Have you ever wondered why your child’s clothes, or even your own, always end up on the closet floor?  Or why your socks go missing from your laundry? Or why ants inevitably show up at your picnics?  If you want the answer to these and many other vexing questions, then Fairy Hunters, Ink. is the book for you.

Fascinating answers and more await you as you follow the adventures of the intrepid band of Fairy Hunters made up of a little girl named Ashley, her friend Big Rabbit, and their fellow companion, Turtle.  You will discover which fairy hates to fly, what Teacup Fairies eat, and the favorite games of the Mud Puddle Fairy.  And you’ll delight to the dry, amusing voice of Laura, the narrator whose age is uncertain, but whose gentle management of occasional conflict among the band’s members teaches wisdom and tolerance in a way that children can fully understand.

The book is currently available in paperback and e-book format.

(Click HERE to purchase the book)

We’re still working on getting the Fairy Store up and running, but that should be coming very shortly.  You’ll be able to by prints of all of the illustrations, framed and unframed, and T-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags and mouse pads, all with any of the book’s illustrations imprinted on them.  We’re also working on a line of greeting cards, and even fairy trading cards!  Be on the lookout!

And if you live in Northern Virginia, be sure to come by and see us at booth 204 at the 16th Annual Northern Virginia Christmas Market at the Dulles Expo and Conference Center in Chantilly, VA, Nov. 13-15, 10 am – 6 pm daily.  Sheila will even be there sign your personal copy of “Fairy Hunters, Ink.”!  Readers of Sunshine Artist Magazine just voted this show #39 in their 100 Best Arts and Crafts Shows in the USA poll.  Over 250 artisans will offer a diverse selection of fine arts, pottery, jewelry, stained glass, wood, photography, fiber arts, as well as thousands of one-of-kind Christmas collectibles.  Come see us!

Happiest Regards,

Big Rabbit

July 29, 2009

Greetings to all those who love fairies and their ilk. It’s been an exciting year.  I have lots of positive reviews (thank you, you know who you are), offerings of signings and shows.  The second book is half finished and my artist, Rose Csorba, is beginning to feel the stirrings of creativity again for this second book.  I can’t wait to see what wonders flow from her colored pencils.

ABOUT THE SECOND FAIRY HUNTERS BOOK

I am half way through the second book.  I am introducing several new characters in this book, including Squirrel, along with the inevitable Acorn Fairy, Winnie the Poo-dle, and John-Michael, a sweet, imaginative little boy who moves into the big house next to Ashley.  And for the third book, there will be Owl, Toad, and Leo the Lizard.  Leo is brand new and I haven’t fleshed him out yet, but I think he is fond of jazz.  Being French, he dresses in scarves and berets and is always in fashion.  He speaks French extremely well and is always struggling to understand the English spoken by his compatriots, which leads to many humorous misunderstandings.

ABOUT THE WEBSITE WWW.FAIRYHUNTERS.NET

We are building a new page on the website (www.fairyhunters.net) called “Laura’s Garden” and it will have descriptions of flowers with photographs I have taken from my gardens.  It will also tell how to take care of the various flowers, so that you might learn to tend a garden of your own.  The page will also have stories of fairies and gremlins one might meet in a garden.

Also on the website, there will be a store front where one can buy t-shirts of all sizes with the illustrations printed on them.  There will be blue, white, yellow and pink shirts.  In the fall we will add long sleeve t-shirts and sweatshirts.  One can also buy 8 X 10 prints of the illustrations along with various frames.

I am trying to talk Rose into creating reproducible figurines of the various characters in the book.  She already creates puppets and no one knows the characters the way Rose knows them.

There are also going to be trading cards with the various fairies on the fronts and descriptions on the back.  There will eventually be a lot of fairies, as I have two more books in my head.

COMING SOON TO WWW.FAIRYHUNTERS.NET

There will be a page which allows readers to write in their own stories of the fairies they have met and their habits.  I plan to compile a list of these fairies and publish a book created by all of you out there.  So pull out your magnifying glasses and start looking for fairies.

IN THE FALL

In the fall I shall be reading at schools and libraries, as well as selling my wares at various art centers and fairs.  I am going to the Neptune Festival at Virginia Beach in September and appearing at the annual Midwest Book show that month as well.  It promises to be a very busy autumn.  I will enjoy seeing the autumn fairies come out and do their things with the leaves.  It is the fairies who color the leaves of trees in the autumn.  They are very creative.

ABOUT OTHER FAIRY BOOKS

There are other fairy books out there that I love.  This is a very partial list and I’ll add to it each month as I discover new ones..  Many of you are probably already familiar with some of them.  If there are fairy books that you know of and I don’t include, please email me at sheila@fairyhunters.net.  I have to start somewhere, so here goes.  I also include “Alice in Wonderland” for Lewis Carroll must have been a fairy hunter too.

FAERIES,   2002.  Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition, described and illustrated by Brian Froud and Alan Lee.  Published by: Abrams.   The illustrations are amazing, many of them being fiercely ugly and others ethereally beautiful.  A must have for all faerie lovers.

HOW TO FIND FLOWER FAIRIES.  2007.  Popup Book by Cecily Mary Barker.  Published by Penguin Group.  This is an exquisitely rendered popup book, suitable for children or curious adults who haven’t left their childhood behind them.

LADY COTTINGTON’S PRESSED FAIRY BOOK. 1994.  Turner Publishing.  Written & illustrated by Brian Froud.  This is one of my personal favorites.   The pressed fairies are very humorous and irreverent.  It’s a glimpse into the young Lady Cottington’s childhood, during which she captured fairies in the pages of her book, hence the “pressed” fairy book.  A must have for young and old.

Each of these books will lead you to other books on the magic realm of fairy, and cover subjects like dragons, witches, gnomes and the like.

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND AND THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Lewis Carroll, Hugh Haughton & John Tenniel.  Penguin Classics.  For those who had had the misfortune to have lived without reading Carroll, now is the time.  It is a wonderful visit through an enchanted land where anything could happen at any moment.  From the moment Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole, everything goes slightly upside down and sideways, leaving the reader a bit disoriented in this interesting place.

I have just ordered one of the few available copies of Mary Cecily Barker’s THE COMPLETE FLOWER FAIRY BOOK, which contains her books: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Wayside, Garden, Alphabet, & Trees.  If you are quick you can get one of the few remaining copies at Amazon.com.  The book is currently out of print.  Barker’s illustrations are wonderful as is her verse.

Ashley’s dark hair fell across her cheek as she bent over her task and Big Rabbit and Squirrel squabbled amiably over the existence of Fairies.  Squirrel was, as usual, following the more logical ways of thinking, while Big Rabbit and Turtle (yes, Turtle was there too, helping Ashley place her leaves in just the right spot) followed the curious ways of intuition in the hunting of fairies.  Intuition, it turned out, was about to win out over logic, a state of affairs that filled me with pleasure (surely you must have discerned that I, as a believer in fairies, followed the more slippery slopes of intuition!).

Big Rabbit had just said loudly “There are too Fairies in the World!!”  and nudging Turtle, added, “Tell him about the Blue Bottle Fairies.”  Before anyone could utter a word, however, a small voice spoke up.

“Fairy Hunter’s, Ink. is a small band of fairy hunters”, explained Ashley.

“There’s no such thing as fairies,” Squirrel said.

Big Rabbit, overcome by various strong feelings, gave a loud harrumph.

“Shows all you know!” Big Rabbit said in a superior manner. Unfazed Squirrel had begun to chase his tail again. Then he stopped suddenly and swayed on his feet as if dizzy, which indeed he was from all his gyrations.

“I’ve never seen one,” Squirrel said firmly, and his nose twitched as he began to sniff about. “Any nuts here? I’m hungry!”

“There aren’t any nuts,” said Ashley, “We never bring nuts.”

“No nuts?” Squrrel said in a horrified voice.

“Well we didn’t know you were coming, after all,” I said calmly. I’m sure we can bring nuts next time.”

“Do you eat only nuts?” This from Ashley, ever curious.

“Well, no, I eat acorns too. But it’s too early for acorns. Sometimes I eat tomatoes and corn from people’s gardens. But they get very angry with me and they bring their guns. So i stay away from gardens.”

“Very wise, I’m sure,” I said.

Squirrel, whose thought processes were as jumpy as he, himself, returned to his original topic of conversation. “Do you really hunt fairies?”

“We really do,” replied Ashley proudly.

“Then I want to hunt one too. How do you know they’re about?” Squirrel had jumped up on my shoulder again and was breathing lightly in my ear, which tickled. I squelched the urge to scratch my ear.

“Well, there are various ways one knows that fairies are about–,” Big Rabbit had begun to speak portentiously (that means he began to talk as if he had something VERY important to say.) But Ashley interrupted him.

“You learn to ’see’ them, like this.” And Ashley stared off into the distance with slightly crossed eyes and a dazed look on her face.

“You look like a zombie,” said Squirrel.

Ashley scowled. “Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do NOT”.

I interrupted this fruitless exchange before it descended into a real fight.

“We practice seeing them by looking out the corner of our eyes while pretending to be staring forward.”

“Like this?” Squirrel asked, and crossed his eyes, as he squinched up his face (squinching is very odd–you have to smile and frown at the same time.)

“Not quite. It will take a little time but you’ll get the hang of it, I’m sure.” I said with a smile.

Big Rabbit who had been largely silent albeit seething, spoke up, “You’re not agreeing that he should become one of us, are you?” He sounded as horrified as Squirrel had sounded earlier.

“Well,” Ashley said, “He is going to be living in your back yard.”

Big Rabbit groaned, “Don’t remind me.”:

Squirrel, in celebration of his new fairy hunter status, launched himself from my shoulder onto a nearby tree trunk which he quickly scampered up. “Yippee!!!” He shouted, “I’m a fairy hunter!” and did a somersault in midair as he leapt from one tree to another.

Everyone except Big Rabbit clapped.

“Ah-hem,” said Big Rabbit portentiously. “This meeting will come to order….”

“Yippeeee!!!!” said Squirrel. It was his very first Fairy Hunters, Ink. meeting and he was excited at the prospect of seeing a fairy. We were at Big Rabbit’s house in his tiny bit of yard. Squirrel was dashing back and forth, sniffing the ground for forgotten nuts, muttering as he went. “What did I do with them?”

“I said”, ‘Come to Order!!’, not yell and dash about madly”, said Big Rabbit. Ashley looked pleased and allowed herself to make a face behind Big Rabbit’s back.

“I’m not yelling,” said Squirrel, who didn’t miss a step in his erratic movements.

Big Rabbit, oblivious to these slights (which was a very good thing for everybody) continued. “This is the first official meeting of Fairy Hunter’s, Ink. and being so, this is an historic occasion”.

Ashley and I exchanged looks. This was getting off to a bad start. Big Rabbit, in full professorial mode, could talk forever. Could talk that is until forcibly stopped, which Ashley was wont to do, with often disastrous results.

Zephr, our new honorary mascot, piped up, “We don’t to come to order; we want to find a fairy!”

Big Rabbit stopped short at this interruption, and said irritably, “We’ll get to that. And now I’d like to thank our members….”

“Your members would like to keep things brief,” I suggested.

‘Yes, yes, of course,” said Big Rabbit, flustered at this calm show of independence.

“I want to be a fairy,” said Squirrel.

Zephr slowly flapped his wings and we were showered in color.

Big Rabbit said, “Stop that! It’s distracting,” which only meant that everyone had stopped fidgeting to gaze on the brilliant flashes of color surrounding us.

“Let’s go fairy hunting!” squeaked Squirrel.

“Yeah!!” Ashley added her support to Squirrel.

Big Rabbit scowled and said, “O.K. If that’s what you want to do….”

“We do!” came the chorused reply.

And with that, we began walking and looking for fairies. We decided to go to the Great Forest, for forests are magical places and all kinds of fairies and gremlins live there.

Not so sweet, & goes something like this:

“Nobody knows how unhappy I am

Wretched, dejected, sad & forlorn.

I wear sackcloth & ashes & my head is so shorn

That it glimmers in moonlight from dusk until morn.”

The Self Pity Gremlin is a sad creature indeed

And if you’re not careful, not taking heed,

He’ll infect you with sadness, gloom, misery

Which will make you unhappy as snowballs in May.

(Did you ever see a happy snowball in May?

I’ll warrant you haven’t, that’s all I’ll say.)

He’ll infect you with sadness–

He’ll make you cry,

From July 5^th til the Fourth of July.

He’ll make you so wretched,

You’ll flat want to die.

If this sounds shiveringly, achingly bad

& you want to avoid it, no matter how clad,

Then say “NO!” to the Gremlin of Self Pity Land

& “YES!” to the Fairy of the Self Confidence Band.

She’ll sing to you songs so jolly and loud

They’ll make you float like a bird, like a song, like a cloud.

She’ll whisper encouraging words in your ear

And if you ask nicely, she’ll always stay near.

So if someone hurts you, calls you names, stuff like that,

Just call for the Confidence Fairy.  Stand pat.

She’ll come in a jiffy, quick as a wink,

And the Self Pity Gremlin will be gone just like that.

“Fairy Hunters, Ink. Is a small band of Fairy hunters,” explained Ashley. Big Rabbit cleared his throat loudly and glared at Ashley.

“There’s no such thing as fairies,” Squirrel said.

Big Rabbit, overcome by various strong feelings, gave a loud harrumph.

“Yes, there is, and we can show you,” Ashley said triumphantly.

Squirrel clapped his paws lightly and said “Great! Show me!”

And so Ashley, still ignoring Big Rabbit who was by now twitching all over, commenced to tell Squirrel about Fairy Hunters Ink.