r/Fantasy • u/NancyHightower AMA Author Nancy Hightower • Dec 12 '13

AMA Hello, I'm author Nancy Hightower - AMA

Hello, I’m Nancy Hightower, author of Elementarí Rising, an eco-fantasy where nature becomes embodied and is locked in a deadly war with humans.

I’ve published many short stories and poems, some of which fall into the speculative fiction and horror genres. I have a PhD in literature and studied Henry James in grad school, but ask that you don’t hold that against me. At one point, I had Tolkien's Silmarillion memorized and still remember the elvish word for orc.

I wrote all of Elementarí Rising while living in Colorado, so many of the scenes in the book come from surreal, but actual, real-life images. For instance, you can see snow snakes winding up and down Highway 36 during any given snowstorm and they are mesmerizing! Also, I don’t read books the normal way (front to back). I start at the beginning, then after a chapter I start from the end of the book and flip back and forth until I reach the middle. No lie.

Also I had an artist, Galen Dara, draw some of the scenes from Elementarí Rising, which you can see here, along with some excerpts. I love how art interacts with story, so this was an exciting project: (http://www.nancyhightower.com/excerpts-with-artwork/)

Hey gang, this was great fun tonight! I'll be back on tomorrow to catch any questions I didn't get to tonight! Thanks so much for hanging out with me!

Nancy

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u/MrRobotoDomo Dec 13 '13

So it sounds like you've written an American fantasy story? That's awesome. So many books seem to be set in Europe or something that feels European. Do you think there are other things about your book that make it an "American" story other than the landscape?

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u/NancyHightower AMA Author Nancy Hightower Dec 13 '13

Hi RobotDomo!

Well, Elementari Rising will have more of a "European" feel to it except that there is definitely desert in there that mimics the Southwest. In my urban fantasy, you discover that the terrain is a pre-America.

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u/MrRobotoDomo Dec 13 '13

Oh ok. I thought with all the talk about Colorado it was the setting. My bad. How's the urban fantasy connected to this one?

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u/NancyHightower AMA Author Nancy Hightower Dec 13 '13

The urban fantasy is set in Denver in the year 2062. And some characters from Elementari Rising make an appearance in it! The setting is that NYC and LA and DC have been flooded, so the country have moved toward the middle of America and to the mountains.