As part of the Athena’s Daughters 2 Kickstarter campaign, the authors and editors are doing a blog tour. Today I am delighted to be hosting Megan O’Russell here at acubedsf.

Megan O’Russell is thrilled to be publishing At the Corner of the Garden Wall with Silence in the Library. At the Corner of the Garden Wall is a part of The Tethering series, book one of which is currently available from SitL. And if you read The Tethering closely, you’ll find the night on which the adventure in the garden happens. Originally from New York, Megan is a professional actress who spends her time traveling the country for different shows. When not on stage or writing, Megan spends time with her beloved ukulele and her wonderful husband. To follow Megan’s writing adventures, you can visit her website at meganorussell.com.

Here she is to talk about writing about magical creatures:

How did you design the magical creatures in your story? 

I am thrilled to have my short story At the Corner of the Garden Wall included in Athena’s Daughters 2. At the Corner of the Garden Wall is actually built within the world of my young adult fantasy novel The Tethering. The Tethering is about magic, power, and love. A magical society that is intertwined with our own is on the brink of collapse, threatening to destroy our world as well as theirs. The Tethering has myriad creatures and rules about magic, and it was really difficult for me to decide what to include in At the Corner of the Garden Wall. To really get into the nitty gritty of how The Tethering’s magic works would have taken so long there would have been no words left for the rest of story!

I really had to focus on what elements of the fantasy world were absolutely necessary to the plot of At the Corner of the Garden Wall. I also had a cast of female characters to choose from and had a horrible time deciding exactly which one should get her own chance in the spotlight. Finally, after much grumbling, lip biting, and an entire other story being written, I settled on Claire, the spunky, sarcastic, pink obsessed, and intelligent-to-the-point-of-trouble-making twelve-year-old witch from The Tethering. As soon as I knew I needed to write about Claire, I knew the story had to have fairies. Ever since Claire found out she was a witch five years ago, all she has wanted was to meet a shining, sparkling, magical fairy. And it was high time I gave her what she wanted.

Then it came down to deciding what exactly I needed the fairies to be. Did they have wings? Were they kind or wicked? Were they beautiful and majestic, or rustic and bug-like? Were they powerful or helpless? And what would Claire’s experience in meeting them bring to the reader and add to the world of The Tethering?

After all the decisions were made, Claire’s adventure was ready to begin. What sort of fairies did I end up with? I’ll let you read the story to find out.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to reading this story! If you want to preorder the book, please visit our Kickstarter campaign. If you’re interested in helping us promote the book to others, please join in our Thunderclap. We appreciate your support!