Still Searching for the Magic

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I begged my parents for a Wardrobe. Even now, I’m drawn to Armoires in antique stores, but I’ve yet to discover a magical one. C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was the first story I’d ever read that absolutely demanded I lose myself in a fictional world. Starting at about the age of nine (maybe eight-and-a-half), I had to find a doorway to Narnia. Every night, I prayed for the chance to enter that world, and every morning, I searched the walls of my walk-in closet. But the only way I was guaranteed to enter this enchanted land was by reading and re-reading all seven stories in the series, The Chronicles of Narnia, which I did about a hundred times.

I longed to join Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, the English children. I wanted to be their friend--especially Peter’s. You see, the High King Peter, which he becomes after he helps defeat the witch, never makes a lucky girl his queen in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, so I’d decided that I would be his perfect match. And yes, thank you, we did make an impressive couple. ;-)

Religiously (pun intended), I’d curl up in my bed and read those tales, and my parents knew I was not to be disturbed. They respected my reading time for the most part, except when I neglected to do my chores.

That’s the type of story I strive to create, no matter what sub-genre I write. That’s the kind of magic I want to possess—the ability to build a world with characters in which the reader wishes they were her friends, wishes they were a part of her family. A story so well written, a plot so engaging and thrilling, that the reader doesn’t ever want to leave.

The new movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian hits the theaters in May, and the trailer for it looks purty darn fabulous! Even better than the first movie.

It's been a crazy amount of time since I've read the books, though...I wonder if they still hold the magic I remember?

What stories made you realize you wanted to be a writer? Or showed you the power of storytelling, whether in novels or films or whatnot?

Michele

P.S. Below is the trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

P.P.S. I know somewhere I posted an entry about the Chronicles of Narnia when the first movie was released, but it's not on this blog...Perhaps I posted it on the now defunct Writer's Vibe? Anyway, if bits of this look familiar to you...that's probably why. :-)