When I first read Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, I was psyched; it had all the charm of the Harry Potter novels but with an adult realism and a nuanced exploration of mental illness. Plus, the meta-fictive Fillorian element. It was the wizard book I’d always wanted.
When the show came out, I watched the whole first season in two evenings; though it was different, I liked where it went with the source material.
When I learned about the #BattletheBeast contest, sponsored by Syfy on the writing platform Wattpad, I knew I had to enter. I love writing within restraints; the contest called for a 1,500-word short that told the story of one of the undocumented times that Quentin and company battled the Beast of the first book and the first season. The winner would have their story turned into a digital short.
I worked out a plot with my partner, Peter Brewer, who has an awesome memory for the details of his favorite stories’ worlds. I wrote the story in one evening. I won the contest.
I was ecstatic.
That excitement was tripled when the digital short came out; they’d asked me to be the model for the character I created, Tara. Not only did I get to see my story brought to life by talented illustrator Miss Tak, narrated by Hale Appleman, the actor who plays Eliot, but also I got to see myself in the world of The Magicians. Which is just so very cool.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam 