We are honoured to work with as many authors as we do at Pegasus Publishers – each with their own stories to tell. Their worlds are singular, their characters are relatable and their creativity truly knows no bounds.

This is Author Life, a feature on the Pegasus Blog, that opens the door to each of our author’s creative process and previous literary experience, offering you – the reader – an opportunity to learn a little about the mind behind the novel.

Meet Olga Volozova, author of the children's book Chachanar Desert Tales.

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Could you tell us three interesting facts about yourself?

I fell in love with fairy tales, and I started making up my own tales when I was 4 or 5. I told myself then: when I grow up, I’ll be a fairy tales’ writer!

Right after college, I started writing plays for puppet theaters. I did it for a living when I lived in Russia.

When I look at some surfaces, with attention, I start seeing there are some faces, some creatures … grown-ups call this condition “pareidolia” …most of all I like seeing things in the bark of the trees. I try to draw and paint what I see there. I exhibit these paintings often, in Los Angeles where I live, and around the world.

In your own life, what influences and inspires you to write?

Walking around the trees inspires me, I sort of hear many stories in my mind when I walk by them. It is like being in the library.

Waking up in the morning and listening to birds, trying to understand their language. This is another source of inspiration for stories.

Also, being around my son, being around some good people inspires me to be happy, to be cool with myself, which means, going on to do what I do…

Which book or author has had the biggest impact on you, and why?

In my childhood, I was so greatly influenced by fairy tales of different cultures of the world. Also, the huge impact made on me the large size book from our home library shelf, - ’Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Francois Rabelais, with the illustrations by Gustave Dore. This classical fantasy prose written in the 16th century enchanted me forever with the reality of “other worlds’ as well as of the “otherworldliness “and freedom in the approach to thinking.

Another awesome love, at the same time, was Saint-Exupery’s “Little Prince”. It told me all I wanted to know about the balance between loneliness and being a part of the universe. It is worth mentioning that by some funny synchronicity law, the few people I ‘ve been falling in love with, during all my life, also were the admirers of the “Little Prince” book.

Can you tell me about the book?

The Chachanar Desert Tales are connected to the imaginary place and not to any particular folk tradition… but to all of them at the same time.  The characters and the geography come from the realm of dreams. All fairy tales actually derive from the place of dreams, from the area that is called the “collective memory” by the psychologists.

Reading a tale dips you into the ocean of Memory and you come out healed and refreshed. Any fairy tale possesses some talismanic quality. It protects you by connecting you with the energy of the myriads of unseen living worlds. You are a part of all of them! Writing a “tale” for me is like trying to remember a dream. For the Chachanar Desert Tales, it hit the point exactly as the stories literally came out of my dreams.

The characters in these stories always appear a bit clumsy, sort of puzzled, sort of searching for the meaning in their surroundings. The meaning is slipping away but then coming back unexpectedly… Is the meaning found in discovering an extra dimension, by turning around? Is the meaning in the search itself, in turning the search process upon itself? I tried to create a mirror sketch of these sensations in the book.

What were your first experiences with writing?

When I was about 6, my mother worked as a scriptwriter for a children’s radio series, and she used me often as the fairy tale-filled kid that I was. It helped me a great deal with the exposure to the craft of writing.

In your opinion, what are the key ingredients for a good story or novel?

There must be something that enchants the reader and pulls them into the book. One of the important keys for a writer is to define what that sort of magnet would be. Another key may be named sincerity and, also, being yourself to the core.

For me, especially in writing the “tales”, the important part is also getting a sudden inspiration, being bumped on the head by the idea or an image coming unexpectedly. Then, you let the story unravel by itself. The main thing is trusting your intuition.

How long should an author spend on their craft each day?

It doesn’t matter if they think about it all day long… even in the back of the mind, something is being processed.

What was the most challenging part of writing this book, and what did you learn from writing it?

Since these stories emerged from my dreams, I felt that I had to preserve the “dream” intonation, or aura, and not to make it dissolve, by bringing too many additional intrigues and fixings that might have served the dynamics of the plot.

At the same time, I had to put the ends together, make the stories readable and follow the basic story structures. That was the main challenge. To balance between the planes.

What common pitfalls should aspiring writers avoid?

I think it is very personal for each writer, each one should have the gut feeling … know your own pitfalls.

What writing advice would you offer to your younger self?

“Don’t leave the projects unfinished.” Same thing my younger self would have said to me now.

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Chachanar Desert Tales is available now in paperback.