What makes a river run backwards? The Sorceress and her Apprentice Part 4

“Teacher,” the young boy said, “what makes a river run backwards?”

“Run backwards?” The sorceress stopped and stared at the boy. She’d been adding sun potion to the sunflower and now it glowed golden petal-shaped flecks onto the walls of the room they used to relax and read in.

He nodded and put his book down. He hadn’t been able to focus on it anyway. He’d been too busy thinking about the river.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Every day, when I come to see you, I cross the river on a small wooden bridge. “Every day, I collect little sticks so I can stand on the bridge and race them down the river. I drop them on one side then run to the other side to watch them race downstream. It always carries the sticks towards the old mill with the apple trees. “But today it went the other way. Away from the mill with the apple trees.”

His teacher cocked her head in thought, deep purple eyes like the universe looking into his set, honest eyes.

“I’ve never heard of a river running backwards. That would mean it would be going up-hill. According to the laws of nature, that doesn’t happen.” She admitted.

The young boy’s mouth dropped open. But she knew everything!

She smiled. “I don’t know everything. But I do like to know much of the way the world works.”

“But, you knew what I was thinking just then!”

“That’s because it was so obviously painted on your face!”

The boy hid his face behind his hands and peeked through a gap between his fingers. “Could magic make a river run backwards, up the hill?”

“Perhaps. But none that I know. And I don’t know why you’d want to make it run the other way. There’d be no use in it.”

It was his turn to ask what she meant.

“Well--” She started to explain, “That river’s source is in the mountains, yes? The little lake in the mountain, and the melting snow, slip down the mountain towards us. It brings us cool, clear spring water that we use as it travels past, running wider and faster as it meets other little rivers. Eventually, it ends up in the sea. Why would we want to bring seawater back up the mountain, when there is a beautiful supply of fresh, clean water already?”

The boy moved his hands from his face and rested his chin in them, thinking hard. The sorceress chuckled.

“I don’t know! Does seawater taste nicer?” His eyes were wide and curious.

“Oh, definitely not.”

“Does it clean things better?”

“I’d rather use spring water.”

“Then, I don’t know!”

“What do we do when we don’t know?”

The boy thought again, sitting back on the comfy sofa and swinging his legs as he stared up at the patterns of golden light the sunflower made around the room.

“If you don’t know, you should go and try to know?” He asked. He looked uncertain.

“Of course. If you don’t know, you go on an adventure to find out!”

He jumped up, small round face lit up as brightly as the sunflower. “You mean it? We’re going on an adventure?”

The sorceress smiled and nodded, eyes twinkling.

“Our first adventure!” He jumped in the air and spun around. “What do I need to take? Do I need a sword to fight off mountain-dwelling dragons or a lantern to catch fire-faeries to light our way through dank caves?”

His teacher laughed and he paused, watching as the sorceress’ eyes crinkled shut with amusement. He wasn’t sure whether to feel embarrassed or pleased that she had laughed.

“We’re just going to the nearby mountain. I can sort out the necessities this time. You will need to go and ask your parents to make sure they agree, and they can help you put together your change of clothes.”

“No swords for dragons?”

She guided him gently but firmly to the door, persuading him they would only be able to go on their adventure if he went to get ready. He bowed quickly and grinned as he raced off, back over the bridge towards his cottage on the other side of the village.

On the bridge, he paused to watch the water slide past.

It was still going in the wrong direction.

Funny, he thought. I will need to tell Teacher it goes slower when going backwards.

And, to test this theory, he ran the rest of his way home backwards, finding it a very slow job and entirely proof that everything going backwards had to go slower.

He thought he’d just discovered a new rule for the world.

She would be proud.

Adventure time! Follow the boy through his lessons of wonder and magic with his teacher, the sorceress. What will the boy learn next, and what great adventures will they go on when he's ready to face the magical world beyond the village? See more in The Sorceress and her Apprentice series.

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Have you seen a seed fly? The Sorceress and her Apprentice Part 3

“Have you ever seen a seed fly?”

The boy turned to look into the eyes of his teacher, the wizard, to see the purple pools of the universe swirling questions and thoughts forever.

“A seed? Fly?” He grinned, facing her now and placing his hands on his hips, thinking of the seeds of flowers or apples.

Each year he’d helped sow the fields of grain and expand the orchards of fruits that supply their village with food each harvest. He’d seen the seeds drop through his fingers, plummeting to their bed in the earth.

None had flown.

“A seed can’t fly! Not ever!” He continued to grin, meeting her amused face with one of his own. She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head, purple pools of the universe twinkling with millions of yet-thought thoughts and wonders. Pushing back a soft, silver curl to sit behind her ear, the wizard rose. As she stepped quickly towards the door, the greens and violets in her cloak rippled until he thought he saw rainbows flash. But, as he blinked again, the rainbows were gone and his teacher was opening the door to their library and study. She turned back to face him, beckoning him to follow.

He stared at her blankly. Did this mean it was actually possible?

“What? You mean you don’t want to see? Come, let's go look.”

The boy was hasty to follow, trotting behind his master like a young pup. He wondered what incredible seeds she would show him. For a seed to fly, it must belong to some wondrous plant of anti-gravity, or a plant that held the secrets of the wind and skies and never stopped floating, no matter how little breeze there was. Being taught by a wizard, you learned to expect such wonders.

But, it wasn’t at some never-before-seen flower that she stopped. Nothing see-through or golden or wrapped in air. Shortly into the garden, the wizard stopped in front of a large tree. Its trunk was thick and stoic and its branches stuck out in all directions, providing excellent cover, balance, and space. He’d seen this tree often and, yes, always thought it a magnificent tree. But, how could it have seeds that flew?

It was just a normal tree.

His question was obvious on his face when he turned to stare into the agelessly peaceful face of his teacher, and he saw further amusement crinkle the corners of her eyes and the tips of her mouth.

“Here,” She began, stooping to pick a pair of brown seeds from the ground beneath the tree. She handed him the pair and he looked at them. The pair were stuck together at their centre, almost looking like wings. Strange, had he noticed wing-shaped seeds before? She continued, “when you throw them in the air, the pair work together like wings. They spin against the air, and the air pushes up at them. Somehow, it makes them fly. Even for a moment. Try it.”

The boy looked confused, not sure what she meant. Patient, the wizard stooped to pick up another pair of wing-like seeds. When he asked why she was picking them from the floor and not plucking them from the tree, she told him that trees dropped fruits and seeds when they were ready. To pluck them before it was time, would both be rude to the tree and mean the fruit or the seed wasn’t fully ready. To take it from the floor was the correct way. Then, she raised her arm quickly and tossed the seed into the air above their heads.

The boy looked up in awe.

Sure enough, the seed spun on the air, gently flying as it dropped through the sky and back onto the ground. He looked from the fallen seed to his own and then into the pools of purple universe in his teacher’s eyes. Then, a smile spread on his face once more, he tossed his seed up into the air and watched as it, too, spun. He followed it with eager eyes as it drifted on the breeze, spinning until it reached its place on the earth.

“Can I do another?” He asked with uncertainty, eyes raised pleadingly to his teacher. She laughed kindly.

“Of course. As many as you wish, if you take them from the ground.”

Thrice more the boy threw seeds into the air and eagerly watched the paired seeds spin their wing-like shape and glide on the wind to the ground. Each time, elation filled his face more and more. The wizard smiled.

“Why don’t they fly upwards?” The boy asked.

“If the wings could spin faster, they would fly upwards. But, as they fly, they slowly lose energy. So they drop through the air. If you could give the seeds more energy and make them spin faster, then they could fly.”

The boy nodded to himself and crouched for another pair of winged seeds. “How do you give seeds energy?”

The wizard laughed again, tossing her head back and short, light silver curls tumbling over her shoulders. “That, I am yet to discover. But, wouldn’t you like to discover it with me?” The boy nodded eagerly and the wizard smiled down at him. “The job of a wizard is to look for these things and look beyond them. Study hard and you can discover so much of the world.”

The boy clutched the seed gently in his hand and nodded up to her.

“And the tree, teacher, what is its name?”

The wizard looked up at the tree and showed him to recognise the leaves and the seeds and how they hang in pairs at certain times of the year. “It’s a sycamore tree. But, sometimes children in another world call the seeds ‘helicopters’.”

Follow the boy through his lessons of wonder and magic with his teacher, the sorceress. What will the boy learn next, and what great adventures will they go on when he's ready to face the magical world beyond the village? See more in The Sorceress and her Apprentice series.

#FantasyBooks #Magic #ShortStories #AuthorLife #FantasyAuthor #TheSorceressAndHerApprentice

Why is my debut book as a fantasy author a children's picture book?

For many years, I've been excited about my debut book as a fantasy author. What would I release? Which of my ideas would I first share with the world? All my questions led to one answer: the first book of my adult fantasy series that I'd had in the works since I was 18. At the time, I felt I didn't have the life experience I needed to make it great. But, over the years, with my experiences abroad, I finally had the depth I wanted for my adult fantasy story and was so excited to share it with the world. Yet, somehow, I decided to make my children's picture book the first book I would give to the world.

I still wonder why, sometimes. I'd been so excited to share my adult fantasy series, and still am. I can't wait to share it with you all. And, at the same time, the children's picture book became my priority. This is why.

It's when my love of books began

When you're a child, you have a world of imagination waiting for you. I learned to read very young and grew up with a family who loved to read. My parents would read snippets of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien to me before naps, and I adored the hairy-footed hobbits and the dwarves. (It would only make sense, then, that The Lord of the Rings would become one of my favourite fantasy stories ever.)

As a child, I would eagerly read children's picture books, children's chapter books, and move onto adult books at a young age. My love of books began, and I'd love to share this gift with other children. That's how I saw it: a gift. I would imagine going anywhere, being anyone. I went on adventures and quests, could be a king, a pilot, a dragon researcher, or children exploring a land behind a wardrobe.

If this is where the love of reading begins, I want to guide that, enhance it, and help to foster the creativity, imagination, and love of reading in the next generation of readers.

Encourage imagination through reading

Much like the above point, children have the most potential for imagination. If you help them grow a strong and flexible imagination when they're young, they'll develop the right habits for creativity as they grow up. Reading can help with this. I mentioned above that fantasy books can take you anywhere and allow you to be anyone. If children became absorbed into these fantasy books and excited with reading, it'll expand what they know to be true in the real world, and they'll push the boundaries of what they know.

Fantasy is best for this. You can make anything happen in fantasy ... almost.

Interacting with the readers

When I was a teacher, one of my favourite moments was reading. It's challenging to fit it in during school hours these days, so the joys were rare. But, now and then, I would be able to talk to the kids in my class about the books they were reading, which books they had chosen from the library, and recommend books that they might like. I loved it when they ran to me as they read the book I suggested and told me they were enjoying it, and I loved it when more of them engaged more with reading.

Even better were the times we could read together. When we would read aloud a story as a class, them sitting about me on the carpet and listening to whatever was happening in A Series of Unfortunate Events: the book I was eager to share with them (and one my class would eventually book all of the copies of that series at the school out of the library!). Their reactions when we got to certain parts of the story, when I read them poetry, or showed them the latest Japanese manga I was reading grew to be my favourite part of teaching. Ever.

So, of course, with these memories of interacting with children about books and reading, I couldn't help but honour that and get excited about sharing one of my own children's books. I'd love to know children around the world were enjoying reading time and sharing these precious moments with parents and other teachers.

I'm a softie who loves kids' books and illustrations

Finally, I just love kids' books and children's book illustrations. How could one not? There are some gorgeous works of art out there, and it's incredible how you pull together the words and the art, and they create a deep and incredible reading experience. If done right, picture books can be enjoyable for all ages, and I'm sure we all remember a children's picture book or two that made an impact on us. Do you still think of it all these years later?

(They're also perfect for learning how to read in a new language! The first book I read in Japanese was 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. I thought, I loved it as a kid and knew it well still, I could bumble through the Japanese! Now, hare peco ao-mushi is special to me: I learned how to read in two languages with it! English and Japanese.)

Children's picture books change the world

If we all have memories of special picture books we knew as children, then it makes sense that a love of reading and the lives we grow into further in begins there, too. Opening up a new world to children through fantasy books for their age sounds like one of the most exciting opportunities for me.

So, my adult fantasy series will have to wait just a little longer. Because I'm excited and on a roll with my adorable children's fantasy picture book.

Want to know about my debut book: the fantasy children's picture book?

By nature, I love all things fantasy and strong women. So, being a fantasy author who wrote fantasy stories to empower women and girls was the clear mission. And, of course, my children's picture book fits this too.

Princess Mariam, our protagonist, LOVES science, and she lives in an awesome astronomy tower in the middle of a pine forest so she can study the forest and stars. She loves it there and loves that she can live with her best friend and teacher, Obaa-chan, an elderly dragon. But, quite often in fairy tales, adults will come and tell the princess they have to go with them far, far away. The knights will slay the dragons and 'save' the princess.

But, what if the princess doesn't need saving? What if she's exactly where she wants to be, doing what she wants to do, with the creature she wants to do it with? And, why are all the adult knights incorrectly judging her best friend, a kindly and peaceful dragon, and wanting to kill her?

What will Mariam do when a knight comes along and tries to kill Obaa-chan and take Mariam away from her forest home?

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