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Newford series

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1. Dreams Underfoot (1993)

Dreams Underfoot- The Newford Collection (Newford Book 1)

Dreams Underfoot (Newford Book 1) - first edition, 1994—oil painting cover by Terri Windling

Newford series is written by Charles de Lint. 

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / Otherworldly Fantasy / Mythic Fiction / Adul/Young Adult-mix

  • ``mythistories, the ``odd little stories that lie just under the skin of any large city.
  • de Lint prefers the term “mythic fiction” to describe his writing, in which supernatural worlds overlap with contemporary society.

Brief Series Description or Overview[]

✥ A series of Urban Fantasy/mythic Fiction books set in the fictional North American city, Newford – the books include city life (urban Fantasy) and rural life (Mythic Fiction) throughout the series. The series was influenced by Folklore and Myth… ~ Goodreads

✥ The central idea of all de Lint’s books is that there exists, somewhere between the corner of our eye and just to the left of reality, an Otherworld peopled with all manner of fairy-tale creatures, from goblins and fairies to darker things: soul-stealers and giant spiders and evil spirits. A great deal of his early work draws on the mythologies of the British Isles and Ireland, but the last decade or so he’s turned more and more to the mythologies of Native America for inspiration. ~ Dustin M. Wax

Books in Series[]

  1. Dreams Underfoot (1993, 416 pages) — story collection (19 stories)
  2. The Dreaming Place (1990—134 pages)
  3. From a Whisper to a Scream (1992—304 pages)
  4. I'll Be Watching You (1992—352 pages)
  5. Memory and Dream (1994—400 pages)
  6. The Ivory and the Horn (1995—338 pages)
  7. Trader (1997) (352 pages)
  8. Someplace to Be Flying (1998) (384 pages)
  9. Moonlight and Vines (1999) (384 pages) ~ story collection
  10. Forests of the Heart (2000) (400 pages)
  11. The Onion Girl (2001) (512 pages)
  12. Tapping the Dream Tree (2002) (541 pages)
  13. Spirits in the Wires (2003) (448 pages)
  14. Medicine Road (2004) (206 pages)
  15. The Blue Girl (2004) (368 pages)
  16. Widdershins (2006) (560 pages)
  17. Make a Joyful Noise (2006) (?)
  18. The Hour Before Dawn (2005) (114 pages) ~ story collection (3 stories)
  19. Old Man Crow (2007) (short story, 32 pages)
  20. Little (Grrl) Lost (2007) (271 pages)
  21. Promises to Keep (2007) (short novel, 173 pages)
  22. Dingo (2008) (short novel, 213 pages)
  23. Muse and Reverie (2009) (352 pages) ~ story collection

~ More details ber book: Newford Series - Charles de Lint's Newford Wiki

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

  • A Circle of Cats (2003) (48 pages) ~ Picture book, Illustrations by Charles Vess
  • "Sweet Forget-Me-Not" in Faerie Tales (2004) ~ Anthology, ed: Martin H. Greenberg

Freebies: 

Themes[]

  • How stories tie the world together and make the world.
  • Native American and Irish folklore & mythology
  • Importance of human community and relationships, of kindness and caring and responsibility, of openness to finding "the world a far more strange and wondrous place than its mundaneness allowed it could be."

World Building[]

Settings[]

Newford — Fictional North American city

PLACES:

  • Mireya — Magical city in Promises to Keep
  • Otherworld — like Faerie
  • Tombs: dark part of Newford
  • la época del mito — parallel dreamtime reality (bk-10)
  • Kellygnow: artist's retreat (bk-10)

Supernatural Elements[]

  • Beings: Faeries, magic users, mermaids, skookins, Bigfoot, goblin, dryads (female tree spirits), manitou (Otherworld demon), Littles, elves, loa, demon, "animal people", gemmins, gnomes, troll, crow girls, Coyote, god-like spirits, booger, pixies, nixies, pookahs, hobgoblins, vampire (#9), curandera (female shaman), shape-shifter, hob, red dog spirit, jackalope, rattlesnake woman, Native American Earth spirits, personification of Hope, Lady of the Lake, dancing half goat-half dog, The Green Man, avatar (Internet’s spirit incarnated in a woman’s body), unicorn woman,
  • Items: living totems, living tarots, mystic charmsmystic charms, mask of the mythic Summer King (ancient Celtic artifact),

Glossary:

  • Manitou: Otherworld demon that can force a person's mind and soul into the bodies of beasts
  • War of the Caenid against the Corboe: Bird against Dog
  • Gentry: displaced Irish spirits of the land who accompanied the earliest Irish immigrants to North America, only to find the New World already occupied by spirits of its own.
  • The People: animal-people who have been around since the creation of the world, and perhaps before: Raven, Jack Daw, the Crow Girls, Cody (Coyote), Margaret (Magpie), as well as families of dogs, foxes, and wolves

✥ Supernatural Elements: Dreams Underfoot #1: (Collection of stories) magic birds, stone drums, ghosts in various guises, animated bicycles, Bigfoot, gypsy magic, psychic vampires, spirits of place, Frankenstein's monster, a conjuror and a Tree of Tales, a catalyst for bad luck, dreams, orphans, angels, night people, bridges and possibilities, music and mermaids, spirits of the city

World Description[]

✥ Otherworld: “Because this is a land of the spirit—of the mind… it’s difficult to trust one’s perceptions here, particularly when viewing it through the coarse senses of the body. Time travels in paths, like a gust of wind. On one path, it travels at the same speed as it does in the world we have so recently quit. Along another, one minute can be week. Or a week can be a day.”

“Like Faerie,” Ash said, having read about mortals straying for a night into Faerie, only to find that seven years had passed when they returned.

“This is that same Faerie. It’s the otherworld where the spirits live. You can call them manitou or elves or loa – doesn’t much matter. But it’s always the same place ” ~ Page 48: The Dreaming Place, Source: The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint | Celtic Myth Podshow News

✥ Creation Myth: There is a myth that is as old as time. The world was created by Raven, the dark bird of mystery, as he stirred magic in an old black pot. The pot created more than the world: it created the Animal People, spirits as old as time itself. They are the First People and they roamed the land, able to change forms. Out of the pot came the Blue Jay, the Wolf, and The Crow. There also came the Coyote, the Trickster. Always up to no good, he is the outcast of the First People. Most of his mischief is harmless, little tricks to amuse. But sometimes, he causes more trouble; enough trouble to slip through to our world. ~ Someplace To Be Flying | The Book Pedler

Protagonists[]

✥ Jilly Coppercorn, "the heart and soul of Newford” according to her creator, has been working hard at keeping her life together and putting a past that included physical and sexual abuse, drugs, and prostitution behind her. De Lint weaves episodes from Jilly’s past throughout the narrative. ~ ?

✥ Crow Girls: Maida and Zia are two punky mischievous tomboys who live in a tree, like eating sugar, and happen to be Crow spirits who helped to create the world. ~ Books Without Any Pictures

Sidekick[]

  • Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:

Characters Chart[]

Characters What About
Jilly Coppercorn Former runaway taken in by Angel, now an artist; one of the linchpins of Newford's stories; has friends in many circles, among humans, Fairies, and "cousins"
Geordie Riddell Professional fiddler Christy's brother; falls for Sam Rey but gets caught in a timeskip
Samanta Rey blonde girl Geordie falls for but gets caught in a timeskip
Wendy St. James Poet good friend of Jilly's
Sophie Etoile artist good friend of Jilly's
'Angel', Angelina Marceau helps runaways helps get runaways off streets and into school, homes, and rehab with a sponsorship program
Christy Riddell author writes "mythistories";
Goon goblin wears garish clothing and works for Professor Dapple as his butler
Professor Bramley Dapple art history professor offers info and advice
Annie Mackle Pregnant homeless girl Jilly takes in, sponsors
Katrina Ludvigsen mermaid trades her voice for legs in order to get close to Matt
Matt Casey Xenophobic musician reputation for being hard to like, falls for Katrina
Zoe Brill All night radio dj runs afoul of Gordon Wolfe
Meran Kelledy flutist; Dryad, Cerin's wife; Oak King's Daughter;
Lou Fucceri police officer helps street kids; rescued Jilly;
LaDonna Da Costa Young Latino woman goes on Bigfoot hunt;
Lorio Munn guitar, lyrics No Nuns Here punk band
Terry Dixon bass guitar No Nuns Here punk band
Cerin Kelledy harper, bard saves Lesli; Meran's husband;
Jeck Crow man, crow Sophie falls for; visits in Mabon
Amy Scallan Marrowbones band
Crow Girls
Joe Crazy Dog
Raylene Carter Jilly's sister blames Jilly for their brother's abuse
Saskia Madding Christy's girlfriend computer genrated
Five Coyotes Singing Studio artist group Sophie Etoile, Jilly Coppercorn, Isabelle Copely...
Meg Mullaly photographer did a piece for the group show

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.

Charles de Lint

Charles de Lint

Bluegirl-artist Cliff Nielsen

The Blue Girl (Newford #15) - artist Cliff Nielsen

Author[]

Charles de Lint

  • Website: Charles de Lint
  • Genres: Early Urban Fantasy, Fantasy
  • Pen Name: Samuel M. Key (Horror)

Bio: Charles de Lint was born in 1951 in the Netherlands. His parents moved him to Canada when he was still very young, and they moved around quite a lot until they finally setted in the province of Quebec when de Lint was 12. He now lives in the capital city of Canada: Ottawa, Ontario. De Lint met MaryAnn Harris in the late 1970s when she began taking mandolin lessons from him. They were married in 1980 and have been together ever since. Harris has been de Lint's first reader, business manager, cover artist, and collaborator in music. Not only has de Lint won a World Fantasy Award and an Aurora Award (the Canadian literary award for SF and fantasy), but he also has the singular honor of having not one, but eight books voted into the Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. ~ Abour.com

  • De Lint is at his best when his sense of wonder at the possibilities of imagination is rooted in an unsentimental view of harsh human realities. Publisher's Weekly

Cover Artist[]

Artists: 

✥ List of Newford artists - Charles de Lint's Newford Wiki

Cover Art Gallery: Charles de Lint: Cover Gallery - Author's site

Other cover artists: "The first edition paperback of the first book actually has an oil painting by Terri Windling on the cover of a celtic looking woman with deer horns, a flute, and an oak leaf tattoo over her eye. John Jude Palencar has been doing the reprint cover art as these anthologies are re-released." - per goodreads reader

Publishing Information[]

Publisher: Tor Books, Atheneum Books

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Dreams Underfoot (1993): (Collection of Stories) Welcome to the music clubs, the waterfront, the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song. ~ Dreams Underfoot — Contents: Dreams Underfoot - Newford Wiki NOTE: this is not really a short story collection as much as a group of individual tales all set in Newford and involving many of the same characters (and often building on events that occurred in previous stories). ~ GR Reader — TOC: Table of Contents — Description

✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—The Dreaming Place (1990): A young woman locked in rage yet seeking magic, Ash is drawn into a wondrous Otherworld of totems and dryads, living tarots and mystic charms. At the same time, Ash's cousin Nina is stalked by an Otherworld demon-a manitou who can force her mind and soul into the bodies of beasts. Ash must find the strength to overcome her own anger, learn the full power of magic, and save Nina before she becomes the manitou's weapon, turning the faerie realm into an arctic wasteland. De Lint fans will relish this urban and otherworldly fantasy, partially set in the author's trademark Newford. "One of the most original fantasy writers currently working." ~ Goodreads | The Dreaming Place (Newford, #2)

✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—From a Whisper to a Scream (1992): In the early 1990s, Charles de Lint wrote and published three dark fantasy novels under the pen name "Samuel M. Key”. Now, Orb presents them for the first time under de Lint’s own name. Years after the death of a notorious child murderer, children have begun to die again...and a crime photographer begins to suspect he has the one true clue that connects the horrific events. ~ From a Whisper to a Scream (Newford, #3)

✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—I'll Be Watching You (1992): Rachael Sorenson feared she would never escape her ex-husband's abuse. Then a passing stranger came to her rescue—a stranger who had watched her from afar. was a photographer, and Rachael was his perfect subject. He lived only to make her happy—and eliminate those who didn't. Now he wants more than her beauty. She owes him her life—and he means to collect. In the early 1990s, Charles de Lint wrote and published three dark fantasy novels under the pen name "Samuel M. Key." Now, beginning with Angel of Darkness and From a Whisper to a Scream and concluding with I'll Be Watching You, Orb presents them for the first time under de Lint's own name. ~ Goodreads | I'll Be Watching You (Newford, #4)

✤ BOOK 5 BLURB—Memory and Dream (1994): Isabelle Copley's visionary art frees ancient spirits. As the young student of the cruel, brilliant artist Vincent Rushkin, she discovered she could paint images so vividly real they brought her wildest fantasies to life. But when the forces she unleashed brought tragedy to those she loved, she turned her back on her talent -- and on her dreams. Now, twenty years later, Isabelle must come to terms with the shattering memories she has long denied, and unlock the slumbering power of her brush. And, in a dark reckoning with her old master, she must find the courage to live out her dreams and bring the magic back to life. ~ Goodreads | Memory and Dream (Newford, #5)

✤ BOOK 6 BLURB—The Ivory and the Horn (1995): In the city of Newford, when the stars and the vibes are right, you can touch magic. Mermaids sing in the murky harbor, desert spirits crowd the night, and dreams are more real than waking. Charles de Lint began his chronicles of the extraordinary city of Newford in Memory & Dream and the short-story collection Dreams Underfoot. In The Ivory and the Horn, this uncommonly gifted craftsman weaves a new tapestry of stark realism and fond hope, mean streets and boulevards of dreams, where you will rediscover the power of love and longing, of wishes and desires, and of the magic that hovers at the edge of everyday life. ~ Goodreads | The Ivory and the Horn (Newford, #6)

✤ BOOK 7 BLURB—Trader (1997): A novel of loss, identity, and, in the strangest of places, hope. Leonard Trader is a luthier, a maker of guitars. Johnny Devlin is chronically unemployed. Leonard is solitary, quiet, responsible. Johnny is a lady-killer, a drunk, a charming loser. When they inexplicably wake up in each other's bodies, Johnny gleefully moves into Leonard's comfortable and stable existence, leaving Leonard to pick up the pieces of a life he had no part in breaking. Penniless, friendless, homeless, Leonard begins a journey that will take him beyond the streets of the city to an otherworld of dreams and spirits, where he must confront both the unscrupulous Johnny Devlin and his own deepest fears. ~ GR | Trader (Newford, #7)

✤ BOOK 8 BLURB—Someplace to Be Flying (1998): They say that Raven created our world to have someplace to be flying.

Lily is a photojournalist in search of the "animal people" who supposedly haunt the city's darkest slums. Hank is a slumdweller who knows the bad streets all too well. One night, in a brutal incident, their two lives collide—uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play in the secret drama of the city's oldest inhabitants. For the animal people walk among us. Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they claim the city for their own. Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war. And in this battle for the city's soul, nothing is quite as it appears. ~ GR | Someplace to Be Flying (Newford, #8)

✤ BOOK 9 BLURB—Moonlight and Vines (1999): (Collection of Stories) Familiar to Charles de Lint's ever-growing audience as the setting of the novels Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and many others, Newford is the quintessential North American city, tough and streetwise on the surface and rich with hidden magic for those who can see. In the World Fantasy Award-winning Moonlight and Vines, de Lint returns to this extraordinary city for another volume of stories set there, featuring the intertwined lives of many characters from the novels. Here is enchantment under a streetlamp: the landscape of our lives as only Charles de Lint can show it. ~ Goodreads | Moonlight and Vines (Newford, #9)

✤ BOOK 10 BLURB—Forests of the Heart (2000): In the old century, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed...only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, called manitou and other such names by the Native tribes. Now generations have passed, and the Irish have made homes in the new land, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the city shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselves—appearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black. Bettina can see the Gentry, and knows them for what they are. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised by her grandmother to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in Kellygnow, a massive old house run as an arts colony on the outskirts of Newford, a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outside her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of them—until the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand. Ellie, and independent young sculptor, is another with magic in her blood, bus she refuses to believe it, even though she, too, sees the dark men. A strange old woman has summoned Ellie to Kellygnow to create a mask for her based on an ancient Celtic artifact. It is the mask of the mythic Summer King—another thing that Ellie does not believe in. Yet lack of belief won't dim the power of the mask, or its dreadful intent. Once again Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets. ~ Goodreads | Forests of the Heart (Newford, #10)

✤ BOOK 11 BLURB—The Onion Girl (2001): In novel after novel, and story after story, Charles de Lint has brought an entire imaginary North American city to vivid life. Newford: where magic lights dark streets; where myths walk clothed in modern shapes; where a broad cast of extraordinary and affecting people work to keep the whole world turning. At the center of all the entwined lives in Newford stands a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, with her tangled hair, her paint-splattered jeans, a smile perpetually on her lips--Jilly, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in the city's shadows. Now, at last, de Lint tells Jilly's own story...for behind the painter's fey charm lies a dark secret and a past she's labored to forget. And that past is coming to claim her now. "I'm the onion girl," Jilly Coppercorn says. "Pull back the layers of my life, and you won't find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl." She's very, very good at running. But life has just forced Jilly to stop. ~ Goodreads | The Onion Girl (Newford, #11)

✤ BOOK 12 BLURB—Tapping the Dream Tree (2002): The city of Newford could be any contemporary North American city...except that magic lurks in its music, in its art, in the shadows of its grittiest streets, where mythic beings walk disguised. And its people are like you and me, each looking for a bit of magic to shape their lives and transform their fate. Here are a bluesman hiding from the devil; a Buffalo Man at the edge of death; a murderous ghost looking for revenge; a wolf man on his first blind date; and many more. We're reunited with Jilly, Geordie, Sophie, the Crow Girls, and other characters whose lives have become part of the great Newford myth. And beyond Newford's streets, de Lint takes us to the pastoral hills north of the city, where magic and music have a flavor different but powerful still. ~ Goodreads | Tapping the Dream Tree (Newford, #12)

✤ BOOK 13 BLURB—Spirits in the Wires (2003): At a popular Newford online research and library Web site called the Wordwood, a mysterious crash occurs. Everyone visiting the site at the moment of the crash vanishes from where they were sitting in front of their computers. Christy Ridding's girldfriend Saskia disappears right before his eyes, along with countless others. To rescue their missing friends, Christy and his companions must journey into Newford's otherworld, where the Wordwood, it transpires, has a physical presence of its own… ~ Goodreads | Spirits in the Wires (Newford, #13)

✤ BOOK 14 BLURB—Medicine Road (2004): Medicine Road will be the first in a series of linked novels by Charles de Lint, profusely illustrated by Charles Vess. Each of the projected three volumes will feature various combinations of the seven red-haired Dillard sisters (from Seven Wild Sisters) as well as new characters introduced as the stories progress. The first book will be set in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson, Arizona, with excursions north. ~ Goodreads | Medicine Road (Newford, #14)

✤ BOOK 15 BLURB—The Blue Girl (2004): Seventeen-year-old Imogene's tough, rebellious nature has caused her more harm than good—so when her family moves to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself. She won't lose her punk/thrift-shop look, but she'll try to avoid the gangs, work a little harder at school, and maybe even stay out of trouble for a change. Her first friend at Redding High, Maxine, is her exact opposite. Everyone considers Maxine a straight-A loser, but as Imogene soon learns, it's really Maxine's overprotective mother whose rules about clothes and curfews make it impossible for her to speak up for her true self. Oddly, the friendship works. Imogene helps Maxine loosen up and break a few rules, and in turn, Maxine keeps Imogene in line. But trouble shows up anyway. Imogene quickly catches the eye of Redding's A-list bullies, as well as the school's resident teenage ghost. Then she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies. When her old imaginary childhood friend Pelly actually manifests, Imogene realises that the impossible is all too real. And it's dangerous. If she wants to survive high school—not to mention stay alive—she has to fall back on the skills she picked up in her hometown, running with a gang. Even with Maxine and some unexpected allies by her side, will she be able to make it? ~ Goodreads | The Blue Girl (Newford, #15)

✤ BOOK 16 BLURB—Widdershins (2006): Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell. Since they were introduced in the first Newford story, "Timeskip," back in 1989, their friends and readers alike have been waiting for them to realize what everybody else already knows: that they belong together. But they've been more clueless about how they feel for each other than the characters in When Harry Met Sally. Now in Widdershins, a stand-alone novel of fairy courts set in shopping malls and the Bohemian street scene of Newford's Crowsea area, Jilly and Geordie's story is finally being told. Before it's over, we'll find ourselves plunged into the rancorous and sometimes violent conflict between the magical North American "animal people" and the more newly-arrived fairy folk. We'll watch as Jilly is held captive in a sinister world based on her own worst memories—and Geordie, attempting to help, is sent someplace even worse. And we'll be captivated by the power of love and determination to redeem ancient hatreds and heal old magics gone sour. To walk "widdershins" is to walk counterclockwise or backwards around something. It's a classic pathway into the fairy realm. It's also the way people often back slowly into the relationships that matter, the real ones that make for a life. In Widdershins Charles de Lint has delivered one of his most accessible and moving works of his career. ~ Goodreads | Widdershins (Newford, #16)

✤ BOOK 17 BLURB—Make a Joyful Noise (2006): A brand new, 11,000 word Newford tale featuring the Crow Girls. Illustrated by the author. "The Newford books have all been written in such a way that you should be able to pick up any one and get a full and complete story. However, characters do reoccur, off center stage as it were, and their stories do follow a sequence." ~ GR | Make a Joyful Noise (#17)

✤ BOOK 18 BLURB—The Hour Before Dawn and Two Other Stories from Newford (2005): A short story collection written and illustrated by Charles de Lint ~ Goodreads | The Hour Before Dawn and Two Other Stories from Newford (Newford, #18)

✤ BOOK 19 BLURB—Old Man Crow (2007): Joey Creel needs to decide which he is: a man, dreaming he's a crow, or a crow, dreaming he's a man. Ruby McCaulay, the young musician he's mentoring, is sure she knows the answer, but in Newford, things are never quite as they seem. ~ GR | Old Man Crow #19

✤ BOOK 20 BLURB—Little (Grrl) Lost (2007): When fourteen-year-old TJ and her family are forced to move from their farm to the suburbs, she has to give up her beloved horse, Red but she makes a surprising new friend. Elizabeth is a Little, a six-inch-high punked-out teen with an attitude, who has run away from home to make her way in the world. TJ and Elizabeth the Big and the Little soon become friends, but each quickly finds herself in a truly life-threatening situation, and they are unable to help each other. Little (Grrl) Lost is a delightful combination of realism, magic, humor, and hope, and is sure to win Charles de Lint many new teen and adult fans. ~ Goodreads | Little (Grrl) Lost (Newford, #20)

✤ BOOK 21 BLURB—Promises to Keep (2007): With the help of a mentor and an anonymous benefactor, Jilly Coppercorn has overcome abuse, addiction, and a stint in juvie. Though she still struggles to stay clean, she has found safety and love in a newly formed family that includes her loyal best friend, a lovely artist, and her caseworker. Temptation comes knocking, however, when her best friend from the bad old days rides in on a motorcycle and takes Jilly to a beautiful, mysterious city full of wonderful opportunities. It seems perfect at first, until Jilly discovers that it was a one-way trip—and she still has unfinished business in Newford. At turns playful and serious, this urban fantasy introduces de Lint’s most enduring character and grapples with the realities of life-changing choices. ~ All Things Urban Fantasy

✥ "After Widdershins, I thought I wouldn't write at length about Jilly again. I'd promised one more short story about her for Bill at Subterranean Press, but that would be it. Having left her in a good place at the end of Widdershins, I didn't want to complicate her life yet again, so I planned to set the story earlier in her life, during her first year as a student at Butler University. Except the story grew. I was having too much fun visiting with this younger Jilly, so I asked Bill if I could expand it to a short novel. He agreed, so now I m busily working away on this as-yet-untitled novella. It takes place in 1972 and begins with Jilly getting a surprise visit from an old friend--her only friend—from her runaway days. Interspersed with the main story that leads off from that meeting are flashbacks to pivotal moments in her life: time spent in the Home for Wayward Girls, her life on the street, meeting and working with the Grasso Street Angel, the first time she meets various familiar faces (Geordie, Sophie, etc.), and chronicles how the messed-up street kid she was grew a social conscience, and became the cheerful character we know from later stories. Although the book does deal with some serious subjects, the tone isn't all doom and gloom. And while I hope that those of you familiar with these characters will enjoy this visit with their younger selves, I'm also trying to make it a friendly entry into Newford for new readers. Lastly, I'm delighted to say that Mike Dringenberg—an artist I ve wanted to work with for ages--will be doing the cover." — Charles de Lint ~ GR | Promises to Keep (Newford, #21)

✤ BOOK 22 BLURB—Dingo (2008): High school senior Miguel's life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog a real Australian dingo, she's unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There's no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her, but what price will each of them have to pay? Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love. ~ Goodreads | Dingo (Newford #22)

✤ BOOK 23 BLURB—Muse and Reverie (2009): Muse and Reverie is an all-new collection of short fiction in Charles de Lint’s “Newford” universe—the fifth such collection since 1993, and the first since 2002. Previous collections are Dreams Underfoot, The Ivory and the Horn, the World Fantasy Award-winning Memory and Dream, and Tapping the Dream Tree. The city of Newford could be any city in North America, bursting with music, commerce, art, love and hate, and of course magic. Magic in the sidewalk cracks, myth at the foundations of its great buildings, enchantment in the spaces between its people. In this new collection, de Lint explores that magic and those spaces, shedding new light on the people and places that readers of novels like Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and The Mystery of Grace have come to love. ~ Goodreads | Muse and Reverie (Newford #23)

First Sentence[]

  1. Dreams Underfoot (1993) — She would see them in the twilight when the wind was right, roly-poly shapes propelled by ocean breezes, turning end-over-end along the beach or down the alley behind her house like errant beach balls granted a moment's freedom.
  2. The Dreaming Place (1990) — "I didn't see you at school today, Nina," Judy said.
  3. From a Whisper to a Scream (1992) — Thomas Morningstar was on traffic duty that month.
  4. I'll Be Watching You (1992) — A thunderstorm was raging in Rachel Sorensen's sleep.
  5. Memory and Dream (1994) — Katharine Mully had been dead for five years and two months, the morning Isabelle received the letter from her.
  6. The Ivory and the Horn (1995) — There's a big moon glowing in the sky, a swollen circle of silvery-gold light that looks as though it's sitting right on top of the old Clark Building, balancing there on the northeast corner where the twisted remains of a smokestack rises up from the roof like a long, tottery flagpole, colors lowered for the night, or maybe like a tin giant's arm making some kind of semaphore that only other tin giants arm making some kind of semaphore that only other tin giants can understand.
  7. Trader (1997) — If dreams can be portents of what is to come, then I had my fair share of forewarning before my life was stolen away.
  8. Someplace to Be Flying (1998) — The streets were still wet but the storm clouds had moved on as Hank drove south on Yoors waiting for a fare.
  9. Moonlight and Vines (1999) — I envy the music lovers hear.
  10. Forests of the Heart (2000) — Like her sister, Bettina San Miguel was a small, slender woman in her mid-twenties, dark-haired and darker-eyed; part Indio, part Mexican, part something older still.
  11. The Onion Girl (2001) — I don't know what makes me turn. Some sixth sense, prickling the hairs at the nape of my neck, I guess. I see the headlights. They fill my world and I feel like a deer, trapped in their glare. I can't move. The car starts to swerve away from me, but it's already too late.
  12. Tapping the Dream Tree (2002) — "Are you sure you want off here?"
  13. Spirits in the Wires (2003) — "I feel as if I should know you," Saskia Madding says as she approaches my chair.
  14. Medicine Road (2004) — One night, not so long ago, Changing Dog and Corn Hair met up in Sedona, Arizona, to have a talk about an old bargain they'd made with Coyote Woman.
  15. The Blue Girl (2004) — It starts with this faint sound that pulls me out of sleep: a sort of calliope music played on an ensemble of toy instruments.
  16.  Widdershins (2006) — The crossroads at midnight.
  17. Make a Joyful Noise (2006) —
  18. The Hour Before Dawn and Two Other Stories from Newford (2005) —
  19. Old Man Crow (2007) —
  20. Little (Grrl) Lost (2007) — SCRITCH, SCRITCH, SCRITCH.
  21. Promises to Keep (2007) — "Belief's a funny old thing."
  22. Dingo (2008) — No one likes to think it of their father, but there are days when I can't help but feel that somehow I got stuck with the biggest loser of all loser dads.
  23. Muse and Reverie (2009) — Such a thing to find, so deep in the forest: a painter's box nested in ferns and a tangle of sprucey-pine roots, almost buried by leaves and pine needles drifted up against the truck of the tree.

Awards[]

1. Dreams Underfoot:

  • Nominee: World Fantasy Award for Best short story (several stories nominated)
  • Nominee: Locus Award for Best short Story (several stories nominated)

Read Alikes (similar elements)[]

~ Author Read-alikes | concretefantasy See Category links at bottom of page

Notes[]

Trivia[]

~ Ranked on Goodreads | Best Urban Fantasy Series (181 series)

SPECIAL LISTS:

LISTS OF LISTS PER BOOK:

Quotes[]

Book Quotes: 

Author Quotes:

Jilly tells a homeless girl: “‘If there’s no magic, there’s no meaning.’ Without magic or call it wonder, mystery, natural wisdom nothing has any depth. It’s all just surface.” Later, a spirit tells Jilly that “it is so easy for your people to forget that everything has a spirit That magic and mystery are a part of your lives, not something to store away in a child’s bedroom, or to use as an escape from your lives.” ~ PopMatters

See Also[]

Category links at bottom of page

External References[]

Books:

Series Summarries: 

Freebies: 

Characters, World, etc:

REVIEWS:

1-Dreams Underfoot (1993) (collection)

2-The Dreaming Place (1990)

3-From a Whisper to a Scream (1992)

4-I'll Be Watching You (1992)

5-Memory and Dream (1994)

6-The Ivory and the Horn (1995)

7-Trader (1997)

8-Someplace to Be Flying (1998)

9-Moonlight and Vines (1999) (collection)

10-Forests of the Heart (2000)

11-The Onion Girl (2001)

12-Tapping the Dream Tree (2002) (collection)

13-Spirits in the Wires (2003)

14-Medicine Road (2004)

15-The Blue Girl (2004)

16-Widdershins (2006)

17-Make a Joyful Noise (2006)

18-The Hour Before Dawn ... (2005) (collection)

20-Little (Grrl) Lost (2007)

21-Promises to Keep (2007)

22-Dingo (2008)

23-Muse and Reverie (2009) (collection)

Interviews:

Articles:

Author:

Community and Fan Sites:

Gallery of Book Covers[]

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