Some of the stories were passed on to another friend who then, in turn, convinced de Lint to send some of them out to one of the small press magazines. In the `70's he started working with a friend of his, writing stories for this man to illustrate. Being as there wasn't much call for Celtic musicians, he spent years working in record stores, writing only for his own enjoyment. He never considered actually writing for a living, but instead wanted to be a musician. As a result of moving so often, he read voraciously and widely, everything from the old myths & legends, to historical facts, the old classics, & the classical horror genre such as H.P. His family traveled a lot when he was a child because of his father's job as a surveyor. He currently lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife MaryAnn, who also happens to be his agent & a fellow musician to boot.

Certain mythological types, notably the Wild Girl, Hunter, and Trickster, recur often throughout his books.Įverything I know about Magick I learned from Charles de LintĬharles de Lint was born in the town of Bussum in the Netherlands on December 22, 1951, and his family immigrated to Canada while he was an infant. Many of these supernatural elements seem like archetypes to me, but you should ask a psychologist. Some of his books also contain completely invented mythical elements. He draws from a wide variety of mythological sources, most frequently Native American and Irish. His magic is most often subtle and understated the supernatural is a faint trace on the borders of the mundane world, and is rarely blatant. Having established a character and his place in the world, De Lint pulls the rug out from under his world view, and invites us to watch him react.

In service of this, he places a high premium on characterization. He studies the reactions of ordinary people to the living myth. The chief theme is the existence of an ancient, mystical significance behind the world we see, which has only been obscured, not destroyed, by the passage of time. De Lint's work is all (or nearly all) urban fantasy, or, to use his own term, mythic fiction.

Wolf moon charles de lint