Last week I tweeted about heading over to my parents’ house to clean my junk out of their attic. Turns out, that chore wasn’t quite as painful as I thought it would be. I found a few gems, some old pictures and yearbooks, an obscene amount of 1980s Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kid clothes my daughter was lucky enough to inherit, and this priceless treasure:

My very first literary endevor, of which I am the apparent author and illustrator. Sadly, a publication date could not be found on The Forest of Enchantment, but I’m estimating that it was born sometime in the very early 1990s. Here’s the interesting thing about The Forest of Enchantment: even though I wasn’ t even out of elementary school when I wrote it, I managed to nail some trends that are still popular today. Here they are, listed in no particular order…

1) A main character (royalty, no less) on a quest to save her Kingdom and please her parents.  

2) A main character named…. (wait for it!)… Isabella. And look how fashionably thin she is!

3) A mermaid. Whose name, of all things, is Joslin.  I think Ariel might have inspired her hair color.  

4) Magic, of course!

The point is, I’ve been second-guessing my little foray into the paranormal genre since I started researching WIP a few weeks ago, but now, after revisiting this charming piece of my childhood, I’m starting to wonder if I’m not so crazy afterall. Clearly, The Forest of Enchantment is a little rough, but perhaps I’m not straying so far in exploring paranormal. I did, after all, have the imagination for it nearly two decade ago. Though WIP includes no literal journeys, mermaids or magic of the traditional sense, perhaps it’s exactly what I need to be writing right now.