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Unlike a lot of folks, I have been a Tammy fan for a comparatively short period of time. While I have owned a book or two of hers for more than a decade, probably, I only read Alanna, the First Adventure in ~2000 or so. When I first disovered that 'running' the first 'non-Hollingworth' conference was what I could do to help, I started thinking of possible keynotes - and I had just finished reading the Circle of Magic books.
CoM, for the uninitiated, tells of four children whose magical abilities had escaped the notice of the normal channels - and whose skills were unusual. They are found by one of the Great Mages, using his own power, each in a different very disturbing situation, and brought together, about age 9 or so. We watch as they struggle to fit in and belong, fail, and struggle in other ways.
Tammy paints their plight brilliantly.
I contacted her - she could not join us. She made it a year later, and has been with us ever since!
The Circle Opens did nothing to dissuade me. The difficulties of shifting from receiving care and training to giving it, of separation, of thinking beyond your bounds when you have relied on others to do it for you, to an extent... all these elements and more were in those books. I missed the camaraderie and teamwork.
Tammy's work to show the strain of growing apart without growing together, in the soon to be published Will of the Empress (forever in my head "The Circle Reforged") does nothing to lessen my awe of her ability to capture these people, whether as children, as teens, as adults, or even as folks suffering from neglect and misunderstanding thoughout their lives.
The excerpt on her website, the bits she has read at conferences, illustrate her mastery - and they drive home for me, again, how much richer the HG/PG community is for having her in it.
CoM, for the uninitiated, tells of four children whose magical abilities had escaped the notice of the normal channels - and whose skills were unusual. They are found by one of the Great Mages, using his own power, each in a different very disturbing situation, and brought together, about age 9 or so. We watch as they struggle to fit in and belong, fail, and struggle in other ways.
Tammy paints their plight brilliantly.
I contacted her - she could not join us. She made it a year later, and has been with us ever since!
The Circle Opens did nothing to dissuade me. The difficulties of shifting from receiving care and training to giving it, of separation, of thinking beyond your bounds when you have relied on others to do it for you, to an extent... all these elements and more were in those books. I missed the camaraderie and teamwork.
Tammy's work to show the strain of growing apart without growing together, in the soon to be published Will of the Empress (forever in my head "The Circle Reforged") does nothing to lessen my awe of her ability to capture these people, whether as children, as teens, as adults, or even as folks suffering from neglect and misunderstanding thoughout their lives.
The excerpt on her website, the bits she has read at conferences, illustrate her mastery - and they drive home for me, again, how much richer the HG/PG community is for having her in it.
