When our daughter was born, some twenty-six years ago, she was placed in my arms and I began to float on air. I had the same experience almost six years later when our son was born. But that’s another story. It was my daughter’s very early childhood that led to the creation of Maggie MacCormack and the Witches’ Wheel.
After our daughter was born, I couldn’t wait to get home from work each day to spend as much time with her as I could. And in the still of the night, with my daughter snuggled into me, I would think of all the things I would share with her while she was growing. I imagined reading Where the Wild Things Are to her, and The Secret Garden, Narnia and Lord of the Rings. And so I did.
As my daughter began to read on her own, I was struck by the lack of modern fictional female heroes whose adventures she could share. Now, there may have been characters and books I missed, but I certainly didn’t see anything that resonated for young girls the way that Harry Potter did. Young women were delighted with the boy with Coke-bottle glasses that took the world by broomstick. And so they should have been, but I felt my daughter deserved a strong female hero who lived in a world that brought out that strength. I decided I was up for the job and set out to create a character and her world –– in essence, a new fantasy series that would appeal to young women.
Years later my amazing son would encourage me to change Maggie’s domain to a place for young men as well as young women.
I’m a very visual person. I was an artist before I was a writer; I see images first, then I hear their voices (full conversations actually), and then a story comes to me with the rush of a tsunami.
I envisioned a twelve-year-old girl, with red hair, green eyes and freckles. She was standing in a forest of knotted trees with orange leaves twirling around her. She was wearing army boots with a star painted on each toe. She introduced herself as Maggie MacCormack. Her Scottish brogue was gentle but distinct. I had found the main character of my novel.
But it would take me eighteen years to begin writing Maggie’s tale in earnest.
Life, bills and a house inspired me to find work that gave my kids the comfort they needed. I painted murals, made comics, wrote for various magazines, had a Hollywood movie made from one of my stories and was even named One of the 100 Canadians to Watch by Maclean’s, Canada’s version of Time. Meanwhile, I left Maggie in the background.
An assault on my health became the catalyst I needed, and really wasn’t sure I wanted. Over five nights my healthy body fell to a coup, seized by my muscles, nerves and bones. I found myself partially paralyzed, unable to work, with only my index fingers on either hand supple and free.
Maggie, whose cheeky personality is also very Scottish said: “You’ve got time on your hands. Go on, get goin’. It’s about me now.”
She was right. So, as I underwent tests to find out what was wrong with me, I returned, on my downtime, to the ether that creative mediums travel, met the rest of Maggie’s family, and heard about their age-long conflict with the Scourge.
“Aye,” I told them, I’ll tell your story to the world.”
Pages began to fly from my keyboard, into a word doc and by email to my editor. It passed the time waiting for test results, which all came back negative. By all accounts I was healthy. “There’s no denying that something is wrong with you,” the doctors told me, “We just can’t find what it is.” And they looked for everything from cancer, to thyroid disorder to MS.”
I was happy that the tests had come back negative, but frustrated to still have no answers. I was almost completely frozen from my neck to my knees and in constant pain. Alas, I’m not prone to depression, instead I get determined.
I turned to the internet, isolated each of my problems and looked for alternative methods to treat what ailed me. I put together a program based on physiotherapy, yoga, martial arts stretching, acupuncture and chiropractic care. Four hours a day was devoted to yoga and stretching alone. It wasn’t easy, I could barely move for months and months. Yet, as I found my body slowly returning to normal, I also found I now possessed a finished manuscript entitled, Maggie MacCormack and The Witches’ Wheel.
The question was what to do with it?
My career has been varied and interesting. As I have done in the past, I considered enlisting the help of a top tier agent to represent me, some of whom I’m well acquainted with. However, even though I have had sincere interest from a publisher of one company and an editor of another company, book advances are laughable and the turnaround time from when a book is acquired to when it’s on sale in stores can be three years. Furthermore, I wanted to illustrate and design my book, which some publishers welcome and other publishers do not.
I have over thirty-five years’ experience in publishing, printing, distributing, shipping and sales. I’ve sold my products to independent bookstores and chains throughout North America, the UK and Europe. So I decided to self-publish.
You don’t have to be a household name to get publicity; you just have to have a quality product and a story worth telling. I’ve been interviewed for TV, newspapers and magazines as far away from Canada as Finland. You can find good people interested in your work everywhere. And social media is a wonderful friend to the creative person with something of quality to share with everyone.
Maggie MacCormack and the Witches’ Wheel is an environmental fantasy based on a daunting reality: there are no magic remedies for ecological degradation. So: 10% of the profits from Maggie’s print revenue will be donated to One Tree Planted.
Furthermore, to support children and adults with dyslexia, many of whom continue to suffer in silence, and to continue to encourage ongoing research, education and due compassion to raise awareness for this genetic learning disability, 20% of Maggie’s audiobook profits will be donated to Dyslexia Scotland (10%) and Dyslexia Canada (10%).