ElinIsabel
May 19th, 2010, 09:07 PM
I'm A. Eilís (real name) I use my more formal first name academically and in my clinical relationships, but with everyone else I go by my middle. I'm 30, and I'm fairly newly married, although soon to become a World Cup Widow for a month - Viva Por-choo-gal!.
I'm a native Michigander, with a Swedish Mum, an Irish Dad, and a Portuguese husband, currently living in Connecticut and commuting into NYC for grad school/work as I study to be a psychologist. I feel as fish out of water on the East Coast as Lirazel in the fields we know, but my big hairy Alveric tolerates my rural Midwestern moonbeams so we're all good ;)
Why Fantasy? Because the potential for new places has no limits, and because it has a way of drawing out what is genuinely real and important and making it even more real through the fantasy elements, in a way "realistic" fiction just can't do.
And because it is, well, cool.
I can't even remember the first fantasy...I loved fairy tales, making up my own stories, then I got into the classics, Narnia and Earthsea and Wonderland, as a kid. David Eddings was my teenage delight (Jordan and Fiest less so), Tolkien is a perennial classic for me. As a kid I also loved history and Bible Stories.
In high school I got deeply into Irish mythology and folklore, especially as a result of my involvement in the Irish Trad scene as a singer, and I enjoyed reading the source material as well as novelizations like Morgan Llewellyn's Red Branch. I did a little study abroad stint in Irish Folklore and Mythology at NUI Galway, which also involved a lot of beer.
I checked out of fiction reading for awhile completely in college and read an unholy St. Peter's boatload of Theology for my undergrad and 1st masters, and psychology for my current grad program, but in the past two years I've gotten back into reading fiction for pleasure. I like a wide range of stuff now; fantasy/speculative fiction wise at the moment I'm getting into Wolfe, Gaiman, Susanna Clarke. I also love magical realism like Marquez and Angela Carter (I have a total thing for her), and a little horror, such as Lovecraft. Also love Yeats and Oscar Wilde. My sci-fi experience really only extends to LeGuin and a little Atwood, but I have Jack Vance's Dying Earth sitting on my "to read" pile and I'm excited about it!
Also been writing my own stories, trying to get better at it, still definately a diamond in the rough, but putting the work in to get better. Been doing a lot of reading into and practicing craft in the past year; I especially love John Gardner's books, Gotham Writers Workshop, and Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft for inspiration and guidance. Also have been doing some research into Fairy Tales, Myth, literary theory of Fantasy, some Marie Louise Von Franz, Jack Zipes, just got a book on women's lit of the fantastic that I'm all giddy about. I've been fascinated with asking questions and getting opinions on what fantasy is "all about" lately. I've also been trying to get more of sense of the industry aspect of writing, being *utterly* ignorant of how that works with fiction (I've gotten my first bite of academic publishing; oh, the tedium)
My own writing draws a lot from folklore and biblical stories, and spins them around or subverts them or plays with them. I'm trying to build an epic style fantasy story around female main characters and more fairy-tale-ish motifs, as opposed to the traditional hero/quest story (although there are still whiffs of Cambpell). I've been practicing writing and getting it critiqued as much as possible, but still think I'm a few years away from having anything publish-able. Just climbing the steep learning curve for now :)
I'm a native Michigander, with a Swedish Mum, an Irish Dad, and a Portuguese husband, currently living in Connecticut and commuting into NYC for grad school/work as I study to be a psychologist. I feel as fish out of water on the East Coast as Lirazel in the fields we know, but my big hairy Alveric tolerates my rural Midwestern moonbeams so we're all good ;)
Why Fantasy? Because the potential for new places has no limits, and because it has a way of drawing out what is genuinely real and important and making it even more real through the fantasy elements, in a way "realistic" fiction just can't do.
And because it is, well, cool.
I can't even remember the first fantasy...I loved fairy tales, making up my own stories, then I got into the classics, Narnia and Earthsea and Wonderland, as a kid. David Eddings was my teenage delight (Jordan and Fiest less so), Tolkien is a perennial classic for me. As a kid I also loved history and Bible Stories.
In high school I got deeply into Irish mythology and folklore, especially as a result of my involvement in the Irish Trad scene as a singer, and I enjoyed reading the source material as well as novelizations like Morgan Llewellyn's Red Branch. I did a little study abroad stint in Irish Folklore and Mythology at NUI Galway, which also involved a lot of beer.
I checked out of fiction reading for awhile completely in college and read an unholy St. Peter's boatload of Theology for my undergrad and 1st masters, and psychology for my current grad program, but in the past two years I've gotten back into reading fiction for pleasure. I like a wide range of stuff now; fantasy/speculative fiction wise at the moment I'm getting into Wolfe, Gaiman, Susanna Clarke. I also love magical realism like Marquez and Angela Carter (I have a total thing for her), and a little horror, such as Lovecraft. Also love Yeats and Oscar Wilde. My sci-fi experience really only extends to LeGuin and a little Atwood, but I have Jack Vance's Dying Earth sitting on my "to read" pile and I'm excited about it!
Also been writing my own stories, trying to get better at it, still definately a diamond in the rough, but putting the work in to get better. Been doing a lot of reading into and practicing craft in the past year; I especially love John Gardner's books, Gotham Writers Workshop, and Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft for inspiration and guidance. Also have been doing some research into Fairy Tales, Myth, literary theory of Fantasy, some Marie Louise Von Franz, Jack Zipes, just got a book on women's lit of the fantastic that I'm all giddy about. I've been fascinated with asking questions and getting opinions on what fantasy is "all about" lately. I've also been trying to get more of sense of the industry aspect of writing, being *utterly* ignorant of how that works with fiction (I've gotten my first bite of academic publishing; oh, the tedium)
My own writing draws a lot from folklore and biblical stories, and spins them around or subverts them or plays with them. I'm trying to build an epic style fantasy story around female main characters and more fairy-tale-ish motifs, as opposed to the traditional hero/quest story (although there are still whiffs of Cambpell). I've been practicing writing and getting it critiqued as much as possible, but still think I'm a few years away from having anything publish-able. Just climbing the steep learning curve for now :)