Maureen Bush

Objects with Character

At one of my school events, a teacher said he’d noticed I animate inanimate objects in all my books, and he wanted to know if I’d done that as a child. I’d never been asked this question (which makes it a really good one), and couldn’t answer. But I’ve been thinking about it, and noticing – indeed, I did it as a child, and I still do it, all the time.

I saw a photo of tall strange flowers and they looked like birds to me, ready to take off. The animals in pictures seem capable of speech, and I’m sure toys play at night, when no one is looking. Mirrors, gates, rocks on the sidewalk – they could all be alive, in my world. Anything with character could be… well, a character.

Now that I think about it, I realize this is, perhaps, a little strange for an adult. But perhaps not so strange for a fantasy writer.

Maureen

Poetry for Children

I’ve been thinking about my favorite book of poetry as a child: A.A. Milne’s When We Were Four. My favorite poem hints at my love of fantasy:

Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs

Is a stair

Where I sit.

There isn’t any

Other stair

Quite like

It.

I’m not at the bottom,

I’m not at the top;

So this is the stair

Where

I always

Stop.

…

Halfway up the stairs

Isn’t up,

And isn’t down

It isn’t in the nursery,

It isn’t in the town.

And all sorts of funny thoughts

Run round my head:

“It isn’t really

Anywhere!

It’s somewhere else

Instead!”

I remember sitting halfway down the stairs, just like the child in the picture, pondering this, and finding the idea of being somewhere else instead totally delicious.

Maureen

The Nexus Ring’s Second Cover

Here’s the Scholastic cover for The Nexus Ring, published for a grade six in-class book club of fantasy novels.

Maureen