Tag: green man

Urban Green Man – Story Inspiration

On By MiriahIn Writing Path2 Comments

Tomorrow, October 2 there will be an online book launch of the Urban Green Man Anthology on the Bitten By Books website.

Farrel McWhirter Park, Redmond WA
Farrel McWhirter Park, Urban Greenman Inspiration
I love the mythology surrounding the Urban Green Man. As I’ve posted before, I’m a huge fan of Charles De Lint. So when I saw the publisher’s call for submissions for a whole book of Urban Green Man stories, with an introduction written by Charles De Lint himself, I knew I was going to submit something.

Farrel McWhirter Park, Redmond WA
Farrel McWhirter Park, Urban Greenman Inspiration
The idea for my story, “Green Salvage” came to me as I was waiting for my children at Farrel McWhirter park in Redmond, where I live. This park is spectacularly gorgeous, and it is five minutes from the Redmond Town Center mall.

Farrel McWhirter Park, Redmond WA
Farrel McWhirter Park, Urban Greenman Inspiration
I like to think of the Urban Green Man as a spirit of nature, present in the actions of ordinary people doing their part to preserve the green places; always there in your peripheral vision. All you have to do is look.

Urban Green Man

On By MiriahIn Writing Path3 Comments

My Green Man story, “Green Salvage” was accepted for The Edge publishing’s Green Man anthology, edited by Adria Laycraft and Janice Blaine. It will have an introduction written by one of my most favorite authors, Charles de Lint. The anthology is scheduled to be released in August. The table of contents is posted here.

Green Woman with Rowan Berries
This Green Woman is on the wall over my desk;-)

I am utterly thrilled. The prospect of having something I wrote in a book with Charles de Lint’s name on the front cover was a huge motivator for writing a story that might fit. Plus, I love green man (and green woman) mythology. “Green Salvage” is my favorite of the stories I have written, and I am grateful to the editors for putting the anthology together, because otherwise I might not have written it.

Thursday evening I got to actually meet Charles de Lint. He and his wife MaryAnn Harris were speaking at the Pacific Northwest Writers Cottage in Issaquah.  Charles and MaryAnn were delightful, so warm and personable. They sang a song Charles wrote about Johnny Cash – his dog, and a song he wrote for (the amazing) Terry Windling, “Cherokee Girl”. Charles talked quite a bit about writing (most of the audience were writers after all).

I bought “Under My Skin”, book one in Charles de Lint’s new “Wildlings” YA series. When he was signing it for me, I mentioned the Green Man anthology and that I had a story in it. (I was so nervous I was shaking.) He shook my hand and congratulated me!

And that is the absolute highlight of my writing experience so far!

Happy Writing!