On Grounding Reality in Fantasy
just released, five teens are challenged in a game so real, they don’t know whether to believe it’s real or it isn’t. Part of this illusion is the establishing of a world so familiar yet so fantastic to us that there is already a sense of reality in this world. As Gem, Sparks, Rio, Jack, and Kat step into the mysterious castle for the first time, they see a castle steep in history. So much has happened in this medieval castle. In The Wordwick Games, Anachronia is the world the five teen gamers enter, thinking it is the 10th level of a virtual game they are playing. To enter this world, they must first begin at Word Castle, a medieval castle I based on Warwick Castle in England. I’ve visited Warwick Castle a number of times and it has always had an impact on me. The castle, the land, the peacocks, and yes, even the ghosts (it’s said to be haunted). Finally, I had to make it a character in a book, and it became a major character in The Wordwick Games Series.
The medieval qualities of Anachronia and our familiarity of this time period through fairy tales and folk tales which brings us knights, ladies, dragons, ogres, trolls, and wizards set the reality of this fantasy adventure novel. Having five teens that walk and talk like real teenagers also provides the realism of this novel. They are familiar faces and people who we know in school or in our daily lives so we are transported with them into this amazing adventure.
Do you know of any books which feature a building or a place so important to the plot, it becomes a main character in the book? If so, which books and what is the name of the building or setting?
You can learn more about Kailin at Sparklesoup.com.
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