As children, haven’t we all wished our imaginary worlds were real?
Run with Linda. Run as fast and as far as you can and perhaps you’ll find that world.
Please enjoy the guest post by Author S.S. Dudley.
Catch a glimpse inside Elf Hills.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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Guest Post by Author S.S. Dudley
The Genesis of “Elf Hills”
Preschool. I opened the heavy glass door and entered the colorfully decorated room. A reading area, books and cushions, occupied a corner off to my left. Miniature tables for miniature people filled the center of the room, the chairs neatly organized. Around the tables, shelves overflowed with paper, crayons and other arts and crafts materials. It was quiet. The happy, busy preschoolers were outside in the play yard, scampering hither-thither.
An easel stood in the entryway. It presented the day’s activities to parents coming to reclaim their small people. On it hung a chart entitled, “If I had a superpower, I would…” Below, next to names, was the list of superpowers. Be super strong. Be invisible. Fly. My eyes stopped on one: run really fast. I smiled at the name next to it. Sofia.
That’s my girl.
A disclaimer—I am 95% certain we had not yet seen the Pixar film The Incredibles (in which the boy’s superpower is to run fast). I had, though, been running my daughter around in a jogging stroller since she was three months. We routinely did sprint workouts together in a grassy area near her preschool. I am no pro runner, very amateur, but I do enjoy running very much. It made me smile to think that this was rubbing off in some small dose.
And it gave me an idea.
Recently I had begun to think about writing a book. I wanted to write something for Sofia, something novel sized, but also fun and engaging for her and me.
I began to think about a girl who could run really, really fast. But I didn’t have a story. Yet.
That came while I was on a run in a nature preserve near our house. I began to wonder what a young girl who, like my daughter, still believed in fairies, but who also could run incredibly well, would discover if she were to wander the mostly wild mountains of the Coastal Range in Northern California. Might she not come across something magical out there?
I shan’t disclose too much. Read the book if you’re curious. Elf Hills is about a girl with a prodigious talent for running who begins to suspect that there is something magical about the hills behind her home. And she is determined to discover what it is and who lives there.
I will say that I can see the hills of the book from my office window. I have to stand in just the right place to see them, but I know they are there. My family and I have gone for numerous hikes in those hills (small mountains, really) and it always astounds me how remote they can feel—only 60 miles from the bustle of the Bay, with its millions of inhabitants (San Francisco, Berkeley, etc.).
Elf Hills was born from my desire to know this girl, Linda, who could run so well. Why? Why did she love running so much? Was she just talented, or was it something else? The story grew the more I wondered about the mysteriously uninhabited hills. What magic could hide there? Who might hide there? And why? As I wrote, new characters appeared. Nugu, Linda’s cousin, for one. He loves all things reptilian and fantasizes about having his own dragon. But he is skeptical of Linda’s stories. Might he change his mind? He should, but he is getting into science. And other characters—like Biergo, the impish gnome intent on tripping Linda—joined the narrative, taking it in directions I never initially expected.
I recall that C. S. Lewis started on Narnia with only an image of Aslan, the lion, in mind. He wanted to know more about him. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was born from this desire. The mustard seed for me was a girl who runs fast, planted in some dry, dusty, lonely hills. It was a long, hard, arduous process bringing Elf Hills to fruition. The story became too big for a single book, so I had to split it up and rework it numerous times. Fortunately, this means the sequel, Fairy Trees, is well on its way to being finished. And there will be more to follow.
It amazes me how something so small, so simple, can grow so much. Elf Hills started from a couple of simple notions, which grew as I folded in elements from my own interests and from the geography around our home. All the time driven to discover the story and share it with Sofia. Bringing a book to life is a process—not unlike raising children. It reminds me to enjoy the ride.
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Elf Hills
by S.S. Dudley
BLURB:
Something strange, something magical, is going on in the dusty hills behind the small town of Villaloma. Yet each time Linda Peters puts on her running shoes and sets out to find the enchanted kingdom she imagines—full of dancing elves, unicorns, and more—something stops her. And with school starting soon, she only has a few more chances to really search the hills.
While Linda’s frustration and doubt grow, her cousin, Nugu, looks for answers in his books and wonders if maybe, just maybe, Linda’s stories are for real.
The day finally arrives when Linda can run far, the day she is sure she will find her magic city. But when she and Nugu feel their goal must lie just beyond the next hill, they only find more hill.
Is it all a figment of an over-active imagination; a wistful fantasy?
Or is there truly something magical in those hills that only the strong of heart—and leg—can discover?
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Excerpts from Elf Hills © 2014 by S. S. Dudley
From the Prologue:
This fairy tale, as you might have guessed already, takes place on a hill. Or, rather, on many hills and a mountain or two in Northern California, near what people call the Great Valley. One hill in particular stands out, though, because that is where everything started. It was a nice hill; well rounded, not too high, not too low. It was distinctly a hill, snuggled up against a mountain like a nursing cub to its resting mother. For the most part this hill was well-dressed with dark green oak trees and tall grasses, usually yellowed and dry except for the four or five wet months of the year. Along one side, a seasonal creek slipped out and down into the plain. Here the vegetation—red-stemmed manzanita, prickly blackberry bushes, and other shrubs—was thick and difficult to move through.
From afar, the hill was not remarkable; it had many siblings stretching to the north and south as far as the eye could see. This hill was special, though. For one, a strange—some said magical—copse of trees stood near the base of the hill where the creek emerged. These trees were short, had long, dark-green leaves, and bore bright yellow fruit that, if eaten, were said to imbue a person with the strength of ten men. For another, the hill was haunted. On certain nights of the year a white light would shine from the very top of the hill. It was brighter than the brightest star; brighter even than a full moon, perhaps, and it cast long shadows across the plain. The first people that lived in the area told many stories about that hill, the light, and the spirits that lived there.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
- S. Dudley grew up in Wyoming, USA, an avid reader and lover of the outdoors. He studied at the University of Wyoming and the University of Illinois. He started his first book (an epic fantasy hand-written in with a blue fountain pen…) when he was 13, but never finished it. At some point (as his mother recently reminded him), he decided that he needed to go do something (like get a job) for a while before he could, or should, write. He did, and spent time in Colombia, Panamá, Antarctica and the dark recesses of large science buildings on college campuses. That done, he now writes, lives and runs in Northern California with his wife and two children.
- He can be found at http://www.ssdudley.com, http://www.facebook.com/author.ssdudley and on twitter at @SS_dudley.
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