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Enter the Secret Realm

Original Art from the Lands of Kalendra

Brainstorming the Waterlands (Forest Steps in Progress)

Forest Steps 24x30 Acrylic on Canvas

After working as a television producer in Los Angeles, I chose to create original stories. Access to nature and living a lifestyle that allowed me to be available for my kids were my highest priorities.

Filmmakers use storyboards to plan movies. I planned the Kalendra Novels by painting the world and its characters.

Kalendra’s forests, mountains, and hidden passes were inspired by the Pacific Northwest, the high desert of New Mexico, and the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. While living outside Kathmandu in a mud-hut village and making my first documentary film, I discovered the ancient Tantric color traditions in the shrines. The peaceful atmosphere made with powerful pastels and bold jewel tones stole my heart. They established my color palette.

Pilgrimages to the sacred shrines in the Kathmandu Valley required the devout to trek hundreds of miles through jungles or brave the Himalayan foothills. When I stood inside the shrine, even without an understanding of their story, I understood why people made that pilgrimage.

The characters. My personal heroes, including professors, advisors, and good friends alike, inspired the magic wizards, their beliefs, and ideas. Those people we call wicked inspired the villains. They threw plenty of challenges in the Keeper's way. Writing their stories was fun.

Six novels so far—and the world is still unfolding.

Follow these footsteps. When you cross beneath the arch, the Portal to Kalendra will open and take you there.

Eventide 36x48 Acrylic on Canvas, 2022

Sylviana Wolfspirit 24x18 Acrylic on Canvas

Explore the Secret Realm

I’ve always been drawn to the spirit of a place. I love how fantasy worlds feel, even before the story unfolds. The artwork you see here is part of that exploration and inspired the stories themselves.

Ariselle (Relle to her friends) 36x36 Acrylic on Canvas

Kassara, Relle's best friend, 36x48 Acrylic on Canvas

The Divide 24x36 Acrylic on Canvas

Six novels so far—and the world is still unfolding.

I drew characters in a variety of ways.

Secret Passage 12x12 Acrylic on Birch Board

From Kris Campbell’s Journal: The Crystal Pillars

My early drawings for the Divide (shown above) led to another question.

Instead of crossing a single, massive gap—what if the danger never stopped?
What if every step required courage?

That’s how the Divide—a split plateau inspired by the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos, New Mexico—evolved into something far more dangerous: the Land of the Crystal Pillars. Like the canyon that defined the Divide, sheer glass walls edged each pillar, leaving vast gaps between them. There was no safe path. The only way forward was to jump. Hesitation could be fatal. I knew my characters would have to cross under pressure, without time to plan or think.

I didn’t invent that fear.

Years earlier, I was crossing a glacier on Mount Olympus in Washington State. It was late afternoon when we left the Snowdome lookout, the Pacific Ocean visible in the distance. On the way out, we’d carefully walked around the glacier field—but on the return, tired and rushed, the long route felt impossible.

We followed a trail in the snow that we thought was well-traveled to a region of dark soil in the center. We thought it was solid ground.

(It wasn’t.)

The trail vanished into ice, dusted with fresh snow. Suddenly, we were standing on a glacier, surrounded by crevasses—deep blue walls dropping toward a river far below. Some were hidden beneath fragile snow bridges. The sun was setting. The temperature was dropping.

There were no more footsteps to follow. One wrong step could send us into the ice and sweep us away beneath the glacier.

We used our ice axes to test every step. More than once, my axe found nothing solid beneath the snow.

We made it across—but the terror of that crossing stayed with me.

Years later, it resurfaced while I was drawing.

Kris Campbell—Arendel, if you prefer his Kalendrian name—fell six thousand feet while crossing the Crystal Pillars. He didn’t know it, but powerful magic slowed his fall. At the bottom, two Magic Wolves—Jetson and Shantini—carried him to safety.

Their guardian was Sylviana Wolfspirit. She goes by Sylvia. She looks more like a model than a powerful mage—but in Kalendra, appearances are rarely what they seem.

You can read their love story in Fire Goddess.

Backstory. How these drawings inspired this world.

The Keepers must cross these Crystal Pillars. Between each is a 6,000-foot drop. Relle leads her friends, but Kassara reads Kris's story, perplexed that anyone could survive that terrifying drop.