This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Sophie Duncan. Her most recent publication is Sacrifice of An Angel. Magical Forensics Thanks very much to C.J. for hosting me today as part of the Blogger Book Fair. C. J. asked me to write about the magical forensics my sister and I developed for our book, Sacrifice of An Angel. It is the first book in a new-adult contemporary fantasy series called The Haward Mysteries that mixes the modern British crime drama with magic, demons and all manner of dark arts. I write this series with my twin […]
fantasy
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This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Wendy S. Russo, the author of January Black. My Five Favorite Dragons in Fantasy 5. Falkor – The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende, 1979 Like every kid from the ‘80s who read the English translation of the Neverending Story, I saw the movie first. Falkor was a friendly and fluffy creature with far more in common with puppy dog than a dragon. He was ever so nice, plucking Atreyu out of the Swamps of Sadness and flying almost ten thousand miles to boy’s next challenge while […]
This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Sharon Bayliss. Her most recent publication is The Charge. How to Rewrite History: A Guide for Novelists and Dictators Manipulating historical events, either for an alternate history novel or to deceive the masses, takes a lot of research. Personally, my experience in re-writing history comes from writing my alternate history fantasy, The Charge (not from being a ruthless overlord). In The Charge, the state of Texas never joins the United States and instead becomes an independent nation. I’ve complied a set a tips for how to […]
I’m participating in the 2013 Blogger Book Fair! I’m excited about the great group of authors and bloggers participating, and I hope everyone will have a great time. I wrote the following guest posts for other authors and bloggers as part of the fair (links will be added as the posts go live): Beyond the Magic – for Sophie Duncan Interview with Daniel Sherrier Writing as a Man for Wendy Russo, with an extra spotlight here Writing Fight Scenes for D. H. Aire Managing Reader Expectations Through Cover Art for Sharon Bayliss Excerpt from The King’s Sword and Interview for Yolanda Renee […]
This guest post is part of the 2013 Blogger Book Fair and was written by Daniel Sherrier, the author of RIP: Touch, a paranormal novella series, and Earths in Space vol. 1: Where Are the Little Green Men?. Making paranormal rules is fun! I’m writing a series about ghosts, but before I started, I had to figure something out: What on Earth can ghosts do? If I was writing a series about police officers, I’d need to research and learn about the laws governing their behavior on the job. If I was writing about tigers, I’d need to learn everything I […]
I’m writing this partly because I was inspired by this post at SF Signal, in which Zack Jernigan conducts the first part of a round-table interview focused on writing about race in science fiction and fantasy (SFF). I’ve also been asked about race and racial issues in my writing by some readers and thought I could shed some light on my perspective. Unlike Zack, I don’t have a varied and accomplished panel of interviewees to make excellent points, so I’m attempting to do this myself. I’m a white, Anglo-Saxon, middle-class American. I don’t have personal experience of being the outsider […]
Today we have a guest post from Dave Higgins on vampire stories and myths. Thanks to Dave, I’ve added more works to my To Be Read list (which is long enough to last years already!). Please check out Dave’s website and work too. I’ve added links throughout the post. The links on author names to go the author page on Goodreads, where you can find reviews of the books as well as easily find other books by the same authors. The links on individual titles go to the Amazon page for that book. In the case of series, I’ve linked […]
Today we have a guest post on animals in fantasy from Jennifer Priester, author of the Mortal Realm Witch series. Thanks to her, I’ve added about 15 books to my To-Be-Read list, and I hope you will too! I’ve added links throughout the post. The links on author names to go the author page on Goodreads, where you can find reviews of the books as well as easily find other books by the same authors. The links on individual titles go to the Amazon page for that book. In the case of series, I’ve linked to the first book in […]
The Marquis de Carabas of Neil Gaiman‘s Neverwhere is a fascinating character. Dangerous, charming, insulting, and heroic, he’s full of contradictions and larger than life. For a fantasy reader, I was embarrassingly late to discover Neil Gaiman. I had read very little urban fantasy, and I bought Neverwhere on impulse, not really sure what to expect. I loved it! Problem: Neil Gaiman set my expectations for urban fantasy almost impossibly high. The back cover reads: Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he […]
Caveat: I don’t believe in rules for writing. This post isn’t meant to be a list of things you must do, or must not do. Fantasy can be as realistic, or as unrealistic, as you wish. Neither is necessarily better; they’re just different. This post is meant only to serve as a brainstorming exercise. It is meant to raise questions that might help you as you think about your story and your world. You are more than welcome to throw any or all of it out for any given story. As a fantasy writer, it can sometimes be tempting to […]