If Mary Shaffer
wrote a fantasy novel,
what would it be about?
A boy and a girl who live in a cage in the boudoir of the Queen of the Giants.
A wizard without a name who takes one of them away.
A paradox, a wager, and a caveat.
An unbreakable love at the center of an impossible game.
by Mary Shaffer
Coming Summer 2025
“Wick,” said Arrow, “what if we are the only two humans left in the world?”
Wick and Arrow live in a cage in the boudoir of the Queen of the Giants and have never met any humans but each other. Then a wizard takes one of them away. As Arrow grows up without the boy who taught her to be human, she faces the impossible demands of an unbreakable love.
With echoes of “The Snow Queen,” this folkloric fantasy novel invites adult readers to ask childlike questions about loss of innocence, human resilience, and our perennial longing to be fully known.
As a theatre artist, I have a strong vision for tangible (touchable, seeable, smellable) embodiments of spiritual-intellectual encounters. The object of the book as a thing of beauty has always seemed to me a critical part of the experience of reading it. I chose to independently publish Wick and Arrow so I could artistically shape its design and printing.
In addition to a stunning book design evoking the lushness of Art Nouveau fairytale collections, Wick and Arrow will have ten hand-drawn illustrations.
—Mary Shaffer
“We can’t unchange, Arrow. It’s the one thing we can’t do.”