Weaving African, Chinese, and Norse mythology — and island geography — to build fictional worlds

Debut novelist Giselle Vriesen read fantasy books as an escape when she was a teen on Salt Spring Island, but she never saw her heritage reflected. Young adult fantasy is a popular book genre, but it’s often rooted in Greek, or other western mythologies. On this episode of This is Vancouver Island, she talks about building worlds based on mythology from her own Jamaican, Chinese, and European-Canadian backgrounds — and how she couldn’t help but include some rainforests and oceans too. Her first book, called Why We Play with Fire, is out now.