Viola and her fraternal twin Sebastian could not be more different. Viola loves life in the outdoors and can run like the wind. She is a fiery redhead who attracts attention for all the wrong reasons. Sebastian is much more comfortable behind a desk. He is a brown-haired bookworm and falls through the cracks like water.
Reeling from the negative effects of humankind on the planet, the spirit of the Earth has become corrupted. Imbalance reigns supreme across every spectrum and “Mother Nature” is left with no choice but to react with extreme prejudice. On one of her many trips into the deep forest, Viola finds a special place that opens the door to this reality. What the budding teenager discovers is another world where the word “magic” takes on a new dimension.
The introduction of soccer into Viola’s life teaches her the value of teamwork and friendship. Club captain Stefana helps with her teammate’s touch on the soccer ball. Also, the confidence she instills in Viola puts the speedy forward closer in touch with her ultimate fate.
Viola and her fraternal twin Sebastian could not be more different. Viola loves life in the outdoors and can run like the wind. She is a fiery redhead who attracts attention for all the wrong reasons. Sebastian is much more comfortable behind a desk. He is a brown-haired bookworm and falls through the cracks like water.
Reeling from the negative effects of humankind on the planet, the spirit of the Earth has become corrupted. Imbalance reigns supreme across every spectrum and “Mother Nature” is left with no choice but to react with extreme prejudice. On one of her many trips into the deep forest, Viola finds a special place that opens the door to this reality. What the budding teenager discovers is another world where the word “magic” takes on a new dimension.
The introduction of soccer into Viola’s life teaches her the value of teamwork and friendship. Club captain Stefana helps with her teammate’s touch on the soccer ball. Also, the confidence she instills in Viola puts the speedy forward closer in touch with her ultimate fate.
Ian Ferriman is a wonderful father. A wonderful father with a broken heart. Shattered into a million pieces by the mother of his children, the anguish did not affect his parental devotion. He gave everything for his soon-to-be twelve-year-old fraternal twins: a precocious girl named Viola and a bookish boy named Sebastian.
The family live in the bucolic small town of Pendale, located way up in the green hills of western Massachusetts. A weathered 19th Century Colonial farmhouse a quarter mile down a gravel road named Swift Circle is where they call home. Before they moved in, the household sat empty for a few years. The tall & tan brunette with wide shoulders and short, wavy hair bought it at a bargain. It still took every penny he had to seal the buy.
Except for a very thorough cleaning and a fresh coat of interior and exterior paint, the residence was move-in ready. It did not take long for the old post office box to be decorated. Alongside an exuberantly inscribed number “8,” hand-painted flowers covered the large metal box.
Viola had a flair for color. She surfed through the art books in the extensive library of her brown-eyed patriarch. The pictures mesmerized her, and she imagined herself in those different parts of the world. The best part was there wasn’t too much text to read. Sebastian was the reading type. The same as his dad.
A mechanic once used the property’s triple-bay garage as a business. Faded red and white paint can still be detected above the center door. In between rusted oil advertisement signs, only the capital letter “W” and the word “Garage” are distinguishable. They were elaborately stenciled in cursive script many years ago. Around the back, a rusty staircase goes up to a rickety porch. A large office and storage area are on the second floor.
Ian originally liked the idea of using that for a personal work space, but renovating it as an apartment for extra income was more workable. He just lacked the time to renovate it. With two kids darting towards their teenage years, open days on the calendar were at a premium.
Ian’s father always used to say a price had to be paid. For everything. When he was a younger man, he hated that saying. Now that he was older, those words were easier to understand.
The property had two distinct faces to it, depending on the season. In the colder months, the trees went bare. When the wind picked up (which was often), they bent and swayed like dancers with their feet frozen to the ground. The lack of foliage opened up the view to the east. From the front porch, they could see the top of the hills rolling downwards to the Connecticut River valley. On a clear day, Mount Monadnock in southwestern New Hampshire peaked over the horizon.
In the warmer months, Mother Nature wrapped the lot in a thick blanket of greenery. Being so removed from the hustle and bustle of suburbia, the Ferriman family got accustomed to seeing many forms of wild life roam and soar into their yard. Hawks, falcons and wild turkey. Smaller animals, but mostly deer. Sometimes, a mother bear and her cubs scrambled through the property. All sprung into flight and disappeared into the woods upon the slightest movement from the inhabitants.
Getting into a house was an immense relief. Life in a cramped condominium near his job as a facilities worker at Massachusetts University became untenable. Most twins get along and connect in a way that goes beyond regular relationships. His twins do not get along and have a more direct connection. A physical one that involves pinches, punches and putdowns. The animosity between them escalated more with age.
Three years ago at school, Sebastian disassociated from Viola. He stopped referring to her as his sister. In response, she became more physical to his veiled yet hurtful cruelty.
“Very worrisome for a brother to act that way to a sibling and vice versa,” the elementary school principal stated.
“And never mind twins. Maybe they are too close.”
For their parent, it was because they were too different. They inhabited opposite sides of the spectrum as far as he could tell. To him, the only thing they had in common were their pale blue eyes. Those were unprecedented. For either family faction.
Viola runs hot or cold, depending on which way the breeze flows. Wild or calm. In those wilder moments, her long, straight nose sets the course as her silky red hair whips around in the breeze of her own making. It is quite a dramatic sight. In those calmer moments, a state of peaceful, meditative bliss overcomes her. She stares into oblivion. Searching for something invisible.
Suddenly, she will bolt off like a flash of lightning on a hot summer day. Those extremes happen with her emotions, too. No one laughs louder or cries harder than Ian’s daughter. Balancing her swings of emotion and motion takes up most of his attention.
Unlike Sebastian, who fades into the back drop every chance he can get. While the keel of his sister’s boat sways with the gentlest of changes in current, he steers near the shore, in the shadows. Even as an accountant, Sebastian’s opposite nature got promptly diagnosed by their mother’s parents. They never passed up a chance to point that out. He took it as a rebuke to his parenting skills.
They lived in England. How could they know what’s going on? He never needed to worry over sitting his boy in front of a television (“melting his brains away” of which his grandmother always worried over) while he dealt with his girl. Sebastian’s wide nose and wavy brown hair were always buried in a book.
After that chat with the school principal, Ian decided more space was best for his family. So, he moved the family west into the rural hills. Pendale was further away from work. When you take the winding and steep route to get there, you stay there. There was more elbow room, though. The twins weren’t in the same bedroom anymore. As ten-year-olds, that was an important upgrade going into their teenage years.
The house payment was similar to the rent in the valley. The potential of rent-able space above the garage gave him a chance for more income, too. He was always running short; especially since he gave up the dangerous but high-paying work of the fishing industry in his early 20s. Ian couldn’t help but think it was a curse. He did become the first man in his family to go to college.
Viola loved the move into the hills. It didn’t take long to find lots of comfort in her new home. Primarily, around it. She found peace amid the solitude of the deep woods. She has never been the most popular kid in school. Not in Amherst. Neither in this new hometown. Considered an outsider, they bullied Viola - a rich girl named Becky led the charge - when she lived in the spirited college town.
The big change in Pendale was that Viola was left alone. Both at home and school. After dinner, she cavorted through the woods. Some times she walked. Regularly, she ran like the wind. This activity evolved into a twilight ritual. She became so enraptured that time flew by on the clock. This single-mindedness grew to the extent that it forced her father to extreme measures. He eventually had to go on his own trips into the forest. Tracking her through the trees was a very-unappreciated development.
“Time flies when you’re having fun?” Viola said with a sheepish shrug to her exasperated and sweat-covered father as he led her back to the house after a recent journey in July.
More and more, her apologetic smiles weren’t cutting through his growing displeasure. Nearby there was a small pond alongside a lilting river. Next to an old Indian trail, it was a regular destination for Viola. That spot was familiar.
However, one particular destination became her secret getaway: a dell deep in a valley, with large rocks scattered on each side. It was a hike to get there. But worth every ounce of time and effort once upon arrival, she said. When asked, there was no divulging of the location. It was a special place.
“I can really hear myself think there,” she said after its discovery.
“When I get home, I fall asleep so much easier. Don’t you think so, Dad?”
That was a persistent issue since Viola was a baby. It took forever to get her to sleep. When she did, bad dreams and night sweats followed suit. No matter what he tried, nothing worked. She helped little. Every specialist they saw grew a particular aversion to her stubbornness for a clinical cure. Her excursions into the forest helped, though.
Ian attributed it to the amount of exercise. His attempts to motivate her into team sports failed. She was a true individual. It was not her thing. He thought she could be a budding track and field athlete? Perhaps a future marathon runner?
The move wasn’t for Sebastian. A beach person at heart, he had no love for life in hill country. The sea always mesmerized him. The love of open water came from Ian’s side of the family. He was the last male of a lengthy line of fishermen. His parent was a legend in the seaside community of Gloucester, on the north shore of Massachusetts.
Yet Simon Ferriman didn’t just work in the Gulf of Maine. He roamed the globe. The grizzly captain thumped his chest over how he could fish any ocean of water between the north and south poles. Sebastian did not inherit his grandfather’s physical fortitude. He cringed at the mere mention of going along with Viola on one of her jaunts into the forest. He cried out “bugs!” before shuffling away to a safe space.
Furthermore, the small town library was inadequate for Sebastian’s needs. He loved the reading available to him in their former home town. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a library or a book store there. His increasing consternation at the academic constraints of Pendale grew to a slow boil.
It led up to the only time Ian punished his son. This past June, Sebastian harassed the old volunteer librarian to the extent where she called his father to bring him home. Ian’s son was livid over the lack of a section on Renaissance Drama. He was being “quite ornery”, according to the exasperated woman.
“Really?” the befuddled patriarch snorted. He didn’t know what to think.
His high-browed son never acted in a such a low fashion. Overall, Sebastian’s demeanor was more akin to his mother’s father, who was a theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge. Low key. Very studious. Both of them kept out of the lime light.
After that phone call, Ian then looked over at his bookshelf. The volumes of the works of Jonson, Marlowe and Shakespeare were missing. The same ones he studied back in his college days. Renaissance “Drama,” indeed.
This side of Sebastian perplexed him. He treated a nice old lady very poorly. That was way out of style. The head of the house was stern and grounded him for a week. It wasn’t much of a punishment, as his offspring didn’t emerge from the bedroom. He already spent most of his time there.
Something was bothering Sebastian. His dad could not discover its cause. His ever-growing intellect required extra attention. Yet the angst on display felt deeper. And it was more than the lack of dramatic discourse at the local library.
Whenever he sought to talk to Sebastian, he deflected his concern and continued reading whatever was in front of his face. Whether or not he was done. The unexplained consternation wasn’t getting better. It wasn’t healthy for him or his relationship with his twin. This matter bothered him the most in recent times.
“A higher level of education is what Sebastian needs,” his cheerful school counselor said after last semester’s parent-teacher meeting.
“A level that one of the private schools in the area can provide!”
The school counselor nodded passionately at that last sentence. She had discovered her salvation from the stern grip of Sebastian’s academic pursuit. He was a year ahead of Viola in seventh grade, who nearly fell behind a year in fifth grade.
Essentially, Ian had to separate the twins to put his boy into private school. Separation was not an option. It was a promise he made to himself when he took custody. That was a moot point when it concerned his finances. He receives a good paycheck with a great benefits package from the university. Yet a tuition at a full-time private school was not in his budget.
Concerns over an increase in revenue circled like gnats on a muggy morning. Renovating the second floor above the garage was a given. He had a tenant in mind, too. On the first day of August, a ray of hope broke through the mist. An old college friend called out of the blue. He brought up the possibility of advising work for his father’s publishing company.
This was something Ian could do. Ten years ago, he put his burgeoning writing career on hold after the courts awarded him custody. Becoming a writer was his lifelong dream. He turned his back on the family business (and his father) to make it come true.
Now, he considered the return of his former associate as a sign of change. Or at least something beneficial when he required it most. A long-standing debt remained between them as well. Now, it looked that may come full circle.
An upsurge in income fueled the notion that Ian could give Sebastian the education he demanded; especially at such a vital juncture in his life. There were plenty of local private schools, as his counselor mentioned. His son wouldn’t be moving to the other side of the world. Maybe he could commute? Nope. That would be difficult.
Ian didn’t have this choice. He fought tooth-and-nail with his father for an advanced education and wanted smoother sailing for his progeny. With that in mind, the prospect of separation became easier to contemplate. His love for writing started around Sebastian’s current age. The wordsmith acutely empathized with the frustration.
Before the twins, Ian’s career required every bit of his energy. Afterwards, they required that energy and more. This change in direction happened just when his dream was preparing for launch. When asked, he said writing was what he was meant to do. Fatherhood was what he was born to do. The dedication to his twins prompted an endearing nickname: Father Ferriman.
Even though Ian was lauded for that stance, he did not feel particularly heroic. While his younger cousin Daphne said he had a carved jawline that gave him the chivalrous air of the classic champions of old, he never saw himself as one of those characters. After all, the mysterious death of their mother and his estranged fiancé initiated this decision. Not because he was a mythic man of valor.
Bodhi Hollow and Ian first met in September 1995 during his college exchange in England. They fell in love at first sight. The pair got engaged in January 2000 but lost contact soon afterwards. By that fall, she disappeared into thin air. There was no sign of foul play. The few signs left behind, though, pointed to a deliberate act.
Neither Ian nor Bodhi’s parents could track her whereabouts. The Hollows took the lead in the search in early 2001 and spent the next year and a half criss-crossing the globe. They finally found their daughter in late 2002. Sadly, she perished in a boat fire before they could reach her. When they discovered Viola and Sebastian had survived and notified Ian of their existence, nothing else but their well-being entered his thoughts.
To Ian, it served as the surprise of a lifetime. Before her disappearance, Bodhi never said she was pregnant. When he tried to determine their age, the children had to be conceived the last time they met. The news that he was a father lifted Ian’s spirits. The world stopped spinning after the disappearance of the love of his life. His heart was shattered.
With the aid of his former college roommate, he poured every ounce of energy into his career and it gained steam. Faced with that burgeoning success, he did an about-face. The most important thing was his children’s welfare.
A brief custody battle ensued with Bodhi’s parents. The courts granted Ian custody of Viola and Sebastian in early 2003. He moved to western Massachusetts on a full-time basis and got a job working for his alma mater. He promised to himself they would never be separated. Nine years later, reneging on that pledge was at hand.
The end of August rolled around after a hotter-than-usual summer. Ian loved his kids to heaven and back. But he was looking forward to the first day of school. He needed a break after the last few months of day-to-day drama. Recently, his hair grayed. In the most obvious of areas, too. Around his temples and especially his beard. To combat the invasive color of age, he shaved more these days.
The start of school arrived on the Wednesday after Labor Day. The night before, Ian tried to stop from smiling too much. He didn’t want to make his kids feel too bad, of course. He sat in his comfortable wicker chair on the porch that surrounded the house and stared towards the approaching sunset. From the wrap-around deck, he could sit and enjoy both the start and end of day with his customary cup of strong coffee.
It was a muggy night, but a cool breeze picked up pace. The patriarch prayed for his twins’ health and happiness. Peace in their relationship, too. As the sun dipped underneath the trees, Viola sought him out after her daily twilight jaunt. She emerged from the tree line and skipped up to her father’s “throne” (as she called it) and sat next to him.
Both enjoyed the turn of day into night. Sebastian never joins them. He is always busy with his reading. Sunset amidst the hilltops can be a breathtaking sight to behold. Since the move to Pendale, they made a habit of sitting on the porch to watch Mother Nature “paint the canvas.”
They talk of the minutiae of life. On this night, Viola asked about “Mom.” Ian exhaled in surprise. “Mom” was a subject that didn’t come up between them. She never wanted to know about her mother. The question shocked her. But she still had a concerted expression of inquisitiveness on her face.
“Where do I start?” he drawled. “Well…
“She was something else… just like YOU!”
Ian Ferriman reached out and tousled his daughter’s long, red locks. She giggled. For the first time in years, he talked about Bodhi Hollow with a smile.
Wild As The Wind is a unique young adult fantasy book in that it focuses just as much on the personal issues of the characters as the big world issues. This is a fun facet of the book, but it also significantly slowed down the pacing for a book that was already fairly long. For example, much of the first 20% of the book is focused on Viola and her brother living their everyday life and Viola discovering her love for soccer. However, once the magical world is introduced, I felt more engaged with the story and reading went faster.
This book has a large cast of characters for being for the first book in a Young Adult series. Many of Viola and Sebastian’s friends, acquaintances, and foil characters are introduced, as well as multiple family members. I do believe there were characters that could have been condensed but they could play a larger role in later novels. Additionally, the teenage character’s dialogue didn’t sound as natural as I would have expected for a book in this age group.
The author did a great job with the description in this story. Since so much of the plot focuses on nature and human’s relationship with nature, it only makes sense that so much of the imagery would focus on the natural elements in the characters’ environments. The magical world Viola discovers is also exciting and well developed However, since this is a portal fantasy novel, we didn’t get to spend as much time in the magical world as I would have liked.
Wild as the Wind is the first book in the A Pendale Tale trilogy. This book sets up a great concept and some unique aspects among others in this series. The plot did move slower than I expected and it felt that many of the characters could have been condensed to make the storytelling more efficient. The author does a great job with his descriptions and the magical world developed was well done as well!