Well, Rosemary and Rue has been on bookstore shelves for a month, and that means it's time for me to split off the Toby Daye FAQ into its own page. What questions would you like to see answered? I'm dividing them roughly, for now, into "series" (IE, publication dates, number of books, typos), "world" (Toby's world), and per-book, but this could change.
Please expect mild spoilers in the comments on this thread, with the stress being on mild. I won't answer FAQ questions that read like "on page 189 you say, but on page 317...," since that's way too much of a spoiler for a publicly-accessible website.
- Is there any correspondence between a region's folklore and the fae that live there? Most of the fairies living around your San Francisco seem to be things talked about in British or Irish folklore, with a few exceptions (the kitsune, for example), and obey most of those rules (for example, vulnerability to iron).
That's interesting...until now I hadn't noticed that there seems to be a recapitulation of British-European colonial ascendancy in the power structure of the SF fae.
I'm going to need to figure out how I could word this as an answer, but...
The correspondence is a combination of a) makeup of an area's mortal population, and b) length of time said mortal population has been there. So there are a lot of British and Irish fae in California, just because of the early settlement patterns. There are also a lot of German, Russian, and Spanish fae. (I use "fae" as a catchall for "supernatural being" in this universe, because a uniform descent is being posited. As a folklorist, I know this is naughty. As an author, I know that it's necessary.)
You'll find a lot of Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian/Pacific Island fae in parts of the Bay Area, but many of them tend to be more insular, and not terribly fond of the current administration (they were more open in King Gilad's time, as he was Tuatha de Dannan, and very into unity). The population of Indian, African, and Australian fae is small but growing.
Certain rules have also been unilaterally applied—almost everyone is vulnerable to iron, regardless of source mythology.
It depends hugely on the "fae" in question. Some couldn't survive without their mortal populations; some moved away to escape the increasing European presence (both mortal and unfamiliar supernatural); some have just adapted. Almost all tree spirits are considered Dryads at this point, for example, although there are folkloric references to tree spirits from all over the world.
tired
September 30 2009, 15:31:04 UTC 7 years ago
- Is there any correspondence between a region's folklore and the fae that live there? Most of the fairies living around your San Francisco seem to be things talked about in British or Irish folklore, with a few exceptions (the kitsune, for example), and obey most of those rules (for example, vulnerability to iron).
September 30 2009, 17:47:09 UTC 7 years ago
October 9 2009, 22:15:54 UTC 7 years ago
The correspondence is a combination of a) makeup of an area's mortal population, and b) length of time said mortal population has been there. So there are a lot of British and Irish fae in California, just because of the early settlement patterns. There are also a lot of German, Russian, and Spanish fae. (I use "fae" as a catchall for "supernatural being" in this universe, because a uniform descent is being posited. As a folklorist, I know this is naughty. As an author, I know that it's necessary.)
You'll find a lot of Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian/Pacific Island fae in parts of the Bay Area, but many of them tend to be more insular, and not terribly fond of the current administration (they were more open in King Gilad's time, as he was Tuatha de Dannan, and very into unity). The population of Indian, African, and Australian fae is small but growing.
Certain rules have also been unilaterally applied—almost everyone is vulnerable to iron, regardless of source mythology.
October 11 2009, 19:11:03 UTC 7 years ago
October 12 2009, 04:18:33 UTC 7 years ago