About

I am Kirsty Canillo, a Christchurch-based New Zealand fantasy author. My novels stem from a lifelong love of fantasy with a touch of inspiration from New Age spirituality.

What does Writing Mean to Me?

Writing is a place of passion, love and joy for me. It is creative, meditative, healing and fun. The fantasy genre is by far my favourite and speaks to me the most meaningfully. It is a genre of feeling and parable, where all of the magic of the inner world can find expression. It is a space to explore what lies within: within oneself and within the world. And, it is a space of fulfilment, to begin to create what we yearn for in our brightest dreams or deepest pains.

Much is light and beautiful in this space, but not all. Fantasy is also a space where the hurts inside us and the world seek acknowledgement and healing. Earlier on in my writing history, I was often stumped by this, because I wanted to write stories that were only about good things. I would not write much before horrible things began to enter the story and it would seem to collapse into ruin. When I set out to write my first novel, Meivara’s Light Magic, I decided that I needed to let the bad things happen, to allow the griefs and traumas and heartbreaks, not so that my story could plunge into despair and ruin, but so that these wounds could be healed. It is not always comfortable to dive down into the regions of greatest hurt, where all our worst memories and terrors may lie, but in the healing of any wound it is essential, at the very least, to acknowledge its presence.

After accepting this, my writing flowed far more harmoniously and has since given birth to a second novel, Zian and the Sacred Realms. It is my dearest wish, that many more stories are to follow!

What Inspires Me?

I have had many passions and pursuits throughout my life. As a young girl I was in love with mythology and all its gods, goddesses and magical creatures, and with the ancient cultures that created them, my particular favourite being Ancient Egypt. I’ve always loved drawing and art, and I used to draw magical creatures: unicorns, pegasuses, pegahorns, phoenixes, dragons, griffins, sphinxes (and so on and so forth) being a selection of my childhood favourites. Later when I began writing, I drew some of my characters, but I haven’t continued that practice. Nowadays I draw very casually for fun.

My preferences in books have also followed my love of fantasy and magic, and my greatest fantasy inspiration has come from the works of Tolkien. The Silmarillion is my favourite work of his, and I have also loved reading the histories of his works as well. I have a love of fairytale realms, where many things are quainter and purer than the modern world appears, and so Tolkien’s elves have always been my favourite race. As a girl, love of these sorts of things inspired me to take up the flute (my other choice was the harp, but I don’t think my parents would have ever agreed to that), and as an adult I took up singing for the joy of it. Fittingly, my teacher has told me (in jest) that I sing like Snow White.

Sports have also been a large part of my life. Through primary school I played competitive tennis, then in high school and beyond I learned Tae Kwon Do, initially for the extremely deep reason that I thought it looked cool, plus many of the characters in the games and stories I liked knew how to fight. When I lived in Japan, I followed the martial art trend and took up Kyudo, Japanese archery. More recently I have joined a club that teaches pole, hoop and aerial silks, all of which also look cool. In addition to that, I’ve never considered myself much of a dancer, so exercises in using my body in a way that is graceful rather than warlike have been exciting new experiences!

Through high school I cherished a love of astronomy, a passion I have recently rekindled and developed with a bit of telescope stargazing. My love of astronomy stems in large part from a love of nature and this spectacular universe we live in in general. There is so much beauty in our dear planet, its cycles and its histories, and as for the cosmos we inhabit, I could fill pages with my admiration and awe (but I won’t just here; see my nature poetry for a sample of my sentiments about our beautiful world!)

At university it was a love of language I pursued, and I began to study linguistics and Japanese. (Yes, this stemmed from a love of Japanese anime and games in high school, which have also inspired me creatively). An in-depth knowledge of linguistics has aided me in another fantasy-world tool: language creation, though created languages are yet to appear in my published works.

A further source of inspiration, not just in writing but in life in general, entered my life when I began to explore New Age spirituality in my early twenties. This approach to life resonated well with me and has contributed a great deal to my personal growth, healing, and self-understanding, and it helped me along the way to fulfil dreams like becoming an author. Spirituality remains an important part of my life.

My experiences with family relationships and interpersonal relationships have also inspired me (for better and worse), and of course, my family and friends’ support has contributed hugely to my being able to become an author.

Lastly, much of my inspiration comes from what lies within me and honest expression of myself, which makes the process of creating and sharing my stories one of love, joy and growth.

The Journey to Fulfilling my Dream

The road to fulfilling my dream to become an author has been a long, and not particularly straight, one. I have always engaged in flights of fantasy, for as long as I can remember, but the dream to actually become an author was seeded in primary school. This was when I wrote my first book, in the fifteen-minute ‘writing time’ slots during class. I was around ten years old and I no longer have the book, but I remember it involving a unicorn, pegasus, dragon and phoenix saving the world.

In my second year of high school the dream was actively taken up again and I began writing quite an extensive (and hilariously bad!) fantasy novel that my friends read. I never finished this story but a number of its characters stayed with me and eventually took form again in Meivara’s Light Magic. Later in high school, I began fragments of other works, and again several of these characters took root and found their way into my first two novels.

High school was a time of both success and enjoyment, but also emotional difficulty. Going into university I chose courses of study that reflected my interests, linguistics and Japanese being my main subjects, but I was less certain than ever about what I wanted for my life. I still managed to complete a draft of a full story, but I didn’t take it any further. As before, several of the characters re-emerged in my published works.

After I finished at university, I went to teach English for a while in Japan. Writing was still important for me but it was becoming ever more side-lined. I was finding the questions of what I wanted to do with myself more confronting and confusing than ever. I finished one further draft story, but never continued with it.

My life changed drastically at this time in Japan when I met the man who was to become my beloved husband. He was originally from the Philippines, but we both decided to live in New Zealand, and there we raised our first child, our son. While I was pregnant and during the first year of my son’s life, I completed an honours degree in linguistics, while also writing in my spare time. After that, I decided to stay at home to raise my son, but also to create enough space for myself to give my stories the time and effort they needed. I had my husband and family’s full support and help in giving me enough ‘me time’ to do both of these things, for which I am endlessly grateful. Three years and three months (not that I was counting) after beginning work on Meivara’s Light Magic, I published my first novel. Eight months later, Zian and the Sacred Realms followed.

Acknowledgements

Thank you always to my dear friends who have helped me with art and editing, and to my family and friends for their constant support.