Fabulous Friday Feature: Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Today I welcome an author who weaves a garden of life experiences into her stories: 

author Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Enter to win Anne's 
March 2014 release,

Shadow Hand

Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter.

While chatting with friends on FB, I met Anne. I heard about the fantasy stories she wrote, and having read many wonderful fantasy stories myself, we dialogued about her new release. I asked Anne to share how God has led her on her journey. Wow! What a beautiful story of hope and healing. Here is what she said:

The Garden of the Soul

Long ago—before I can remember—God planted the seeds of a new world in my head. Those seeds were Curiosity, Wonder, Creativity, and Passion. All the right seeds that must be planted and nurtured in the garden of an artist’s soul if new worlds are going to blossom.

These seeds are gifts from God, and I can take no credit for them. They grew by His will, not my own. My only role was to nurture them to the best of my abilities. To explore the possibilities of the written word, to study and to strive. I knew that this new world blossoming in my head was a rich one, full of tremendous possibilities. I wrote poems and short stories—I read great literature and made notes on what I learned from the masters. I nurtured those seeds and tended that garden to the very best of my abilities, all the while hoping and praying that it would bloom in great bounty.

But there were key ingredients missing.

You see, for any garden to be truly beautiful, the gardener must water it, fertilize it, and pull up the weeds. I did. I watered my Curiosity with tears of Disappointment. I sifted Heartbreak over the soil of Wonder. And with pain, I pulled up the weeds of Fear and Rejection, only to see them grow back again.

And I wondered how a good God could allow me, this child He had gifted with a whole new world in her head, to suffer such discouragement. How could He expect me to produce good fruit amid all this frustration?

Then one summer, in the midst of a near-crippling depression, I began to write. After several years of rarely setting pen to paper, I opened up a little spiral-bound notebook and began to spin a story. It was a simple enough tale—about a princess, a prince, and a lying, poisonous dragon—but for the first time I was able to write it with a true knowledge of the emotions I sought to express. As a child and a student, I could only communicate through hearsay—I could only write about things I had read, for I had not experienced enough of life—both good and bad—to know the truth behind the stories I sought to tell.

But that summer I realized that I did know what Heartbreak meant. I could write about it with sincerity, with authenticity. And the world in my head suddenly took on a life far more vivid than it ever had before!

Disappointment. Heartbreak. Fear. Rejection. All of these pains we seek to avoid. And we long to shelter ourselves and our loved ones from any of these experiences.

But God intended so much more for me. He intended a bountiful garden. Thus He allowed pain so that true beauty could bloom. I would never go back and change the past—I wouldn’t even offer warning to a younger, more foolish me to help her avoid the mistakes I made. No, for these were all part of God’s plan. And I love this garden of stories in which I work, this fantastical world through which I go journeying with each new project I write. Without the gift of pain, none of this could exist. So let me praise God for the pain as well as the pleasures.

And let me always praise Him for the gift of Creativity, in whatever form it takes.

~ ~

Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the award-winning Tales of Goldstone Wood series, adventure fantasies told in the classic Fairy Tale style. Her books include Christy Award-winning Heartless and Veiled Rose, and Clive Staples Award-winning Starflower. She makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, a passel of cats, and one long-suffering dog. When she's not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, and practices piano, painting, and pastry baking. She studied illustration and English literature at Grace College and Campbell University.

To learn more about Anne Elisabeth, visit:

blog: www.AnneElisabethStengl.blogspot.com

Facebook: Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Author

Twitter: @AEStengl

Shadow Hand, book 6 in the Tales of Goldstone Wood, releases on March 4, 2014. 

Golden Daughter, book 7 in the series, is coming November 2014.

~ ~

Shadow Hand (available now):

This is a story about love, and blood, and the many things that lie between . . .By her father's wish, Lady Daylily is betrothed to the Prince of Southlands. Not the prince she loves, handsome and dispossessed Lionheart, but his cousin, the awkward and foolish Prince Foxbrush. Unable to bear the future she sees as her wedding day dawns, Daylily flees into the dangerous Wilderlands, her only desire to vanish from living memory.

But Foxbrush, determined to rescue his betrothed, pursues Daylily into a new world of magic and peril, a world where vicious Faerie beasts hold sway, a world invaded by a lethal fey parasite . . .

A world that is hauntingly familiar.

Golden Daughter (coming November 2014)

BEYOND THE REALM OF DREAMS

IS A WORLD SHE NEVER IMAGINED

Masayi Sairu was raised to be dainty, delicate, demure . . . and deadly. She is one of the emperor’s Golden Daughters, as much a legend as she is a commodity. One day, Sairu will be contracted in marriage to a patron, whom she will secretly guard for the rest of her life.

But when she learns that a sacred Dream Walker of the temple seeks the protection of a Golden Daughter, Sairu forgoes marriage in favor of this role. Her skills are stretched to the limit, for assassins hunt in the shadows, and phantoms haunt in dreams. With only a mysterious Faerie cat and a handsome slave—possessed of his own strange abilities—to help her, can Sairu shield her new mistress from evils she can neither see nor touch?

For the Dragon is building an army of fire. And soon the heavens will burn.

To enter the contest for an autographed copy of 

Anne Elisabeth Stengl's book: "Shadow Hand":

leave a comment (and email address)

AND become a follower of this site, 
if you aren't already.

Sorry  US  only

Winner announced on my facebook page.

Thank you, Anne Elisabeth, for Joining us This Weekend!

.

Have you read Christian fantasy books? 
What I especially like about the fantasy genre is the story takes me to a new world and invites new creatures. Books like "The Hobbit"and "The Chronicles of Narnia" opened my eyes to this genre that weaves great truths into the story.

If you haven't read a Christian fantasy book, join Anne Elisabeth by sharing a praise for God in your comment.