New authors found support, inspiration at annual conference

You could say that Heather Dixon danced her way into writing. It was while she was taking a "bunch of dance classes" at BYU that she started thinking about one of her favorite fairy tales — the story of the 12 dancing princesses — and about writing her own version of it.

"I've always liked fairy tales. They are so visual. And I really, really loved that story," she said.

The visual quality is important to Dixon, who works as a storyboard artist. Truth be told, she says, "I'm probably more into the untraditional ways to tell a story, things such as comic books and radio shows, rather than books."

As a storyboard artist, she takes a movie script and turns it into art panels. "It's a mid-production step in animation," she says. She thought about doing a storyboard project on her princesses, "but the idea of a book just wouldn't let me alone."

It took her four years to write the book, but it was published this spring: "Entwined," (Greenwillow, $17.99). It tells a story filled with adventure and magic, as well as the importance of family as the princesses deal with the mysterious Keeper, try to break an evil spell and straighten things out with their widowed father. There's also a lot of dancing — not generic dancing, but specific dances that the princesses learn to perform such as waltzes and reels and polkas and the magical Entwine with its binding capabilities.

Dixon's own favorite dance is the Viennese Waltz. She grew up in Davis County in a large family — four brothers and six sisters — so she also know all about getting along with siblings, one reason she likes the story of 12 princesses.

Matthew Kirby's protagonists, on the other hand, are children who are all pretty much alone dealing with the harsh realities of street life and poverty in early New York City until they find each other.

Giuseppe is an orphaned street musician under the control of a nasty master; Frederick is an apprentice clockmaker with a past he can't remember; Hannah does have a family, but must work as a drudge in a grand hotel. The story of how mysterious circumstances bring them together and how they complement each other like the turning gears of a clock is told in Kirby's debut novel, "The Clockwork Three" (Scholastic Press, $17.99).

Kirby, who grew up in Utah but lived all over the country because his father was in the Navy, majored in history at Utah State University but went on to earn graduate degrees in school psychology and works as a school psychologist in Davis County.