People have been asking me to write a blog post with more details about
the four courts of the Fae for the Fae World series, so here it is. Basically "Fae" includes any mythical/magical creature, from trolls, kelpi and goblins to mermaids, sprites, succubi, vampires and anything else, but they
each belong to different "courts" which are named after the different
seasons.
Winter is generally associated with cold, dark creatures, or dark Fae,
while summer is generally warm and light. Of course, just because a creature
belongs to one court or another does not necessarily make them "good"
or "evil," but, as with all creatures, there are always those who
don't fit in or who show signs of being both light and dark.
In this world, there are more Fae than just the ones from the Winter Court and Summer Court though. In this Fae world, there are also Fae of the Autumn Court and the Spring Court, and these Fae should also have traits that would be associated with those seasons. For example, Spring would be associated with new life, love, fertility, growth and more.
You can do some research of your own on how other authors have portrayed fairies and Fae creatures of the different courts (but, as always, the story must be your own). Laurel K. Hamilton has some books with fairies from both Seelie and Unseelie Courts in her Meredith Gentry series of novels. Jim Butcher's stories deal with fairies from the Winter and Summer courts in his Dresden Files series of novels. None of these are exactly what the Fae World stories are supposed to be about. I don't want you to take either author's ideas or characters, but I do want you to let the wide variety of stories from all of the many different fairy worlds created by a vast array of different authors to help inspire you to be creative.
Research mythology from different cultures. There are numerous myths and legends to help you with ideas. But most of all, don't limit yourself. While I still expect you to stick to the rules given out in the post about submitting to the Fae World anthologies, there is a whole spider web of ideas, one leading to another and to another, that you can use. Have an idea for a magical creature that there is no mythology about and no previous stories make mention of? By all means, write about it. Bring it into being within your story.
Together, we are creating a world, a magical, mythical world, and our stories are going to show this world to the readers and bring it to life within their minds in a way that ensures they won't want to leave.
