I woke in the night thinking about fairy tales. I had received an email yesterday from Stephen Fraser, a literary agent with the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, expressing his interest in representing my latest novel, Curva Peligrosa. Since he was the agent I was hoping for, I was delighted. This recent development was on my mind, then, as I listened to my husband’s even breathing in bed next to me.
After Stephen had read the first 50 pages, he emailed me, claiming my writing has the potency of folk or fairy tale. I was pleased that he picked up on that aspect of Curva Peligrosa since I think of it as an adult fairy tale. From the time I learned how to read, fairy tales, the world of mythos, nourished me and fed my curiosity about life and the world.
My parents had purchased a set of the Books of Knowledge, wonderful, fat red volumes that I browsed whenever I had the chance. At the center of each book was a special section of nursery rhymes, folk, and fairy tales. They were the heart of each encyclopedia, and I believe they continue to be the heart of literature. The heart of civilization in fact. The Books of Knowledge contained much of the everyday, mundane world (not that there aren’t amazing things in the everyday world as well), but at their core waited these marvelous stories, nuggets to fuel the reader’s imagination and propel him/her forward. They inform much of what I write.