When I initially wrote the first draft of The Fairy of the Enchanted Lake approximately 20 years ago, it was a 1200-word short story. At the time, I had no real aspirations to be a writer, so I was genuinely surprised when it started growing inside my mind, and many other stories began to follow. I kept scribbling these ideas down on a piece of paper, but I didn’t quite know what to do with them, so I set them aside and forgot about them. Several years later, I found I was determined to publish the stories, and when I came to edit the draft of The Fairy of the Enchanted Lake, I suddenly realized that it had real potential. I expanded the plot, added new characters, and soon the new version was about 10,000 words long. But I still felt something was missing, and the story didn’t quite scratch the itch. Then, one day, in a gust of inspiration, I decided to turn it into a full-length novel, knowing that by doing so, I would be able to express all my ideas and really expand the world of the book into something meaningful.
As incredible as it may seem, several parts of the book are inspired by real-life events. The story of Sylvia’s grandmother, for instance, is almost identical to one that my own great-grandmother told me about her great-grandmother, who was a healer and a seer. She lost eleven children of her own, and each time, just before one of them was about to die, she would dream about a dragon, who would tell her the exact time of the event. After the death of her eleventh child, the dragon told her she would receive a gift and become a seer. Soon afterward, she had three healthy children, one of whom was my great-great-grandmother.
The scene where Michaela meets the Lord of Light is a recreation of a dream I had, which was so vivid that I have often compared it to the biblical visions and revelations of the ancient prophets and apostles. My dream took place in the heavens, in the middle of the bright blue sky, amid a scattering of fluffy, snow-white clouds. The creatures I describe in the book were in the dream, lying at the foot of two long marble steps. I remember them quite vividly, dressed all in white, some with human bodies, curly hair and curved ram’s horns instead of ears; others with lions’ bodies and human faces. They were all emanating a soft amber light that captivated me. I stayed there for a while, just watching them, and then I woke up, my heart racing. The dream inspired me so much that it felt right to immortalize it in The Fairy of the Enchanted Lake for others to experience.
Eventually, when I finished the book, I found I was quite surprised by the result, as the story had become so multi-layered that it reflected life as a whole, with all its struggles, cravings, and ups and downs. I hope you will enjoy it, and that the spiritual message I tried to convey will resonate deeply in your hearts.