Worlds Collide (The Land of Stories #6)(2)
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Mr. Quinn said. “Every time I hear your name mentioned, it’s always followed with a comment about your impressive stamina. Do you have any secrets for staying in shape or how you keep your energy up?”
“As you get older, it’s important to select the shape you most identify with, and as you can see, I’ve chosen a squash,” Mr. Bailey teased. “When it comes to maintaining a good energy level, I simply make the most out of the four hours a day I’m awake.”
A cheeky grin spread across the author’s face, and the audience roared with laughter. They were pleased to hear him speak with the same trademark wit he wrote with.
“We’re also joined tonight by Mr. Bailey’s family,” Mr. Quinn said, and gestured to the people sitting in the front row. “Thank you for sharing your father and grandfather with us. Mr. Bailey, would you like to introduce your children and grandchildren?”
“I’d be happy to,” Mr. Bailey said. “That’s my older daughter, Elizabeth, her husband, Ben, and their daughter, Charlie. Next we have my son, Matthew, his husband, Henry, and their boys, Ayden and Grayson. Last but certainly not least, my daughter Carrie, her husband, Scott, and their children, Brighton, Sammy, and Levi. As you can see, they’re all adopted—a bunch that good-looking couldn’t possibly share my DNA.”
The audience chuckled and gave the author’s family a warm round of applause, forcing them to stand and wave bashfully.
“We were very saddened to hear of your wife’s passing earlier this year,” Mr. Quinn said. “As most of our audience knows, Mr. Bailey’s wife, Breanne Campbell-Bailey, was also an accomplished writer and served as a United States senator for twenty-four years until her retirement.”
“Would you believe we were middle school sweethearts?” Mr. Bailey said with a smile. “As far as I’m concerned, I was the first and only mistake she ever made.”
“How long were you married?” Mr. Quinn asked.
“Fifty-two years,” Mr. Bailey said. “She insisted on finishing her master’s degree before marriage and publishing her fifth book before starting a family.”
“I’m not surprised,” Mr. Quinn said. “The late senator was a major advocate for women’s rights.”
“Yes, but I must clarify, Bree was never late for anything,” the author said with a laugh. “She did absolutely everything on her own time, and her death was no exception. But in my family we don’t say died or passed away, we say returned to magic—it suits her much better. Before she returned to magic, my wife hid thousands of notes in our home for me to find after she was gone. Not a day goes by I don’t discover a Post-it reminding me to take my medicine or eat breakfast.”
“Magic indeed,” Mr. Quinn said. “You were both born and raised in Willow Crest, California. Is that correct?”
“That’s right,” Mr. Bailey said with a nod. “And what a different world it was. Paper came from trees, cars ran on gasoline, and caffeine was legal. It was practically the Dark Ages.”
“Can you remember the first person who inspired you to write?” the moderator asked.
“It was my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Peters,” the author said. “At first we didn’t see eye-to-eye; she thought her classroom was a place for education, I thought it was a great place for naps. A year later she became principal of the middle school and read some short stories I had written for my English class. Mrs. Peters saw potential in my writing and planted the seeds in my head. I’ll always be so grateful to her. I dedicated one of my books to her—but I can’t recall which one.”
“It’s Fairytaletopia 4: The Literary Journey!” shouted an excited little girl in the back row.
“Oh yes, that’s the one,” Mr. Bailey said, and scratched his head. “You’ll have to be patient with me; my memory has been on vacation since my early seventies. These days I’ll pick up a book and read the whole thing without realizing I wrote it.”
“Speaking of which, let’s talk about your remarkable writing career,” Mr. Quinn said. “As I said before, you’ve published more than a hundred books over the course of five decades. Among those are the Starboardia sagas, the Adventures of Blimp Boy mysteries, the Galaxy Queen chronicles, the Ziblings graphic novels, and most notably, the Fairytaletopia series.”
The crowd cheered the loudest at the mention of Mr. Bailey’s fantasy series, Fairytaletopia. The author’s six-book franchise was the most successful and acclaimed publication of his career. The series had been translated into fifty languages, was sold in over a hundred countries, and had helped improve children’s literacy around the world. The Fairytaletopia books had also been adapted into several major motion pictures, a dozen television shows, and countless items of tacky merchandise.
“Although the majority of your work has been bestsellers and critical hits, you’re most known for writing Fairytaletopia,” Mr. Quinn said. “What is the special ingredient that makes that series so beloved?”
“That’s an easy answer. It was written by a child,” Mr. Bailey confessed. “Not many people know this, but I finished the first draft of Fairytaletopia: The Wishing Charm when I was about thirteen years old. I was very embarrassed about writing, so I kept it a secret; I didn’t even show it to my family. Later, in my twenties, after a few mild literary successes, I came across a dusty old manuscript in my mother’s attic. I brushed it off, fixed some typos, and had it published. Had I known what a hit it would be I would have pursued it much sooner.”