The Story of Alice and Fay

I have always been a writer. I began by writing poetry, and then wrote personal essays, critical essays, book reviews, and stories. After studying French for many years, I became interested in translating. All of these things are still part of my writing life.

One summer I was in France working on an essay and translation project when, sitting on the terrace reading, I noticed a small lizard on the wall beside me. Lizards are common in the South of France, but this lizard interested me especially, because I could tell it had lost its tail and was growing a new one. I began to wonder what had happened.

All that summer, while I was writing my essay and working on my translation project, I had also been thinking about writing a fairy tale. I had been thinking about how fairies are part of nature and about how the magic of nature surrounds us every day, and I realized that this lizard might help me to tell my story. That story became Alice and Fay: A Fairy Adventure.

While I was writing Alice and Fay, I also took pictures of the places I was describing in the story. You can see some of those pictures here:

Saint Ambroix, a town in the Gard, France
The stony neighborhood
My house with its small, round door
Alice with her long tail at home in the stony wall of the terrace
The trees at the “chateau” where the tadpoles sing
The steps from the terrace through the garden

1. Saint Ambroix, a town in the Gard, France
2. The stony neighborhood
3. My house with its small, round door
4. Alice with her long tail at home in the stony wall of the terrace
5. The trees at the “chateau” where the tadpoles sing
6. The steps from the terrace through the garden

Once Alice and Fay was written, I liked it so much I wanted to publish it. I have self-published before, and I enjoy both the control over the book that self-publishing allows and the teamwork that it requires. I found Stillwater River Publications, a small, local, writer-centered press, to publish the book, and they suggested Chris Hilaire, who was perfect for the job. In this case, my text was full of visual images, and I had very specific ideas about how the setting, the animal characters, and especially the fairies, should look. I wanted an illustrator who would have the skill, the creativity, and the willingness to work with me to turn those ideas into pictures. Chris and I worked together for almost a year to develop the illustrations that became part of the book.