2. Charles de Lint Charles de Lint has been writing urban fantasy, mixing elements of Native American and Celtic folklore, for a long time. Many of his earlier stories, such as Moonheart , Jack the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon (both later republished together as Jack of Kinrowan ), Ascian in Rose , Westlin Wind and Ghostwood (later collected and republished as the single volume Spiritwalk ) explored this, using the city of Ottawa as a backdrop. The fictional city of Newford became the stage for novellas such as "Ghosts of Wind and Shadows", "Our Lady of the Harbour", "The Wishing Well", The Dreaming Place ; short story collections such as Dreams Underfoot and The Ivory and the Horn ; and novels such as Memory and Dream , Trader , and Someplace to be Flying . THE ONION GIRL Anyone who's ever visited Charles de Lint's mythical North American city of Newford knows Jilly Coppercorn. Artist, visionary, friend, described by de Lint as "the heart and soul of Newford." She moves from story to story, book to book, the sort of person who knows and is known by just about everyone. From her first cameo appearance in the short story "Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair" (reprinted in de Lint's short story collection Dreams Underfoot ), all the way to his most recent book, she's been a constant intertwining thread, a shining beacon of belief and friendship. For she sees magic, and believes, and in doing so, makes it just a little more real for the rest of us. For years, she's existed on the periphery of the stories, aiding and advising her friends, often acting as a witness to events the rest of us would never believe in. Thus far, we've only been allowed the occasional glimpse into the danger-fraught life that made her the woman we know, as in the story "In The House Of My Enemy" (originally published in Dreams Underfoot , reprinted in The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors , edited by Terri Windling). Until now, we've never been close enough to truly know her, for all that she is known. But at long last, Jilly Coppercorn's starring in her own story.