Artist: Arthur Rackham As those close to me know. I am a collector of tales. Not just physical books—although I do have an ever-growing personal library—but the stories themselves. As a child I was a voracious devourer of text. I read constantly! Forbidden to bring books to the table during meals, I sneakily read cereal …
I'm excited to share the cover of my debut fantasy novel, Dragon's Truth-- due out from Vinspire Publishing on March 30, 2019. To celebrate the reveal, I'm running a #followblitz giveaway. Here's how it works: Follow my blog Tale Lady here at leannepankuch.com AND follow me on one additional form of social media: Twitter, Instagram, or …
I’ve always loved maps. Before Google and Mapquest and TomTom and Garmin, physical maps were a part of everyday life. They were more than just roll-up monstrosities hanging on classroom walls, antiques in museums, and decorative office or restaurant art. Back in the day, my ten-year-old self would unfold the paper travel map or …
I have a confession to make. I don’t like when pets have people names. I mean, some of them kind of work, like Max or Butch or Millie. But some just seem ridiculous, like Zach, Zoey, Chloe, or Edward. Feel free to disagree with me. In fact, go ahead and make fun of me—here’s my …
In honor of my Irish heritage, I keep a few long-standing St. Patrick’s Day traditions alive in our house: corned beef and cabbage, a pint or two of Guinness, Chieftains music and required viewing of Darby O’Gill and the Little People – a classic piece of Disney cinema based on the books of books of …
Having grown up reading high fantasy novels, I came to have a deep love of author-drawn maps, glossaries of elvish terms, and character lists that included the names of dragons, queens, princes, wizards and the boy who worked in the castle kitchens and didn’t know he was a hero in the making. But, there was one familiar …
So, this post was begun directly after the SCBWINY 2016 conference that I was privileged to attend February 11-14. It’s impossible NOT to get writing ideas when you are at this caliber of conference. At least a hundred possible blog posts popped into my head during the magical hours of creative energy that I experienced. …
There is a twilight girl who has been visiting me lately. She makes her appearance in those moments between waking and dreaming, or when the rhythms of life allow the mind to wander. She is but a child—eight or nine years of age—with hair of a strange white gold that is, somehow, also red. She …
Yesterday, Saturday, in the middle of completing a complicated and extensive electronic travel expense report for my “day job,” I got an IDEA. A blessed writing idea. Something that I saw online, on my phone, or thought of as I waited for receipt images to upload, or heard outside my window caused that elusive lightbulb …
To help keep me from turning into "Scrooge" or, as my family would say "Figgy Morgoth, the Christmas dragon"--I'm re-posting last year's holiday offering. Enjoy! (FYI--Figgy is derived from figgy pudding, Morgoth was the principal agent of evil in J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion--hence, Figgy Morgoth, the Christmas dragon who rears her/his ugly head whenever the holiday …
Leanne Pankuch 