The Storybearer: In the Realm of the Flower Phoenix — Jack Tate

The Storybearer: In the Realm of the Flower Phoenix, revolves around an ancient Chinese scroll book -The Flower Phoenix. The first three panels of the Flower Phoenix scroll-book were originally created by the Tang Dynasty's greatest poet - Li Bai and one of the dynasty's greatest artists - Wu DaoZi. Both artists are creative geniuses and in the novel they are inspired by the same woman - the legendary beauty Yang Mei (Plum Blossom) who they name the Flower Phoenix. The tale has historical as well as fantasy elements with a style adapted from magical realism and Chinese storytelling traditions. Yang Mei's comes from an artistic family, and she creates the Flower Phoenix handscroll which she passes down to the next generation. Each subsequent generation of female artists adds to the Flower Phoenix handscroll. The keepers of the Flower Phoenix are called Storybearers. When the storybearer tells the story of the Flower Phoenix, the story comes alive and the storybearer brings the listeners into the Realm of the Flower Phoenix. The book opens with one hundred year old Mable "Peach Blossom" Yang in her role as storybearer for the final time. She is handing over the Flower Phoenix scroll on the night of her one hundredth birthday. The book is 40,000 words in length. In the Realm of the Flower Phoenix will be the first, potentially, in a series of six Storybearer stories. Each subsequent book will feature a different Chinese dynasty, the: Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. Each book in the series will relate the fascinating history of each dynasty as well as the arts, music and culture of the time.