About Us

ABOUT ME – Sandy Solis

Thank you for visiting the Spirit Wings site! The following discourse will endeavor to explain the “WHY” behind this book series. Spirit Wings books are only the beginning! Graphic novels and video games are a must as well, not to mention the vision of making full-length major motion pictures for each book.

Sandy has always been interested in the next generation, to encourage and inspire their greatness to emerge and help them “build on our ceiling.” That ceiling is defined as the baby boomers’ generation. You can begin playing the song [1]Children Are Our Future in your head now… Where was I? Oh, yes, why Young Adult and why fantasy books? The Spirit Wings book series came from a single “seed” that seemed to have been in her mind even as a teen. She just didn’t know exactly what this one character in her head was all about until she began to “flesh him out” and write a storyline. She felt like it was a partnership with the divine!

It's about friendship, yes, and about changing the world and looking beyond one’s own interests to the big picture. Morality is a theme, and maybe only a little preachy in book one. But as she grew spiritually and emotionally, the religious stiffness fell off! You will find institutional religion and witchcraft often villainized in this book series. Mental health is explored as the main character, Jesse, learns to lean into the pain and deal with his demons (real and imagined). While the narrative is that humans are innately wicked, redemption is blaringly bright throughout! Not forced redemption or a rigid set of rules for redemption (there is religion popping up again), but hope, faith, and good news amidst the struggles and pain. Sandy desires to instill assurance that life is worth living and living to the fullest of each person’s potential.

Sandy’s potential as a writer was unexpected. Dyslexia was diagnosed in second grade, but her reading level, surprisingly, in seventh grade, was at a ninth-grade level. She was more surprised than her parents by this fact. Sandy didn’t read that much back then, a few classics like Ten Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, a few books on interior decorating, and color psychology by Max Lüscher of Basel, Switzerland. Did that make her sound weird or interesting? You decide.

Moving on. She began writing in her fifties after a tornado devastated her ranch in Oklahoma. You think, “No big surprise, it’s Oklahoma after all.”  She always told herself, “You are living in a one-hundred-year-old cabin; it has never gotten damaged.” Well, it did in 2007 - all the electrical was ripped out when the roof lifted slightly and dropped back down. Most of the attic insulation, broken glass, and ground-up tree limbs covered the floor, 3 inches thick. It was quite a spectacle. Grass hung between the wall and the ceiling in places. There were gaping holes in the big screen TV. So much for boring details. Sandy home-schooled her daughter at the time and made custom black-light stage puppets. Talking Hand Puppets has been sold, but the business continues to this day. www.thppuppets.com is the site where you can see the bulk of the puppets designed by Sandy. She still loves anything black light to this day, including in her wardrobe. 

The process: Sandy published book one, The Academy, around 2011. She rendered all the artwork from the cover to the chapter illustrations and “Types and Shadows” feature using software called Poser Pro. Now let’s take a rabbit trail– why are Jesse’s eyes purple in her computer-generated images? Sandy loved anime growing up, and graphic novels were her original intention for writing, but when they morphed into books, she kept the purple eyes; it’s fantasy, after all.  It’s a free license for purple eyes, don’t cha think? At the time of this writing, Sandy has completed seven books in the series, published 3 websites, and added merch on T-spring - https://linktr.ee/spiritwingsproductions. Possibly ten books will complete the series, but don’t hold her to that. To hear about the prophetic dynamic of the books, see www.biblerockonline.com.

A few parallels to the Harry Potter series are as follows:

Both have the main character labeled as “The Chosen One.” The first setting is a school with gothic structures; it is mountainous. The storyline features three young friends. While HP has two guys and a girl, Spirit Wings has two girls and a guy. That pretty much completes the comparison. Oh, wait, they both have creatures, witches, imps, and dark characters. Magic is replaced with miracles and divine intervention; Sandy’s series does not glorify witches. Sandy’s books have Nephilim, angels, and obelisks. HP has houses where people are sorted into, and Sandy has tribes fashioned after the twelve tribes of Israel. Both have basilisks in the storyline. 

Moving on! Let’s look at how each book features and celebrates a culture. Book 1, The Academy, starts out in Spanish Harlem, and Latino culture is explored. Ruby and Manuel are the main Hispanic characters, but there are several others. A few Spanish phrases are found in the dialogue, along with tortillas and tamales. “Hijole!” Juan exclaims. (Pronounced: “Eee hoe lay.”) Ana says, weeping, “Bye-bye, mijo.” (Pronounced “Meehoe,” slang meaning baby boy.) These are examples of slang used in Book One.

Book 2, The Cave of Abigor, features some Scottish characters, including stomp dancers with violins and plaid clothing. Wanda, a Slavic gypsy, and her band of thieves join the storyline. 

Book 3, The House of Asher, has “all things” Jewish. Jewish wedding traditions, yarmulkas, Latkes, prayer shawls, Jewish surnames, and the list goes on…

Book 4, Scepters of the Kings, features Ukrainians, stuffed cabbage, and Yiddish phrases are used in places. The gang travels to Israel, where many historic places are mentioned.

Book 5, The Landing Strip, features Rory McAlister, a Scottish man with a mohawk and plaid attire, and Blake, a man of Scottish descent. The food reference is expensive Scottish whiskey. 

Buzzing on to book 6, The Jade Seal, reveals Sandy’s love for Asia and K-pop. As she is a student of the Korean language, many Korean words and phrases are in the storyline. Juk porridge and a Korean pottery wheel called a Kerokuro are highlighted. The gang travels to South Korea, and K-pop culture is included in the storyline.

Book 7 The Sound of Heaven, introduces Jet, a Chinese youth who has an impact on the three main characters. Some basic Mandarin phrases are in this book. Jet continues to be an integral member of the gang as the books move forward.

So, there you have it. Some of the “whys” Sandy has so much passion for this book series. Thanks for coming along on the journey. -Sandy Solis, author of the Spirit Wings book series.

 

 

[1] Whitney Houston -Children Are Our Future by Clive Davis.