Talking Books with T.M. Wallace, author of WINTERGARDEN



Theresa Wallace-Pregent lives with her husband and four talented children in Ontario, Canada. Her young adult fantasy novel Under a Fairy Moon was a finalist in the Amazon Break-through Novel Awards in 2010 and was published by Brownridge Publishing in the summer of 2011. In 2012, Under a Fairy Moon won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award for Fantasy and the Canadian Christian Writing Awards (Young Adult.) Her sequel to Under A Fairy Moon will be published in the Fall of 2014.

Her latest book is the YA/Children’s fantasy, Wintergarden.

For More Information

Can you tell us what your book is about?

Book One: “Under a Fairy Moon”

Wintergarden is the sequel to my first book, Under a Fairy Moon. In the first book, Addyson Marten
explores her neighbour’s beautiful garden and becomes lost in another world called the Median Realms. She is challenged by trickster fairy creatures to a supernatural game of Fairy Chess and must win the game before she is returned home again. She meets a human boy there, Connor, who has no memory of his past but would like to return to the human world with Addy. At the end of the book, they have been successful in winning the game and thwarting the agents of evil, and are on their way back to the human world.

The Sequel: “Wintergarden"

As the sequel Wintergarden begins, Addy is wandering through the Garden, plagued by memories of the Fairy realms that she thinks are just fever-dreams. Little by little, with a few magical clues to help (including a sighting of a unicorn-friend), she realizes that she really has been to another, magical realm last summer. But where is Connor? Did he make it back to the Human realms? she begins to think about going back to the Median Realms to track him down.

Addy tries to enter the Median Realms by asking the white stone chess-piece, guardian of that place, but the white stone-queen tells her that she cannot enter the fairy realms by the same route twice. Addy meets Mrs. Tavish, her neighbour and learns the history of Mrs. Tavish’s garden. From Mrs. Tavish, Addy learns about Connor’s history. Mrs. Tavish also teaches her about fairy magic and helps her to enter the Median Realms by way of the Garden’s labyrinth.

Addy must travel to the centre of the labyrinth in order to free Connor and help him to know who he really is - the Prince of Labyrinths destined to protect the doors of the Realms. Little does she know, Addy’s journey to the centre of the labyrinth will set her on her way to discovering about her own magic powers as well, and her own destiny in the battle of good against evil.

Why did you write your book?

I wrote this book because there were many unanswered questions in the first book that readers wanted to know about. At the end of the first book, Connor still didn’t have any memory of his life before becoming trapped in the Median Realms. In Wintergarden we see his past, his family, and his true destiny.

The Garden is of course one huge mystery - its almost a living, breathing being of its own. I wanted to explain a little of its history, how the giant stone chess-pieces in the garden came to be there, and their ties to celtic legends.

Addy, too, has a mysterious past and ties to the fairy world that were unknown to her in the first book. Addy is learning to use magic in this book, and it is a unique power that was only hinted at in “Under a Fairy Moon.”

Can you tell us a little about your main character?

Addy is the main character of both books. She is gifted, highly imaginative - a very different fifteen-year old than you would usually meet. She loves nature and is drawn to beautiful things, which is what draws her to the magical garden in the first place. She is a bit of an anxious person - she worries about what will happen, all the many possibilities - yet she is a very courageous person, willing to face her fears head-on. When she discovers that she has powers in the magical realms, she worries she will misuse her powers - something that would never happen, because she always worries about doing what is good and right!

Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

My characters tend to be a hodge-podge of different characteristics from people I know or have met, and also many have a certain aspects of my own character poured into them.

What kind of advice would you give other fiction authors?

I would tell them: write what you love to write - write your passion. Listen to others for the bits of wisdom that ring true, but listen most to the voice of wisdom inside you, placed there by your Creator to guide you. It will never steer you wrong.



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