For some young artists, it can take a bit of time to discover which tools (which medium, or genre, or career pathway) will truly suit them best. For me, although many different art forms attract me, the tools that I find most natural and comfortable are language and oil paint; I've also learned that as someone with a limited number of spoons it's best to keep my toolbox clean and simple. My husband, by contrast, thrives with a toolbox absolutely crowded to bursting, working with language, voice, musical instruments, puppets, masks animated on a theater stage, computer and video imagery, and half a dozen other things besides, no one of these tools more important than the others, and all somehow working together. For other artists, the tools at hand might be needles and thread; or a jeweller's torch; or a rack of cooking spices; or the time to shape a young child's day.... To me, it's all art, inside the studio and out. At least it is if we approach our lives that way. Source

McKillip illustrated by Brian Froud
The Borderland Series New American Library Tor Books Harper Prism 1985 to present: a Young Adult shared-world series featuring the intersection between Elfland and human lands generally populated by teenagers runaways and exiles. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales edited by Jack Zipes. Works


Fiction
"The Green Children" The Armless Maiden Tor Books 1995
The Wood Wife Tor Books 1996 (winner of the Mythopoeic Award)
"The Color of Angels" The Horns of Elfland New American Library 1997
The Raven Queen with Ellen Steiber Random House 1999
The Changeling Random House 1995
The Old Oak Wood Series Simon & Schuster (illustrated by Wendy Froud):

A Midsummer Night's Faery Tale 1999
The Winter Child 2000
The Faeries of Spring Cottage 2001

"Red Rock" Century Magazine 2000
The Moon Wife Tor Books forthcoming 2012
Little Owl Viking forthcoming 2012


Nonfiction
"Surviving Childhood" The Armless Maiden Tor Books 1995
"Transformations" Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Expanded Edition) Anchor 1998
Co-writer and editor of Brian Froud's Good Faeries/Bad Faeries Simon & Schuster 2000
"On Tolkien and Fairy Stories" Meditations on Middle-Earth St.

As an artist Windling specializes in work inspired by myth folklore and fairy tales. She received the Solstice Award in 2010 which honors "individuals with a significant impact on the speculative fiction field. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales edited by Jack Zipes.