Narnia isn’t the sort of place that you find when you are looking for it. It’s always there, on the edge of your sight, in the corner of your eyes, ready to surprise you when you aren’t expecting it. When I was a child, I used to dream and wish and hope that, some day, I would open a door and find myself in a world where Animals talked, trees walked, and a giant lion would love and guide me. I fantasized about running my fingers through a mane that would be surprisingly soft and smell of sunshine and clear air and warmth. I watched the old BBC version of The Chronicles of Narnia and marveled at the walking, talking lion they used. Ah, the magic of animatronics.

The Chronicles of Narnia is still one of my favorite series. The deep magic of the world, the lessons taught and learned, and especially the sheer expanse of Narnia. Absolutely wonderful. Whenever I read the stories, the characters greet me like old friends and, when I see them brought to life on the movie screen, I have found myself crying out of sheer love for those characters, those friends, and that world that I loved so as a child.

I am one of those people who buys wholly into some of these worlds of imagination, even if for a little while. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, The Elemental Masters, Harry Potter’s Wizarding World…all of these worlds draw me in, draw me close, and fascinate me. The imagination and knowledge (even if it is indeed borrowed) that it took to create them delights me. I love to fall into those worlds, to get to know the characters, imagine their deeper personalities, conflicts, brightness, darkness. As my father says, I get myself into a situation that I have to write myself out of.

People think I’m odd, weird, crazy perhaps, but this is my love, my joy: to build castles in the sky, worlds out of thin air, to fall happily tumbling into worlds that others have created. It’s why I love larping. I adore creating characters, building my “liar’s house”, and slipping into and occupying it for a while. What can I say? It’s fun, and it feeds my drama addiction.