CEDA Pathways alumna publishes debut novel

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This article was published 13/01/2020 (2092 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For newly published author Emma Porter, a noteworthy dream at night can lead to a bundle of story ideas in the morning.

At least that’s the case for her debut novel, A Fairy King, for which she held a launch at Merchants Corner (541 Selkirk Ave.) in December.

During her slumber around five years ago, when she was in Grade 11 at St. John’s High School, Porter had visions of a winged boy sailing a ship at night in an endless sea.

“For some reason that image really stuck with me,” Porter, now 22, said.

This midnight mirage ended up being the primary inspiration for her book — a fantastical 218-page story about a boy living in a medieval kingdom who ventures to realize his true identity.

“But it’s also, at the core I think, an idea of self-discovery and learning to be fine with who you are and where you’ve come from.

“It’s definitely not the first story that I’ve written based off my dreams,” she said.

Storytelling has always been on Porter’s radar, part of the reason why she enrolled in the University of Winnipeg’s English, and rhetoric and communications programs.

“Whenever I was facing a lot of the struggles in my life, reading was my catharsis, along with writing. It was kind of like escapism for me.”

Porter has been, quite literally, following her dreams since she received encouragement from prominent children’s author Robert Munsch, who visited her elementary school when she was a student.

“(Munsch) informed my early formative years of writing and motivated me to want to pursue writing and art as a career.”

Stuck between writing and illustrating, Porter asked Munsch which he thought she should pursue.

“‘You should never limit yourself to just one thing,’” she recalled his response.

And so, Porter chased her passion for both words and art.

She produced numerous drafts of The Fairy King since high school before self-publishing the finished product through Indiana-based publisher Xlibris last June.

In November she attended the Miami Book Fair in Florida, sponsored by Xlibris, where she signed copies of her novel and met new fans.

“It was a pretty wonderful and amazing experience,” Porter said. “It was great meeting all these different people, and actually getting to meet and talk with my readers face to face as an actual human being, and kind of get my name and ideas and work out there.”

Porter, who is an alumna of and a support worker at CEDA Pathways, will now shift her focus to a couple other projects including a creative nonfiction piece and a manga series, which she plans to illustrate herself.