"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." 

Hans Christian Anderson

A Welcome From Me

Hello. I’m Susan C. Ramirez, author of The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow. Thank you for visiting my website.


Now that I have recounted the wonder tales of fairies, I would like to tell you some of my own true stories of wonder.  They can be read here on my blog’s continuing posts.


Wonder is my first memory. Just like in The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow, I was riding through the woods on my father’s shoulders.


I felt something. The feeling was strange, strong, and good. The feeling pulled me into it, and I disappeared. The woods was all there was.


I was too young then to put into words what had sucked me up and swallowed me whole, but I know now it was wonder. Since then, I have felt wonder countless times, and not only in the woods and other wilds of the natural world. I have felt wonder in big cities, as I created the fairytales, and many other places as well.


Wonder encourages wondering, a journey through the mind. A journey that sometimes travels through whereabouts mysterious, bewildering and even frightening. But that’s wonder for you.


It’s an adventure. And adventures aren’t safe. So be it.


In the woods began my wonders. What follow are particles of the wonders and wonderings that have composed my life ever since.


I am made of wonderdust.


As are we all.

Susan C Ramirez, Author Bedford County, PA

Susan C. Ramirez

AUTHOR

Susan C. Ramirez grew up in a working-class family in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Her family could not afford to buy a house, so they rented one half of an ordinary suburban duplex. But what they did have as theirs, at least in part, was the woodland hollow with its extraordinary cabin Susan describes in The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow. It was there Susan as a young girl first fell under the magnetic spell of Mother Nature and her awesome magic.​


Yet, when Susan became an adult, she had to earn her keep. This reality compelled her to move to Washington, D.C. where she consecutively managed two committees of the U.S. Senate and directed the National Women’s Political Caucus. After that, because by then she was among the way too few financially privileged with choices, Susan chose to be a stay-at-home mom, a wonderful gig that lasted seventeen years.​


During all her many fantastic adventures throughout that long time, Susan never stopped imagining she would someday come home to the hollow. And finally, she did.​


Now Susan lives there. Her current cabin is a quaint and cozy little house full of peculiarities, imperfections, and memories that give the modest home an air of true enchantment. Sharing the same captivating abode are Susan’s loving husband, a charmer of a dog named Ember, and an imp of a cat named Pia.​


As for Mother Nature, she is still in the hollow, gracing Susan's life with her awesome magic. As she graces your life anywhere on the good Earth you happen to be.


Photo: ADAPT Creative Co.

Susan C. Ramirez grew up in a working-class family in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Her family could not afford to buy a house, so they rented one half of an ordinary suburban duplex. But what they did have as theirs, at least in part, was the woodland hollow with its extraordinary cabin Susan describes in The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow. It was there Susan as a young girl first fell under the magnetic spell of Mother Nature and her awesome magic.​


Yet, when Susan became an adult, she had to earn her keep. This reality compelled her to move to Washington, D.C. where she consecutively managed two committees of the U.S. Senate and directed the National Women’s Political Caucus. After that, because by then she was among the way too few financially privileged with choices, Susan chose to be a stay-at-home mom, a wonderful gig that lasted seventeen years.​


During all her many fantastic adventures throughout that long time, Susan never stopped imagining she would someday come home to the hollow. And finally, she did.​


Now Susan lives there. Her current cabin is a quaint and cozy little house full of peculiarities, imperfections, and memories that give the modest home an air of true enchantment. Sharing the same captivating abode are Susan’s loving husband, a charmer of a dog named Ember, and an imp of a cat named Pia.​


As for Mother Nature, she is still in the hollow, gracing Susan's life with her awesome magic. As she graces your life anywhere on the good Earth you happen to be.

The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow

Now Available on Amazon

In The Fairytales of Lightfall Hollow, magical creatures from a magical realm share their life experiences and lessons learned to help humanity with its struggles.


Written by Susan C. Ramirez and illustrated by Kathy Hebner, included in the fantastical treasury for ages 8 through adult are twenty-one stories of imagination, wonder, hope, courage, joy, and the like about:


  • the first fairies, their creation and purpose
  • fairy dust ingredients, manufacture, and use
  • fairy color mania and your fairy-given name
  • Red, the first and only queen of the fairies
  • Gold's house, the dream home of all fairies
  • fairy wings and fairy flight school
  • a little sea creature moving an ocean
  • naughty Cyclopes and dancing trees
  • a broken-hearted dragon and her BFF
  • alien kids and fairy scientists saving the world
  • the heroism of a misunderstood monster
  • unicorn horns and sasquatch eyes
  • will-o'-the-wisp love and Earth's first ghost
  • giants learning there's no place like home
  • mermaid librarians and the sea cave of stories.
Purchase Now on Amazon
Whether seeking fairy tale stories, books for kids aged 8 and up, or gripping novels for teenagers, Ramirez's portfolio resonates with readers of all ages. Discover more by exploring

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Free E-Book Giveaway in 2024

October 19 & 26,  November 30, December 7 & 14

On the dates given above, the e-book version of the fairytales will be available on Amazon as a free giveaway. Although obtained at no cost to the reader, any customer review of the book written and submitted to Amazon will still be counted as a “verified purchase.” (FYI, a Kindle or other e-reader is not necessary to read the fairytales’ e-book. An e-book can be downloaded and read on any device, including a laptop, desktop, iPad, or smart phone.)

Latest Blog Posts | Allegheny Musings

companions

Companions

By Susan C. Ramirez • 12 Nov, 2024
Rust is associated with disuse and deterioration. While fallen leaves symbolize death. Yet, I cannot think of anything more utilized, growing, and teeming with life than rusty fallen leaves. Just as admirable, they’re fun.
October Leaves With Halloween

October Leaves With Halloween

By Susan C. Ramirez • 28 Oct, 2024
October is the eye-popping beauty of leaves departing in a blaze of glory. As I watch them drop, I can’t help but wonder if they are also dropping a hint that their way of leaving is a magnificent way to go.

The Trees and Me

By Susan C. Ramirez • 04 Oct, 2024
Closer to the cabin, standing in between the back deck and the pond, is a shagbark hickory named Hickman. He is a lovely tree, but at this time of year, I consider him way too close for comfort. Because in the fall, Hickman typically releases the hundreds of hickory nuts he has been producing since spring. The nuts, encased in a hard husk about the size of a golf ball, hit the deck with a loud thud. Many a knock on the head I have had thanks to Hickman’s indiscriminate liberations. Many a sleepless night I have had thanks to his rackety emancipations.

Grandmas and Godmothers

By Susan C. Ramirez • 03 Sep, 2024
I would beg to differ. Because I find the Alleghenies fascinating. With their current images like squat, stoop-shouldered, wrinkled old grandmas and their dense forests veiled in shadows, there is something mystical about the Allegheny Mountains. As if they are the all-knowing keepers of ancestral wisdom. Within the dark shelter of their woods, hiding secrets we humans are not yet ready to learn.
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