Wattpad brings you a guest post from professional writer Alison Baird on creating fantastical stories in the real world.
Want to read a novel about werewolves, mystery, and romance? Click here to check out Alison’s story ”The House of the Wolf” on Wattpad for free:
“A young girl reunites with her long-lost family, only to discover that they are a werewolf pack.”
Fantasy Meets Reality
Perhaps the biggest challengein writing fantasy fiction involves the suspension of disbelief: that is to say, helping your reader to imagine that magical events and beings could actually exist. One solution is set your magical tale in the real world.
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I chose to set my fantasy novel The Hidden World in Newfoundland, since it was about the fairies and Newfoundlanders inherited the fairy tradition from their Irish ancestors. And what a beautiful landscape to write about!
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My publisher later suggested that I write a series about witches, a trendy topic at the time with the success of TV shows like “Charmed” and Hollywood movies such as “The Craft”.
A witch, I decided, would not live in an ordinary suburban home: it would have to be a place with a unique and magical character. As it happens, there are many beautiful old historical houses in the town where I grew up, Oakville in southern Ontario. The heritage house in this photograph is one I have always especially admired:
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Once I had set my story in a place I could easily visualize, it made the strange supernatural events I was describing seem more believable. And by sheer coincidence, the stock image Penguin used for my book’s cover looked uncannily similar to the Oakville house!
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My new book The House of the Wolf is set in Quebec, since it is about the Loup Garou (the French Canadian werewolf). The capital, Quebec City, is a place that always seems to me full of magic and romance – perfect for fantasy:
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Again, my book’s cover just uses stock imagery. But the story takes place in very real locations, which people could visit after reading the book. I feel that this adds another level of enjoyment to the experience, and hope that readers will agree!
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Read werewolf fantasy “The House of the Wolf” on Wattpad:
A new novel of werewolves, mystery and romance. In the high arctic a white wolf journeys across the tundra, seeking the lands of the south where humans live. He longs to learn whether the old tales of kinship between his species and theirs are true, and he will risk any danger to find out.
Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Chantal Boisvert travels northward into the province of Quebec, seeking out her own roots. She is eager to meet with her late father’s family, and at first they seem to welcome her. But why do they seem so secretive? Where do they go when they vanish into the woods? Could it really be true that the Boisverts are Loups Garous — werewolves?