This post was updated Oct. 9 at 9:37 p.m.
Leslie Lee is working to make reading magical again.
The Fresno-based author’s latest novel, “The Ashwalker,” is the third installment of her fantasy series, “Legends of the Vale,” which explores a world wrought by conflict between elves and vampires. Lee said she had originally began writing in the historical fiction category but was challenged by a friend to expand into fantasy, which led to the creation of this series. She said the fantasy genre was open-ended and allowed her to create her own world by her own rules.
“I love … the way they (fantasy writers) use their words to create images,” Lee said. “I’m very intentional on word choice and creating and painting pictures when I’m writing … so that they (readers) can see everything as they’re reading.”
Lee said she was inspired by several pieces of fiction when deciding to write about elves and vampires for “Legends of the Vale.” After reading “Beauty and the Beast” with her kids, Lee said she had began to play around with the idea of whether the beast would still be loved even if his spell had not been reversed. She added that she had also always been fascinated by vampire lore and decided to include elves as an opposing force to vampires in her story.
“Elves are the complete opposite of vampires,” Lee said. “We see vampires as a dark kind of creature, and elves are light and airy and beautiful. From there, I started to play with the idea that, maybe, the elves aren’t so good. Maybe there’s a darker undercurrent to their character, and maybe the vampires are the ones that are actually going to ultimately be the hero.”
Lee said she began her creative process for the series with her characters and had no intention of building a more expansive universe. After coming up with the ideas for her characters, she said she went back and created maps for herself to keep track of her own world-building. Lee said the research style she employed for fantasy was vastly different from the research she did for her previous historical fiction novels. For fantasy writing, Lee said she focused on researching European mythology and legends. The names of all her characters, for example, all have meanings in different languages.
Danika Reynoso, Lee’s neighbor and close friend, said she found Lee’s creative process to be very different from those of other writers she had heard of. Reynoso added that while some authors may isolate themselves when working on a book, Lee chooses to surround herself with friends and family more during her writing process, as they are a large part of her inspiration for writing at all.
Lee said her writing style attempts to bring as much detail to the page as possible. Lee aded she has a very active imagination and is able to create images of what she is reading very easily, but is aware that not all readers have the same habit. Because of that, Lee said she tries to write in a way that makes visualization easy.
Sarah Klose, Lee’s best friend of many years, said Lee’s descriptive writing is what sets her apart from other fantasy writers. Klose added that some writers can feel very detached from their stories, but Lee’s writing flows very well.
“It’s very descriptive, but in the perfect way,” Klose said. “You feel like you’re a fly on the wall in the story, and she does that easily. The way that she writes, it easily pulls you in.”
Lee said she works to make her fantasy writing as engaging as possible to help combat the larger cultural shift away from reading. Lee also said society is focused on instant gratification, but she hopes that her stories can encourage readers to sit down and get lost in her words.
“Reading not only helps with the imagination, but with literacy, learning grammar … and sadly, it’s something that quickly died,” Lee said. “I think we’re at a time now that it’s important to try again with kids and with literacy.”
Lee said her approach to encouraging reading has been to meet younger readers in the middle, understanding what they are into outside of reading to draw them in. Lee added that it was crucial to understand where kids are in their own lives and how that could be matched to good writing.
Another unique aspect of fantasy writing, Lee said, is the ability to make commentary on real-world topics. Although she understands that fantasy can be an escape from reality for some, Lee said fantasy allows writers to comment on real problems in a way that is still magical for readers.
“What draws me to her writing is the amount of imagination and fantasy that’s in it,” Reynoso said. “It’s just very intriguing and captivating.”
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