This Spotlight interview has special meaning to me, as Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the daughter of one of my dearest friends (and critique partner extraordinaire), award-winning author Jill Stengl. I have followed Anne Elisabeth’s writing journey for years, and got to read her debut novel Heartless before it sold to Bethany House. Anne Elisabeth and I also share the same agency, though we are with different agents. A beautiful young woman, Anne Elisabeth has loads of talent as an artist and a writer. I recently got to chat with Annie over Skype when she visited her family in Wisconsin. She currently lives with her unpredictable cats (I’ve heard stories of one with an evil disposition who eats roses and ruins prized paintings) in North Carolina.

First, a bit about Annie:
“I grew up “Annie” at home, but decided at age seventeen that I should start going by “Anne Elisabeth,” just to be complicated. People notice a complicated name, even if merely to be annoyed by it. I figured that, if I’m going to be an artist/writer, I needed to be noticed. So I switched to the double-name, and now every time I meet someone new I’m obliged to say: “Yes, both names, thank you.”

I spent my early childhood in England in a picturesque brick house with a lovely rose garden, down the road from my very own Goldstone Wood (also known as the Common). How could I not end up writing fairy tales?

I drink copious amounts of tea, due to this English upbringing. This is convenient since the Handsome Young Man in my life is from Sri Lanka, and he knows how to brew a brilliant cup of tea!

(Tell your Handsome Young Man I want the secret to his tea brewing.) :)

My favorite music to listen to is grand opera, especially anything by Puccini, though Saint-Saëns has his place in the world. But I can’t sing opera to save my life, so I sing jazz standards instead.

(I’ve heard you sing. You have a beautiful voice!)

My first novel, is officially out as of July 1st. It is a fairy tale in the classic, princesses-knights-and-dragons vein about sweet Princess Una who is so busy looking for a handsome prince to marry that she neglects to pay attention to warnings that the evil Dragon King is hunting her. Which, as you may imagine, is a mistake.

The Dragon King Seeks His Princess–Who Dares to Stop Him?
Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon marry. She dreams of a charming prince, but when her first suitor arrives, he’s not what she’d hoped. Prince Aethelbald of mysterious Farthestshore has travelled a great distance to prove his love–and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be on the hunt and blazing a path of terror.

Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald’s offer–and ignores his cautions with dire consequences. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in his sights. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

When and how did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

I have always known that I wanted to be a writer. I come from a family of storytellers–not only is my mother, Jill Stengl an award-winning novelist, but also my father is very handy at spinning a tale that will keep listeners highly entertained! All three of my brothers are excellent storytellers as well, so it was very natural for me to become a writer.

Can you share with me some of the highlights of your writing journey thus far – something particularly memorable or humorous?

I wrote my first novel when I was nine years old. It was an eight-chapter epic about a kitten named Barry who desperately wanted a girl of his own, and all the adventures he went through to find himself just the right owner. This little “novel” and its sequels taught me that all-important lesson every writer needs to learn at some time or another: Write what you love. I love cats!

Me too! Tell me a bit about what you write now and what you hope/plan to write in the future. Do you have a favorite genre?

Well, along with a love of cats, I also have a deep and abiding love of fairy tales and legends. Anything from Beowulf on (though the old Greek and Norse mythologies hold a certain fascination for me as well). Spencer’s Faerie Queen, the epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, several of Shakespeare’s more magical plays, and many other great Fairy Tale works have inspired the development of the Tales of Goldstone Wood. I adore the classic fantasy genre as written by Tolkien and Lewis and, a few generations earlier, George MacDonald. These brilliant gentlemen knew how to craft the beauty of those older legends into stories more approachable for their current audiences, but without losing that high romance. And they were just plain fun!

That’s the kind of work I hope to write as my career progresses, stories with a sense of history and perhaps a few surprising layers of meaning, but which are simultaneously a rollicking fun read.

Was there ever a sense that God has led you to do this work? When you aren’t writing, what is it you like to do best?

I know beyond doubt that God has guided me into this work and hope that all my books will be honoring to Him. Many times while writing Heartless, I felt God’s presence as the story took shape, often in ways I never intended or expected, resulting in a simple but (I hope) beautiful allegory.

When I’m not writing, I enjoy painting portraits and teaching art classes. I also play classical piano and a bit of jazz, and I love to sing. Recently, I took up fencing classes, and while I’m not lethal with a blade yet, I have a lot of fun advancing and lunging, parrying and riposting. I’m also a collector of cats, including two rescue kitties and a beautiful Abyssinian who lords his great beauty over the rest of us. I name all my cats names that begin with “M,” – Minerva, Molly-Boots and Marmaduke—so do notice that the cat in Heartless also has an “M” name.

Name three of your favorite books. Do you have a favorite author(s) who has inspired your own work?
Oh dear, only three? Let me try.

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. I adore this author, for he represents so many of the things I want to be. His fairy tales for children are the most beautiful allegories, but the reader never feels “preached” to. He simply tells his tales in a lovely, natural voice that includes the allegory so seamlessly that it is inseparable. I have given several literary nods to favorite authors and works of fiction in Heartless . . . so for those of you who have read The Princess and the Goblin, look for my nod to George MacDonald!

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Mr. Dickens, on a good day, is incomparable. On a bad day he puts me to sleep (O! those Pickwick Papers!), but A Tale of Two Cities is sublime. The way he takes such a dark subject as the French Revolution and creates such horrifying characters as Madame Defarge, yet still manages to make his readers laugh along the way . . . it’s pure genius. Dickens tackles the darker subjects of humanity but puts a comedic slant on them so that we are able to recognize the ridiculous. Yet he never trivializes. Oh, to have that gift!

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. Mr. Pratchett is, I believe, this generation’s Dickens, though he takes the opposite approach. Where Dickens writes about dark subjects with a comedic slant, Terry Pratchett writes about the most ridiculous situations and characters but manages—in the midst of side-splitting laughter—to make his readers think. I love all of Pratchett’s work, but Guards! Guards! is my favorite.

There are so many other authors who have inspired and influenced me, but those three are certainly in the top ten, perhaps top five.

Can you share one struggle that entered your life as a result of writing and how God helped you to overcome it?

Probably the greatest struggle I have encountered is that unending pull between what I want to be creatively as a writer, and what I need to be on the business end of the spectrum. Sometimes those two fit hand-in-glove . . . sometimes they don’t mesh so neatly as I should like. But God has given me grace and many lovely people working with me. And I believe He has given me the gift of storytelling and will enable me to use that gift well, no matter the pressures that may arise on the business side of writing.

Likewise, is there a particular joy or some new thing you have learned that has blessed your life as a result of writing?

Every book is a new learning experience, which is both a pain and a joy. Every time I write a book, I feel as though I am relearning how to tell a story. But while this may be stressful sometimes, that is also where the real beauty and joy of writing comes into play. There is always room for growth. There are always new ways to develop my art. There are always new twists to be explored, new characters to discover, new epic risks and high stakes. I hope I will never get comfortable in my work because that would mean I am no longer growing. My hope and dream is that each book I write will be better than the one before it.

You are so right! As writers and human beings we can never stop growing and learning. There is always something we don’t yet know!

Heartless is available now. It is Book One in The Tales of Goldstone Wood series with two more to follow:

Veiled Rose, (working title) Book Two in The Tales of Goldstone Wood
Moonblood, (working title) Book Three in The Tales of Goldstone Wood

To learn more about Anne Elisabeth Stengl, visit her blog. Thanks Annie, for joining us this month on Spotlight!