t may be trite to say, but I have always been a writer. I first realized I was good at it when I won first prize in a writing contest in fourth grade with my short story “Trouble in Tobago.” My creativity knew no bounds and my high school English teacher, Mrs. Layne, wrote this in my yearbook: “I hope one day everyone will see what a wonderful writer you are, Denise.” In high school and college I wrote for the school newspaper and went on to major in journalism. Throughout my career in advertising and marketing I have been a professional writer, all while continuing to write fiction. I currently own a marketing consulting company, New Moon Marketing Communications, and I write a marketing blog – The Marketing Imagination – where I focus on creativity in business.

My first book, a young adult fantasy novel, is now ready for the world, and as Mrs. Layne said, everyone will finally get to see the output of my many years of fiction writing. The story came to me several years ago when a development company bought a large plot of forested land adjacent to my home in Kentucky. The land, for as long as I could remember (and long before that), was dotted with towering oak trees and dense foliage. Each spring a new family of deer would make their appearance, the tiny fawns trailing after their mama doe as they crossed through the forest adjacent to my backyard. Mornings brought the sound of singing birds, and evenings, the rhythmic chirping of cicadas.

All that went away after the bulldozers arrived. One morning I left for work and the trees were standing tall. When I returned home that night, they littered the ground like fallen soldiers. As more land was cleared, I noticed an absence of bird songs and deer crossings until eventually the only sound coming from the land was the drone of bulldozers, belching smoke and soot. As my mind raced to make sense of the destruction, I wondered what had happened to the wildlife and all the unseen creatures who had populated the forest. Thus began my journey into the unseen world and the fairy realm.

Writing about fairies came naturally to me. I have been a collector of One Of A Kind (OOAK) fairy dolls and woodland creatures and have nearly 75 unique fairies that live in my home with me and my Siberian Husky, Gracie. Many of the dolls came to life in the story, along with my two fairy-sized doll houses made of “found” objects in nature. The series, consisting of five novels, follows the story of Luce Aldebaran and her Aunt Marguerite as they traverse the mysterious and enchanting world hidden in the forest beyond Stone Cottage.