"Places Are Really Magical"

"I don't know if it was a conscious decision with the title so much as a conscious decision on my part to try to mythologize northern California. Having seen most of the United States in my life, I have to say that there is no more beautiful place in the world than northern California. It's simply a startling, strange place, and I'm so affected by places, by settings...that, in a number of the pieces I've written, and especially in Land of Dreams, I've made an effort to mythologize places. Once again to try to force the reader to see that place through my eyes. I'm a real big fan of the notion that places are really magical, and I don't mean "rabbit out of the hat" or "witches and cauldrons" or any of that kind of crap--I mean that they have an absolute irrational effect on the way we feel, on how we view the world and, artistically, I always thought it would be nice to picture northern California. I tried to do it in "Paper Dragons," too. In such a way to make the reader feel about the place as I felt about the place." --James P. Blaylock.