The Stolen Bairn by
Katrina Macdonald Roe
Published by Riveted Press
Guest author post by Katrina Macdonald Roe about The Stolen Bairn for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog
Ancient faery tales grow like trees and fall from Skye
Usually, my ideas for stories grow slowly, like trees. They start with a seed, which can take months or even years to germinate, then they slowly rise up from the soil and reveal their colours.
The idea for this book was more like a winter snow dump that fell from the sky (or should I say, Skye?). The first few lines crashed into my head, completely unbidden. I was sitting on a bus or a train, not expecting a story to just land in my seat on my daily commute.
To claim that I was single-handedly responsible for the extinction of the faeries, as some have said, is wildly unfair. Firstly, everybody knew that faery sightings had become increasingly rare long before I met one and nobody did a thing about it. Secondly, nobody seems to remember how troublesome the creatures really were.
When those lines popped into my head, I knew I had received a gift. I jotted them down in the notes app on my phone. It was 2016. Ten years ago. I knew I wanted to write this book, but I had no idea what the rest of the story was. It was only when I read Vasilisa the Wise and Other Tales of Brave Young Women by Kate Forsyth and Lorena Carrington that I came across two traditional Scottish faery tales that caught my attention – The Stolen Bairn and Katie Crackernuts. The last line of Katie Crackernuts took my breath away: ‘they were never again troubled by the faery folk who lived under the hill.’ I knew instantly that this ancient faery story had to be woven into my new one.
At this point, I feel I must confess that while I have always loved storytelling, and faeries in particular, I wasn’t always a fan of traditional faery tales. The women in stories like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were too passive for me and didn’t do enough to help themselves. Whereas the women in Vasilisa the Wise were bold, brave and fearless, cleverly using their limited resources to save themselves and others. They were faery tales I could get into!
I wasn’t thinking about publication when I started writing The Stolen Bairn. I wanted, no needed, to write something purely for the fun of it. I wanted to lose myself in a story. I wanted to take risks. I didn’t plan it. Instead, I trusted the process and was excited to see where it took me. I also had the basic structure of the existing faery tales to provide a framework for my story.
The Stolen Bairn is set on the Isle of Skye, where my ancestors hail from. I first travelled to Skye in 2001 and fell utterly in love with the place. It’s not just a place of unparalleled natural beauty; it’s also a place where stories grow on trees.
Setting my tale on the Isle of Skye gave me a wonderful place to escape to, especially during COVID lockdowns. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we couldn’t travel, but whenever I could, I escaped to the Isle of Skye and the Scottish Highlands in my mind. I would put on some traditional Celtic music that would take me there. As soon as I could see the landscape or hear the music, the story would flow out of me. It felt a little bit magical.
Have you ever read Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park? This historical time-slip novel is set in the streets and docks of The Rocks in Sydney during the early days of the colony. You can walk the streets that feature in the book, such as Argyle Street and The Cut. Visiting the area on a school excursion brought the book to life.
I loved the idea of setting a fantasy story in a real-world location, of anchoring it in a time and place that felt real. I grew up in the Riverina, in South Western NSW, but my Dad migrated from Scotland to Australia when he was sixteen. I always had an awareness of my Scottish ancestry and there was always something intriguing about the Highland way of life – the kilts, the bagpipes, the music and the myths called to me.
It was only after I decided to set my story on Skye that I discovered real places called The Faery Pools and The Faery Bridge that were the perfect settings for my story. I learned about the Faery Flag at Dunvegan Castle and knew I had to weave that in. Again, it was almost a bit magical the way it all came together.
2020 and 2021 were hectic times for everyone, but this was especially so in my family. I was hosting a daily radio program in Sydney while homeschooling three kids in subsequent lockdowns. One of my daughters became quite unwell, which put our family under significant stress. I didn’t write often during this time but, when I did, I poured my feelings into my story. Misunderstandings between mothers and daughters, sisterly love and separation, a heartfelt search for identity and belonging all seeped into the story.
At the end of the COVID years, in early 2022, one of my daughters was diagnosed with autism and ADHD. At the time, it was as surprising and enlightening as finding out she was faery. Suddenly, so many things made sense. That experience also inspired this story of finding out who you really are.
A few months later, my family relocated from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for a fresh start and I finally finished the first draft of The Stolen Bairn. Missing my old friends and yet to make new ones, I felt more isolated than ever. All my emotions were heightened. As Katie started a new life on Skye, searched for help for her sister and tried to find her place in the world, it was only too easy to put myself in her shoes and imagine how she might feel.
This book was fantastic fun to write, and it was only afterwards, when reading it to my children, that I recognised how much my own emotional journey, story and feelings were hidden within the pages. I think we are hard-wired for stories, and faery stories speak to our deepest human needs for safety, connection, meaning and belonging – things I hope will find their way into the hearts of the kids who read it, like the roots of an ancient tree, reaching deep into the soil.
The book opens with a quote from WB Yeats:
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping
than you can understand.
I hope that young people will enjoy this fantasy adventure, and that it will give them a joyful escape from the worries and cares of the real world, just as it did for me as I wrote it.
The Stolen Bairn by Katrina Macdonald Roe at Simon & Schuster
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