Norman C Bowles

Start with the first article below, then follow the five posts in this reading order.

If you’re a fantasy fan, whether in books or on screen, you have encountered marvelous feats of magic. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, George Lucas’s Star Wars, C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, and thousands of other motion picture and literary creations present us with a world where commands, spells, or dark powers levitate, transform, or destroy people and things in the natural world.

Many books tell you about magic. Few explain how it actually works. If you want to understand it — not just watch it happen — The Earth Keeper’s Quest lays out the fundamentals in the middle of an entertaining history of Santa’s beginning.

What would a story about Santa be without surprises for the reader? The Earth Keeper’s Quest contains a couple dozen of them for readers who enjoy solving puzzles.

Did you answer with a number less than a hundred? Of course you did. We're taught from an early age to start counting from the year we were born. That's a legitimate way to do it. It's also boring, and it hides something extraordinary about the body you're sitting in right now.

Magic is what makes Harry Potter, Hogwarts, Voldemort, and Professor Dumbledore so entertaining. It's the Force that powers the Jedi Knights and Darth Vader, and without it Star Wars would be just another space adventure. It's Gandalf with his staff and Frodo with the ring that rules them all, defeating Sauron across the long miles of Middle-earth. And it's what gives every fairy tale its pulse — Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast would be ordinary stories without it.

Like Calvin and Hobbes or Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, our best friends have personalities that carry them through time. Cindr and Indi wouldln't be much different if they were here today with us. . . and maybe they are!