AUTHOR’S NOTE

The twelve blind princesses. Golden flowers that drift from a kind maiden’s lips. A queen who may walk across fire because lotus flowers bloom under her feet. Thai folktales such as these fueled my childhood imagination, and it is my and Love’s great pleasure and honor to be able to bring these images to life in The Lotus Flower Champion.

It is important to note, however, that while the abilities showcased in this story are inspired by elements found in Thai folktales, it was never our intention to replicate the rich and complex stories themselves. Rather, we took the liberty of taking pieces from various tales and blending them together to create Xander’s fictional island. Moreover, the overall concepts of the Lotus Flower Champion, a sacred crystal that powers the magic of an entire island, an invisible wall that surrounds the island, robotic monkeys, and the windcuffs are derived from our imaginations. (However, the circumstances and details surrounding these concepts—such as the crocodiles who do not need to eat or darts that fall midair—are inspired by various tales.)

If you would like to learn more about these wonderful folktales—and we strongly encourage that you do!—the following resources have been helpful to us as we wrote The Lotus Flower Champion:

The Rice Birds: Folktales from Thailand, edited and translated by Christian Velder and Katrin A. Velder, White Lotus Press, 2003.

Thai Tales: Folktales of Thailand, retold by Supaporn Vathanaprida and edited by Margaret Read MacDonald, Libraries Unlimited, 1994.

Thai Children’s Favorite Stories: Fables, Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales, by Marian D. Toth, Tuttle Publishing, 2019.

Fascinating Folktales of Thailand, retold and translated by Thanapol (Lamduan) Chadchaidee, Bangkok Books, 2011.

The Fascinating World of Thai Superstitions, by Amy N., 2016.

Happy reading!