I don’t really dream about magical creatures, but they interest me. I’ve always been interested in the fact that even though magical creatures aren’t real, there are many different species that large numbers of people are familiar with. If I talk about about a dragon, or a fairy, or a centaur, without too much explanation, most people can visualize what I’m talking about almost as clearly as if I were discussing a lion or an eagle.
It is like collectively we human beings have agreed to pretend that certain creatures are real, and I try to tap into this with Fablehaven.
As I write Fablehaven, more than inventing new creatures from scratch, I see my job as presenting magical creatures that we are generally familiar with in fresh and interesting ways. I find myself asking, if fairies were real, how might they truly behave? Generally, I imagine that magical creatures would be at least as dangerous as wild animals. As a result, a preserve like Fablehaven that gathers large quantities of magical creatures into a confined area becomes an unusually perilous place.
I choose creatures from various myths and traditions and try to bring them to life in original ways. I also invent a few creatures of my own from time to time, on the assumption that if all myths and traditions have some truth to them, there would probably be some creatures we have never heard of.
Personally, I do not believe in magical creatures. But I’m a huge daydreamer. I think about magical creatures a lot. While I’m writing, my job as is to believe in them so sincerely that they feel real to readers.
From my observations, I think almost all kids get that magical creatures are not real. But many readers seem to love playing along with me in pretending that there are secret wildlife parks where they actually exist. Within the context of each story, I know that readers have described certain moments as scary or suspenseful or tense. I think readers can be scared of a creature in a scene in a story without actually believing the creature actually exists.