterpieces of childhood included “Duels of Space” which started as a standard Star Wars ripoff but eventually included ninjas riding the backs of warrior bears…Come to think of it, not much has changed. I still have warriors riding bears in my books!