As I wrote and edited the stories in this book, at first it seemed that they had very little in common with each other. They were written at different times and for different reasons, over the course of several years.
In several of them you will find a strong flavor of Celtic mythology. For Bran the Blessed, in particular, I acknowledge a deep debt to several old Welsh and Irish legends. I have taken the liberty of adapting and blending the various stories considerably, but the original seeds are still clear, I think. The Ballad of Sarah de Bretagne is also set in Wales and Ireland, and partly in northwestern France. It has a germ of historical reality, namely the settling of Brittany (Bretagne) by Celtic peoples during the early Middle Ages, written in a style somewhat like the chanted tales of that period, when most stories were memorized by wandering bards rather than being written down.
In other stories, such as Singing Wind, there are echoes of Native American folk tales of the South, although, again, greatly modified from the original.
Of the other tales I have little to say, since hopefully they speak for themselves. The various idea-germs and influences that led to them are probably of more interest to me than they are to anyone else. The Keeper of Songs came first from a dream I had. Jacob Have I Loved came originally from the circumstances of two brothers I once knew in high school. The Way of Zoë came to me as an image of the Tree. And finally, The Land of Fear came in the beginning from eating fried alligator at the Four States Fair in Texarkana, Arkansas. Story-seeds often grow in the strangest ways once they sprout.
As I read, I came to realize that all these tales are love stories. Whether it be love of a brother for a sister, a father for a son, a man for a woman, or a girl for her people or her God, they all contain the common theme of love. Equally, they are all tales of grace, in which the providence of God is clearly displayed. Thus the subtitle, Seven Tales of Love and Grace.
The main title, Beneath a Star-Blue Sky, was chosen because the majority of these tales were first told in some form as bedtime stories or campfire tales in the summer, and only much later were they set down on paper. Storytelling is a fluid art, in which the response of the listener has much to do with the final form of the tale. For that reason, there are a number of people I would like to thank for helping me with this book:
Nathan, Elisabeth, Mathew, Cody, Zach, and Brandon, for listening to these tales and contributing some of their own ideas to them, and for making it all worthwhile in the first place. I can truthfully say that this book would never have been written without them.
Sarah, for leading me to love French ballads and Celtic mythology. To know her was to love her, and wherever she may be I wish her well.
And, as always and above all, thanks are due to God for making it all possible. No story is worth writing in which He is not the center. Blessed be He.