Catalina

I’ve been tagged by T.B.McKenzie (a fellow Dragonfall Press author) to post something about my current work-in-progress as part of The Next Big Thing. I’ve spent some time recently reading some other Dragonfall writing and have just finished Danny Fahey’s Catalina. It’s a curious mix: a fairy story in which you think you know all the characters, but which still surprises you. The protagonist, Catalina, is an orphan who needs to discover her true identity and her own abilities. So far, so familiar? There’s also an evil witch aunt, a knife-throwing villain, a transformed rat, defeated wizards and a lonely prince who has been turned into a wolf-boy. You’ve come across these characters before, right? But Fahey mixes it all up into his own insightful blend. Although Catalina is described as a young adult novel, this is an ageless book for lovers of fairy tales. There are echoes of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. But the writing is Fahey’s own: charming, delightful and a pleasure to read.
My answers to The Next Big Thing questions will be up on 19 December. (as will Danny’s and Bob Ashby’s)