Julie Berry looking to enchant with Amaranth

Julie Berry is a mother of four boys younger than 12 who lives just outside Boston.

When her debut novel, "The Amaranth Enchantment," was published in March, it triggered a front-page story in the Boston Globe about the growing number of female authors who are "surging into the genre of young-adult literature" with "wholesome" fantasy books.

But for Berry, the book is just a logical extension of what she, herself, always liked to read.

The story "dips deeply into the fairy-tale well," she said. "It’s not a direct retelling of a known story, but you open the cupboard, and you find it all there — all the ingredients of a fairy tale are mixed in."

For her, she said, "fantasy was such a comfortable place to start writing." But she also thinks the stories are a great place for readers to start. "They are a place to find epic stories where miracles happen and all things are possible. When you give yourself permission to believe in magic and monsters, you unlock something in the imagination. I remember so vividly being utterly swept away by the magic, the romance, the adventure. I felt like I was there. And that’s the premise of all fiction, to take you there."

If she has one hope for her book, it would be "that it’s the kind of book girls would hole up in a corner and read, or stay up late at night with a flashlight to finish."

Some people tease Berry about writing for girls when she has four boys. "But I am a girl," she said. However, she hopes to "take a stab at a book that boys would be drawn to, too."

For readers looking for other fantasy books to read, she lists a few of her favorites: "Beauty," by Robin McKinley; "Skellig," by David Almond; "The Perilous Guard," by Elizabeth Pope; and "Keturah and Lord Death," by Martine Leavitt.

"They are all beautiful books and imaginative fantasies," she said.

Source: Desert News

Posted: May 31st, 2009
Author: Floresiensis
Categories: Latest News

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