On this blog, I plan to mostly do book and series reviews. I want to start, though, with a story that illustrates the value of fantasy in my life, and, I believe, in the world.
Last summer, I had the privilege of studying abroad for a month in Cuba. I wanted to take classes I needed, work on my Spanish, and, most of all, test my ability to adapt to a new environment. The Caribbean sun was hot, the thick, wet heat that makes it hard to breathe, the language was difficult and isolating, and the food and customs were so foreign to me. Although I knew why I was there, and there were many things which I loved about the experience of living in Cuba, I could not help but feel uncomfortable and homesick. My roommates and others in my school group shared similar feelings with me.
One of my roomates, a girl whose colorfully dyed hair melted and turned strange shades of blue and green in the humid heat, loved movies, and had brought a USB with dozens of them saved on it. As the days faded into hot nights and thunder rumbled over the blue ocean in the distance, we would buy cans of warm soda (refrigeration is a luxury in Cuba) from a tiny shop down the block and watch familiar movies together. My roommate had the entire Harry Potter series on her USB, and I clearly remember watching the Deathly Hollows Part 2 one evening. It had been years since I'd last seen that movie, and even longer since I'd read the book as a kid. As the final, epic battle of Hogwarts raged, I marveled at just how incredibly GOOD it was, the film, the story, everything. After all these years, Harry Potter is still fantastic and magical, and it still evoked that same sense of wonder in three young adults who hadn't known each other until they ended up together in this foreign country. And, for a while, I forgot that I was far from home, that I was surrounded by the unfamiliar. Watching Harry Potter was comforting and heartwarming, and it brought my roommates and I closer together. Experiences like this are what keep me reading fantasy stories, and the reason I have chosen to spend my life writing them.
One of my roomates, a girl whose colorfully dyed hair melted and turned strange shades of blue and green in the humid heat, loved movies, and had brought a USB with dozens of them saved on it. As the days faded into hot nights and thunder rumbled over the blue ocean in the distance, we would buy cans of warm soda (refrigeration is a luxury in Cuba) from a tiny shop down the block and watch familiar movies together. My roommate had the entire Harry Potter series on her USB, and I clearly remember watching the Deathly Hollows Part 2 one evening. It had been years since I'd last seen that movie, and even longer since I'd read the book as a kid. As the final, epic battle of Hogwarts raged, I marveled at just how incredibly GOOD it was, the film, the story, everything. After all these years, Harry Potter is still fantastic and magical, and it still evoked that same sense of wonder in three young adults who hadn't known each other until they ended up together in this foreign country. And, for a while, I forgot that I was far from home, that I was surrounded by the unfamiliar. Watching Harry Potter was comforting and heartwarming, and it brought my roommates and I closer together. Experiences like this are what keep me reading fantasy stories, and the reason I have chosen to spend my life writing them.
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