I'd probably enjoy reading both of her books, though I do appreciate her sense of needing to do a book for the boys so to speak. It's a shame she was persuaded to not do them together originally. I must have grown up in a different area or era but I've never thought of or heard about any slant against boys being into fairy tales. But I'm sure those things do exist, well clearly they do if that was her experience. I've actually grown more fond of fairy tales as I get older (Only 40 now), and am even thinking of writing and illustrating my own. I have an interesting idea forming at the moment. :) And though I've never been a writer and could do with being more of a reader, I still want to give it a shot and may even try to enter something into the Fairy Tale Review now that I know what that is, thanks to your blog, which I adore by the way. Cheers. :)

I too live in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and something I realized not long after moving up here as a child from Texas was that the Orca's really mean something to the people who were indigenous to this land. Their symbolism is everywhere and it's no wonder when you get an opportunity to see them in the wild. They are truly quite a sight to see. Also, the Wild Darkness by Eva Saultis was absolutely beautiful, I could feel the places she was describing.

These last two posts on Alan and Brian couldn't come at a better time for me. I've been running through a list of favorite artists I made and spending time with each one's work and writing about my feelings toward their work, what it is that attracts me to them and why I like them. Trying to dive a bit deeper than I normal do when I mention something I like about an artist. My hope is that it will not only help me better myself as an artist, but maybe even understand myself a bit more. These two guys have been a big influence on me for so very long. But in Alan's case, his sketches, his pencil work, for me is what does it. Not to take anything away from his painting, but I am in love with what that man does with a pencil on paper. For curiosity sake, here is my list of artists I'm going through. :) Brian Froud Alan Lee Yoshitaka Amano John Bauer Jeremy Bastion Seb McKinnon JMW Turner Howard Pyle N.C. Wyeth James Christensen