(At 59 pages … !)
I saw Mistress of the Sun from the beginning as a fable, and I’m more and more inclined to give way to my urge to create something of a mythic atmosphere in my work, so I was struck by this quote from Alice Hoffman:
“I like to write about real people in mythic ways because I see them that way. The tradition of literature is magic, whether it’s fairy tales or Kafka, Shakespeare or the Brontes, and the whole idea of realism is a new and not-so-interesting idea.”
-Alice Hoffman
That said, it has to feel real both to me and the reader. That’s the challenge.