Welcome
From the author
On this site, and the fantasy world it is based on, there will be no dragons, elves, or trolls. No wizards or warlocks. The fantasy world in my stories takes place in far more familiar surroundings. It is a fantasy world all of us have seen; in our gardens, basements, backyards and in the park down the street. Perhaps an open meadow, stretching out from the road; the one you hardly notice as you stare out at the scenery flying past you on those weekend drives to the country.
Insects fascinate me. They always have. I was one of those kids who ran around the neighborhood with a butterfly net made from a broomstick, a clothes hanger and a piece of tattered cheesecloth. I remember convincing my mother to let me hang one of her white sheets in the backyard, my dad's lantern shining on it to attract night-flying insects. I pinned my bug collection on cardboard, identified and labeled each one. (I still feel guilty about that)
These curious insects are like aliens. Cold and strange they crawl, hop, wiggle, and fly through their world just as they have for millions of years; long before we were around to study their behavior, analyze their movements or design ways to control those we consider uninvited pests. They are among the oldest creatures on earth. They have faced mass extinctions, major climatic shifts, hopelessly stuck near the bottom of the food chain; ultimate survivors, they have been called. Familiar as they are and as often as we see them everyday, they still seem a world apart. Certainly, there seems little doubt we will ever understand the thoughts they may have bouncing about behind the multi-mirrored lenses of their empty eyes.
But what if we could? What if we could read their minds; get into their heads and know exactly what they were thinking?
I allowed my imagination to take me in that direction when I created the world of Meadowfield and all of its bug-fellow characters. I sought to get into their heads. I rallied my knowledge. I drew upon my childhood, my background as a zoology student in college, a high school science teacher, a parent, and finally a writer. There would be no Jiminy Crickets in Meadowfield and no fiddle playing grasshoppers either. These bug-fellow personalities would reflect their natural behavior rather than simply imitate our own. Cockroach would eat what a cockroach normally eats. The honey bee, Worker 1200, would demonstrate the patterns of behavior typical of any worker bee. Scarab the Dung would roll her balls of dung just like all the members of her species do.
But writing an entertaining story was not my only goal. I wanted to ignite the elusive spark of scientific curiosity within my young reader and thus instill the appreciation for all living things - no matter how small and insignificant they may seem to be within our world. After all, I ask you, what else can be expected from a biology teacher turned writer?
Bradford P Ward
From the author
On this site, and the fantasy world it is based on, there will be no dragons, elves, or trolls. No wizards or warlocks. The fantasy world in my stories takes place in far more familiar surroundings. It is a fantasy world all of us have seen; in our gardens, basements, backyards and in the park down the street. Perhaps an open meadow, stretching out from the road; the one you hardly notice as you stare out at the scenery flying past you on those weekend drives to the country.
Insects fascinate me. They always have. I was one of those kids who ran around the neighborhood with a butterfly net made from a broomstick, a clothes hanger and a piece of tattered cheesecloth. I remember convincing my mother to let me hang one of her white sheets in the backyard, my dad's lantern shining on it to attract night-flying insects. I pinned my bug collection on cardboard, identified and labeled each one. (I still feel guilty about that)
These curious insects are like aliens. Cold and strange they crawl, hop, wiggle, and fly through their world just as they have for millions of years; long before we were around to study their behavior, analyze their movements or design ways to control those we consider uninvited pests. They are among the oldest creatures on earth. They have faced mass extinctions, major climatic shifts, hopelessly stuck near the bottom of the food chain; ultimate survivors, they have been called. Familiar as they are and as often as we see them everyday, they still seem a world apart. Certainly, there seems little doubt we will ever understand the thoughts they may have bouncing about behind the multi-mirrored lenses of their empty eyes.
But what if we could? What if we could read their minds; get into their heads and know exactly what they were thinking?
I allowed my imagination to take me in that direction when I created the world of Meadowfield and all of its bug-fellow characters. I sought to get into their heads. I rallied my knowledge. I drew upon my childhood, my background as a zoology student in college, a high school science teacher, a parent, and finally a writer. There would be no Jiminy Crickets in Meadowfield and no fiddle playing grasshoppers either. These bug-fellow personalities would reflect their natural behavior rather than simply imitate our own. Cockroach would eat what a cockroach normally eats. The honey bee, Worker 1200, would demonstrate the patterns of behavior typical of any worker bee. Scarab the Dung would roll her balls of dung just like all the members of her species do.
But writing an entertaining story was not my only goal. I wanted to ignite the elusive spark of scientific curiosity within my young reader and thus instill the appreciation for all living things - no matter how small and insignificant they may seem to be within our world. After all, I ask you, what else can be expected from a biology teacher turned writer?
Bradford P Ward
