Monthly Archives: April 2012
Life
I’m grateful to be alive. I don’t always say it, but it’s true. Things could have gone much worse when I had my accident. Also, as long as I’m alive, I know that things will change. Circumstances may get better, … Continue reading
Posted in Gratitude
12 Comments
Z is for Zelazny and Zette
Roger Zelazny largest body of work is The Chronicles of Amber. Amber has everything you could want in an epic fantasy — magic, swordplay, internecine rivalry, missing persons. . . . I hate to call it epic, though, as our … Continue reading
Y is for You Never Know
I had real trouble with this one. I couldn’t come up with any Y words that directly said “epic fantasy.” I played with ideas, like using a list including words like yataghan and yogurt to talk about how specificity aids … Continue reading
Christmas Tree Farm Murders for sale
My alter ego, Sara Penhallow, has published her first mystery. As soon as I figure out this “Multisite” functionality of WordPress 3.0, I’ll be creating a blog for her on her page, although I won’t be updating it as often … Continue reading
Posted in fiction, Hartshorn Publishing
Tagged mystery, River Corners Mysteries, Sara Penhallow
6 Comments
X is for Xanadu
Xanadu is not, properly speaking, epic fantasy. Xanadu is the Mongolian name for the summer capital of the Yuan Dynasty, Shangdu. However, the name has passed into Western culture filled with overtones of a more magical place. From its first … Continue reading
Posted in A to Z 2012
8 Comments
W is for world-building
World-building is an important exercise, even outside of speculative fiction. Authors need to decide where to set their story, and if they use a fictional town or city, it still has to feel real. Still, for me, I find more … Continue reading
Posted in A to Z 2012
Tagged Kate Elliott, Patricia Wrede, secondary worlds, world-building
14 Comments
I’d Rather Write about Interesting Times
This is a guest post from Karina Fabian, author of the recently released Live and Let Fly. (See previous post for my review.) She’s appearing here as part of her blog tour; you can see the whole calendar for the … Continue reading
V is also for Vern
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I reviewed Magic, Mensa and Mayhem by Karina Fabian last year. (If you haven’t been reading here long, feel free to go read that post and then … Continue reading
V is for Vallejo
That’s Boris Vallejo, illustrator extraordinaire, in case there was any doubt. He’s done other work — at least one Star Trek tie-in novel cover, and National Lampoon’s European Vacation poster, for example — but one of his illustrations of a … Continue reading
U is for unicorns
Unicorns — and other magical beasts — are hallmarks of fantasy. They do not, often cannot, exist within our world, so their mere presence tells us that we are elsewhere and elsewhen, even if we see no overt magic. Unicorns … Continue reading
