salutations, howdy do, or (as we say here in SC) hey y’all!
You’ve navigated yourself to book-faeries.com, and I’m happy you found me. Let me introduce myself: My name is Elizabeth Hanan Taylor, the queen of long, real names that actually have deep, sentimental meaning (or at least, that’s what I’ve convinced myself after years of consistent repeating my name for substitute teachers). All in all, I think E. H. Taylor suits me a little better, but alas, it’s always been the name too big for my small five foot four frame.
It’s hard to sum this character up, as I’m a lover of many things and people. I think in total. I’m a creator. Just like my Father in Heaven, I love to create just as He created the Heavens and Earth. I’ve been writing and reading since my literacy-loving mom could force a pencil into my hand (I have a vivid memory of her hushing me in church whilst I asked how to spell my name and write with one of the golf pencils installed in the back of the pews for offering slips. But, upon looking down at my tiny, sticky hands primed and ready to write, she engaged me quietly before resuming her churchly duties). I’ll write or read pretty much anything I can get my hands on, a sentiment that’s never really changed in me.
I’m a creator when it comes to visual arts also. I love to draw, sketch, and paint, but lately its been crocheting baby blankets for expectant mothers around me (as, alas, I’m no longer a child). You’ll notice, however, photography slips into this as well. I love taking pictures of God’s people. We’re so different, yet so the same, and I love making people feel beautiful in capturing their precious smiles. Notice the Photography tab for some of my work or check out @bookfaeries on instagram for some of my work. Again, not professional, just love using the lens to capture precious faces.
I’m an actress. Both literally and figuratively if you catch my drift. My parents didn’t get me involved in theatre until middle school at my insistence, but photo and video evidence exists in which I am in full-fledged dramatic form. I acted throughout high school and found it to be a good form of self expression. I got to try on different people’s lives in a way I think no one else can, and it exposed to me a true hurting I felt within, a brokenness that in all of my prideful pining, I could not solve by myself. It pointed me towards my Savior, and for that I am so happy I get to worship him as I sing and perform today! A few productions to name a few include The Wizard of Oz, The Sound Of Music, and Aladdin.
About me academically (my credentials, I’m happy to flash after years of hard work (thank you, Jesus!)): I’m an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Recipient for both the Diploma Programme (DP) as well as the Middle Years Programme (MYP), which in lay man’s terms I think is best put as “nerd school.” I was blessed to enter college with knowledge of Biology and English and History that many of my classmates wouldn’t learn until sophomore year. But don’t worry. God certainly humbled me throughout my first two years of college.
I began at Lander University in Greenwood, SC, a fantastic school to say the least. I was a nursing major for two years. Soaring through with As thanks to my IB Biology teacher, but something was dreadfully missing. I tried to be happy with my success, but something felt wrong. After becoming physically ill, and several tearful conversations with family, I finished the semester and took myself out of nursing school, moving back home with my parents and enrolling in Francis Marion University in Florence, SC.
After some soul searching, prayer, and wisdom from several of my favourite spiritual leaders in my life, I changed my major to Early Childhood Education, and since, the Lord shows me daily, I made the right decision to trust Him instead of myself. I love teaching people about what I’ve learned, and with my passion for science, it currently looks like a future for School Counseling or Speech Language Pathology is promising in my future.
So what is this bookfaeries thing? I bet you’re wondering. Well, first, thank you for listening to me ramble for that long. To understand bookfaeries, we have to go back to the beginning. Back to McLeod Hospital on December 30, 1999, when a tiny, premature, “failure to thrive” dreamer was born. Had I been born in 1746, someone would have surely though me a changeling, but no fairy has come to take me back to fairyland, so I’m afraid I’m merely human.
This dreamer grew and grew, and her mind was always filled with stories. She loved imagining she was someone else. She loved dreaming about far off places. About nymphs and faeries and beasts and princesses and kings- magic that stemmed from her heart and a power that could do anything. She loved fantasy, and she loved lessons learned there. In her characters, her Lord taught her lessons, many which needed repeating, but always whenever it was just right.
Many a day would I pretend I was a sprite, flitting about the back yard, tromping down to the pond to watch the minnows flurry in the water, and each day, I’d grow older. Growing up is sad. I used to weep “crocodile tears” (as my grandmother would say) at the idea of being twenty years old, but I realized in stories, I could always stay a child.
Thus began my reading resurgence. In 2015, I started a bookstagram, an instagram account dedicated to what I was reading and fandoms I loved. It flourished, surprisingly, and I met several people as well as attended a few book festivals including Y’all Fest in Charleston, SC. By my junior year of high school though, it was becoming a chore to post. It was become sad when I felt I couldn’t post pictures of my friends on my account because it wasn’t “bookish enough.” With this, I changed my instagram handle to my name and instead moved bookfaeries to a spam, unable to part with the handle.
Since, it’s blossomed into candidly florence, a place where I can dump pictures I take and things I write shamelessly. Now, it’s the name of a website that’s full of things totally E. H. Taylor, the wanna be author with a heart just a shred like her Creator God.
Bookfaeries is magic. Bookfaeries is fantasy and mermaids and dragons and all the things I love to write about. Bookfaeries is taking pictures of God’s creatures for the world to see. Bookfaeries is keeping the creating in my life because it makes me feel more close to Him.
Friend, I hope you’ll stay and see what’s coming.
Thank you for reading and wandering. See that spark of creation within you, we’re all keepers of the flame.
To those who know they are loved and to those who’ve yet to realize – E. H. Taylor
