Every Journey Starts Somewhere. . .

I am a rambler not a hiker.  I love paths that wind though huge trees, cross little creeks and lead onto the ferny brae.  The sense of wonder and of longing I experience in my small woodland rambles is akin to that which I frequently find in reading and writing fantasy fiction.  It is not surprising to me that so many of our myths and tales should begin with a journey into the forest.  It is this place, the primeval Forest, that arose as central in the fantasy world I am creating.  Idhua is a continent where the Forest lies in the vast, magical interior, while the fringe lands, the tracts between mythic wood and uncharted seas, are where the people flourish.  I, too, flourish best where there are both trees and coastlines.  From the redwoods and the curve of Monterey bay of my childhood, to the cedars and wild driftwood adorned beaches of the Pacific Northwest where I live at present, I have always been happiest on some place between wood and sea.  I am inspired by the land and as I take those rambles, I am sometimes on the road to Elfland myself.