Boots and the Wizard: Introduction

Hello and welcome to my story! This is the story of Boots and how his path crosses (eventually) with a wizard.

Several years ago, I took an oral storytelling course and I told this story as a short, classic fairy tale. At the time, I used the storybook, The Wizard’s Daughter, by Chris Conover, as my primary inspiration.

Since then, I have spent a lot of time thinking about Boots – who he was, where he came from, what his journey meant – and I started to write the ideas down. And now I have decided to share them with you, dear reader; I hope you enjoy what I have created.

You can go straight to Chapter 1, or you can read a little more about my master plan below.

Where is this story going?

To a wizard, obviously. My plan is to release a chapter a week. My storyline is set, with a timeline and a rough draft. But I can’t guarantee there won’t be minor changes – for example, I may alter someone’s profession, or accidentally change the number of siblings they have. I am neither a full-time author or editor, so I’ll just do my best and apologize in advance if I start spelling my own character’s name incorrectly twelve chapters in.

Ditto for narrative grammar. Or really any grammar. There is only so much time I can spend identifying independent clauses in my writing.

Is this story historically accurate?

No! I mean, this is a made up story with made up people – but I have attempted to root my fantasy in factual accuracies. I have spent a lot of time nerding out over various practices, weapons, clothing, trades and technology from the middle ages with an attempt to look at vaguely nordic culture. I have learned a lot, but I have not always incorporated it into my story.

I have been taking a similar approach to research that I do to cooking. I read a little here and a little there, take note of what I need, look at what I have, and hope I can make something that works.

Am I lazy? Maybe. But what often happens is that the characters run away with the story, and the details about what types of seeds are being planted, or how common clay cups were, get glossed over in my moments of inspiration. The good news is that I will go back and correct these types of details as I find facts. And I sure won’t be offended by free corrections in the comment section!

As a lover of mythology, I feel I should apologize in advance at the jumble of Norse and Finnish deities that have been referenced in this work. It’s fair for you to yell “pick a lane!” at the screen while you read. Ideally, I should make my own pantheon of gods for this, but that’s pretty far down on my list. If you don’t know anything about mythology then…it all makes sense. Just keep reading.

At the end of the day, we all know that fairy tales are known for being historically accurate and that is an expectation I strive to reach.

Can I buy your book?

Sure, send me some money and I’ll print you off a copy at my local Staples. I’ll even sign it.

But maybe you should read it first. Head on to Chapter One.