Here we are with a new #mybookalphabet post: J is for Joan the Wad! . In Cornish folklore, Joan the Wad is the queen of the piskeys (the spelling I settled on for my #FlightandFiretrilogy - it’s also frequently spelled pisky or piskie, and of course pixie). An old English rhyme describes her as a capricious will-o’the-wisp, sometimes teasing human folk and sometimes guiding them to safety: . Jack O’Lantern, Joan the Wad, That tickled the maid and made her mad, Light me home, the weather's bad. . Generally, though, Joan the Wad is seen in Cornwall as a figure of good luck and protection, and Jack O’Lantern is her king or consort. So when I was creating the world of the Cornish piskeys for SWIFT, I decided on “Joan” as a title rather than a personal name for their queen. . It’s also, though I didn’t plan it this way, a small tribute to my mother, a true queen in every way — whose parents emigrated from Redruth in Cornwall to Timmins in northern Ontario a few years before she was born. They named her Joan, and she in turn gave me Joan as my middle name — that’s the J. in my initials. But my mother had never heard of Joan the Wad until she read my book, so I felt happy to have given her back a little lost piece of her Cornish ancestry. . Q: Do you have a favorite folk character or creature in your family background? I’d love to hear about it in comments! . . . #joanthewad #cornishpixie #cornishpixies #cornishpisky #cornishpiskey #spriggan #spriggans #folkloreandfairytales #britishfolklore #fairies #fae #fairytale #faery #faeriesofinstagram #fairybooks #rjandersonwriter #enclaveescape #enclavepublishing #yabooks #IReadYA #yareads #speculativefiction #christianfantasy #flightandflametrilogy #swift #swiftbook https://www.instagram.com/p/CAHGG2Xgu2x/?igshid=113e0jszkl6a8
