Monsters, I have to admit, are a favorite topic of mine. As a little kid I preferred my plastic dinosaurs and one-eyed Cyclops-monster to playing with dolls–in my opinion monsters were way more cool.

Monsters are creatures that evoke fear and terror—for many of us they hold a dark appeal.  Defined as “animals of strange or terrifying shape”, they lurk in dangerous and inaccessible places, at the fringes of our world; they turn up in our worst nightmares. Ancient maps often marked uncharted waters with pictures of sea serpents and/or the warning: “Here There Be Monsters” to signify the unknown.

Children are terrified of monsters, yet paradoxically they want to read about and think about things that scare them.  When I was small the things that frightened me were vampire movies, fairy tale creatures and the invisible monsters under my bed.  These were things I fed off and when I became an adult I was still fascinated by ghoulish creatures.

Monsters abound in fantasy, some benign (Suzanne Collins’ Overlander series, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are) But most monsters are terrifying, because they represent our deepest, darkest fears: the creatures in Rowling’s Harry Potter or the Nicholas Flamel books by Michael Scott, James Dashner’s ‘grievers’ in The Maze Runner, Susan Cooper’s Greenwitch.  Adult-fantasy monsters include HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu, the monster Grendel from Beowulf, the orcs in Lord of the Rings.

JRR Tolkien noted that his orcs owed a good deal to “the goblin tradition”, writing how the goblin idea blended with a more modern concept: that of the evil inherent in human beings.  One of my worst fears growing up was the fear of familiar people being overtaken by some mysterious force, and turning creepy or even dangerous, from within – like what happens in Invasion of The Body Snatchers, or Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

In my books I’ve written about plague wolves, genetically-engineered creatures called skraeks, and giant scorpions.  Yet sometimes in literature the scariest monsters are not fully described (The zombies in Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands & Teeth,  & the botched experiments called misshapens in my book The Owl Keeper). These monsters are frightening because they’re shaped by the reader’s imagination.  If you describe a monster in great detail, there’s a limit to how far you can go– you want your readers to tap into their darkest fears and nightmares.

Stephen King, one of the gre

This little gem of a  book arrived in the mail from my friend Ro, who lives in Nottingham, England, for my birthday. She restored the cover of this 1885 edition of “THE OWLS OF OLYNN BELFRY: A Tale for Children,” written by A. Y. D. and illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. It cost one shilling when it was published in London by Field & Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, E. C. What a remarkable book! Randolph’s exquisite illustrations include pictures of owls sleeping in the belfry, an ornithologist, children at a circus, owls attacking robbers, “aged inhabitants in the church tower,” baby owls, and an owl performing a minuet with a fairy.

From page three: “Even now two very young creatures, named Bunting and Snunting, are sitting in a hollow of the woodwork in the belfry.  They are covered with soft white down, and are sometimes snoring in a curious manner…”

At the April 13th book launch for THE OWL KEEPER, hosted by Wavepaint Design & Gallery in Ipswich, MA, I met an extraordinary woman by the name of Gail Doktor. Gail was holding a stack of books she intended to buy and deliver to Children’s Hospital Boston. She and her family are the founders of Bright Happy Power, set up in memory of their daughter/sister Jessie, a twice-relapsed leukemia patient, who spent six years on treatment before dying due to complications following a bone marrow transplant.

The purpose of  Bright Happy Power is: “To  place hope, happiness and empowerment into  the hands and lives of children and families  facing life-threatening and catastrophic challenges.”

You can find out more about Jessie at      http://www.brighthappypower.com and read  her family’s online journal at www.dok.com.

If you have books you’d like to donate to Children’s Hospital Boston, or if you’d like to contribute in some other way, you can contact Bright Happy Power by email: [email protected] or telephone 978-356-3780.

To celebrate the launch of THE OWL KEEPER, there are three blogs offering giveaways!

You can throw your name into the hat on one or all of these sites: AuthorsNow!, Cleverly Inked & *HEADDESK*!

Here’s a celebration cake for THE OWL KEEPER from Liz of CleverlyInked:  

…is celebrating children’s authors and illustrators, beginning at 4:00 pm on Saturday April 17th!  Please join us for readings and a reception for the illustration exhibit!

Poster design by Barbara DiLorenzo

Wavepaint Design & Gallery

4 Market Street
Ipswich, MA
Saturday April 17th 2010

www.wavepaint.com

The hardcover copy of THE OWL KEEPER landed on my doorstep, compliments of my editor Krista Marino, all wrapped up in a bow.  What a beautiful book!

Below are the postcards and bookmarks I ordered.  Sitting in the middle is my lucky Argentinian owl.

Cover illustration by Fernando Juarez

The haunting cover and illustrations for THE OWL KEEPER were created by two extremely talented artists.  I made a point of getting in touch with both of them to let them know how much I loved their artwork.

Spanish artist Fernando Juarez illustrated the cover for THE OWL KEEPER.  I instantly fell in love with the owl, she’s so luminous and magical-looking; the background of silvery moonlight, the overhanging branches and houses lend a sort of dreamy Gothic quality. Fernando lives in Madrid with his wife and children, where he’s working as art director for Ilion Animation Studios on the film “Planet 51.” His illustrations are often quirky and whimsical, as you can see on this book cover he drew for Rita Murphy’s novel “Bird.“

Cover illustration by Fernando Juarez

Maggie Kneen is an architect, children’s author and children’s illustrator who grew up on the northwest coast of England.  ”Art was what I did best, so that’s what I pursued,” she explains on her website, “but every opportunity to bring history and archaeology into my life has been taken or made.”

Illustration by Maggie Kneen

Her illustrations are elegant and mysterious, somehow reminiscent of illustrations in books I read as a child..  They capture perfectly the novel’s characters and spooky atmosphere!

One of Maggie’s most charming books, which she wrote and illustrated, is “Hamlet and the Tales of Sniggery Woods,” about a young pig named Hamlet, who “lived with his family in a small house, just above Molefurrow Market, between Sniggery Woods and the river.”

Illustration from "Hamlet of Sniggery Woods" by Maggie Kneen