Fairy Godmother Academy

About Jan Bozarth

Jan Bozarth was raised in an international family in Texas in the sixties, the daughter of a Cuban mother and a Welsh father. She danced in a ballet company at eleven, started a dream journal at thirteen, joined a surf club at sixteen, studied flower essences at eighteen, and went on to study music, art, and poetry in college. As a girl, she dreamed of a life that would weave these different interests together. Her dream came true when she grew up and had a big family and a music and writing career. Jan is now a grandmother and writes stories and songs for young people. Jan credits her own mother, Dora, with handing down her wisdom: Dream big and never give up.
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Author Archives: Jan Bozarth

Cherish Each Unique Moment

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Hello Dreamers:

Today is Halloween in the year 2009. There will only be one of this particular day in my life and so I try to pay attention to details. The Texas Book Festival show is tomorrow and a big article about the Fairy Godmother Academy will be in tomorrow morning’s paper. The air is sparkly blue like the sky. I look for something to wear that is this color of blue so I will sparkle too. The leaves on the bush by my door are my favorite color- chartreuse. I want to wear the day the way the plants and sky do. People get ready to play music in Austin where Halloween is a gigantic party. I want to immerse myself in it so I dance around the house to the songs on the radio and write a song too. I am aware of my happiness.

My Knowledge: I know it is Halloween.

My Understanding: This is the only Halloween in 2009 and the only day of my life that will have these things in just this way.

My Wisdom: Knowing when “good” cannot be better.

I Won’t Forget.

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Last Friday I spoke to 100 5th grade girls in a school outside of Houston. This was the official kick-off school event for my Birdie’s Book tour. The day before I was interviewed on Fox’s Good Day Houston. Live television is unpredictable and scary, but I got through it with a bit of humor and a stellar musical performance by 12-year-old Gabby Gillespie, who is not afraid of anything.

So I was not prepared for shaky knees and welling eyes as I stood in the back of the Alexander Elementary library watching girls file in one by one, class by class. I was deeply aware that they were the answer to the question, ” Why did I write this story?” Bad timing for a speaker to cry just before going on. This is how I know something is true to the core of my being. Tears just happen, and there is nothing I can do to compose myself. I wiped my eyes and went out there and spoke about the books and the other things I had created—for them. Continue reading →

My Interview with New Moon

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I’m very proud to have gotten a five-moon review from Raspberry at Luna’s Book Club on New Moon Girls Online. New Moon is a great site where a lot of smart, cool girls share their creative spirits.

1.) Hi Jan! As I read your book 1, I was wondering, did you have to do lots of research on plants and nature to be able to make Birdie’s love for plants come to life?

Jan: I am a gardener in my area in central Texas but also asked my sister who lives in Denver and has gardened in England to help me. We researched the area where Granny Mo lives in the book, New Jersey, to make sure the plants we chose could really grow there. But I also added fantasy plants both at Mo’s and in Aventurine and some of the plants in Mo’s green house wouldn’t ordinarily grow in that area, but Mo is magic! It would be fun to see if girls who read the book can find out which plants are real and which ones are fantasy. I also love love love trees so it was easy to imagine the Glimmer Tree and make it play a major role in the story. The natural world has always been a source of inspiration for me. It is there that I feel most alive. Continue reading →

I Am A Dreamer.

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Always have been and always will be. If it was going to get squashed out of me, it would have happened by now.

I’ve spent years song-writing, dancing, singing, and creating other expressions of inner joy and angst. About 4 years ago I realized it all had a common thread—a story I have been writing all my life. If you are on this blog, you have either read it or heard about it: The Fairy Godmother Academy. I first saw the world of these books in a series of lucid dreams that started when I was about 9 years old. My dream world was colored a certain way—oranges with shooting beams of light and greens so beautiful they hurt the eyes. There were houses with strange rooms and many doors and windows from which to choose. I saw gardens and plants that may or may not exist in your world.

I flew a lot.

And I levitated when the menacing black cat was about to attack.
I heard songs that I brought back to the daytime world.
I worked out real life issues in dreamtime.
I had powers there.
And I could still feel these powers sometimes in the twilight of waking.

I journaled all of this from age thirteen on. This is how I tended my “little flame”—my creative spirit. Do you remember your dreams? How do you nurture your little flame, your creativity?

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