I love Reepicheep. Reepicheep is a talking mouse who appears in three of the seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle. Reepicheep is brave, but sometimes a little too touchy about his own dignity. Eustace, who begins The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a horrible little pill, picks on Reepicheep unmercifully, and Reepicheep fights back, taking great pleasure in embarrassing Eustace. Perhaps because he’s small, surrounded by larger, stronger animals, he takes himself perhaps a little too seriously, unable to laugh at himself because he’s offended. Brave, […]
Monthly Archives: April 2013
7 posts
Joe Konrath hosted Barry Eisler on his blog recently for this article: A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Eisler on Digital Denial. Joe’s comments are at the bottom of the article, and they’re worth reading too. It’s reassuring to me that formerly traditionally published authors are now choosing to publish their own work. Yes, the barriers to entry are lower, and yes, that means less-than-impressive works reach readers. But it also means that authors have many more choices, and many more opportunities to shape their own careers. Generally, I believe choice and options are beneficial, and for far too long, authors have […]
I’ve been asked several times how my stories move from idea to polished story. Every author’s writing process is a little different. Often, every book’s process is different! However, the overall process tends to follow the same patterns, even if the details differ from book to book. Inspiration and Pre-writing A story can be inspired by nearly anything. Generally, my stories start with a scene. Sometimes it’s a conversation between characters, or a critical decision being made, or even just an impression. I’ll write out the scene, and no matter how it turns out, I’ll have questions. Who are these characters? […]
I admit it. I’m a Scarlet Pimpernel fan and have been since high school. I first saw the 1982 movie (link to IMDB) (link to Amazon) starring Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy (absolutely brilliant!), Jane Seymour as Marguerite, and Ian McKellan as Chauvelin. I was hooked, and hunted down all the books I could find. The movie condenses a number of the novels, so if you read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, you may be a little… surprised? In any case, you don’t get the same final conclusion at the end of the novel as you do at […]
Puddleglum is a marsh-wiggle from C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, part of the Chronicles of Narnia (more info on Wikipedia). He enters the story as a pessimistic wet blanket of a character (somewhat like Eeyore, actually, whom I also love!). I love his pessimistic side, even though he notes that he is uncommonly cheerful for a marsh-wiggle (one wonders what the others are like!). As Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum search for Prince Rilian, who disappeared a decade before, they enter the Underland, the realm of the Emerald Witch. Despite the fact that Puddleglum is not particularly courageous, talented, charming, or fierce, […]
Tor.com has a post titled “Fantasy, Reading, and Escapism.” Fiction reading, particularly fantasy and science fiction, are sometimes derided as “escapist” and somehow less worthwhile than other forms of literature. Escapism isn’t a bad thing. How else am I going to be an amazing swordsman, a slave, a Roman soldier, or an aristocrat? Much less all in the same day? But I think there’s more to fantasy than just escapism. Sure, there’s plenty of bad fantasy out there (perhaps more than some other genres). But fantasy is also a, pardon the word, fantastic way of exploring the full range of […]
Iola Goulton recently posted a nice review of The King’s Sword on her blog ChristianReads. I especially liked the fact that the story was character-driven, as this meant the author managed to tell the story without descending into violence and abuse (I haven’t read Game of Thrones, but found the TV series far too dark and violent for my tastes). I don’t need a thrust-by-thrust description of the sword fight – I want to know what happened and how it affects the characters, and The King’s Sword managed this well. …(re: being written in first person:) Personally, I found that he had […]