A few years back (oh, 2009 or so) I started making novel playlists. These are songs that, somehow, evoke a character, a scene, or the overall story for me. A lot of times it’s related to lyrics, and I find
The Differences Between Urban and Contemporary Fantasy
As we touched on just barely during the Subgenre Study, while many people consider urban and contemporary fantasy to be synonymous, they’re not actually. Examples! Story 1 takes place in modern times in a major city. The story is both
Creating New Worlds
I was out with some of the guys from my speculative fiction writing group the other night (and let me tell you how lovely it is to belong to a group where everyone writes science fiction and fantasy, though the
Friendship in Fiction
As you know, Squiders, I am a giant, tribble-carrying Trekkie, and occasionally I get lost on Trek-related tumblrs that then eat half of my morning. (Let us not talk about this morning.) But today I learned something about my very
Working With Mythology When No One Agrees On Anything: Angel Mythology
How’s that for a mouthful of a title? I’m rather proud of it. So, my book Shards, coming out in December, has a lot of mythology mixed into it. The main mythology is Biblical, specifically relating to angels, so I
Howl’s Moving Castle Readalong: House of Many Ways
Did you find this one a tiny bit unsatisfying too, Squiders? I think I’ve finally figured out why both this one and Castle in the Air leave you feeling a little grumpy, and that’s that the main character isn’t the
The Future of Fantasy
Well, now that we’ve spent six weeks exploring some common fantasy races, we can start to look at fantasy trends instead. If you guys are familiar with fantasy, you know it goes through trends. We’ve been in an urban fantasy
Fantasy Race Series: Elves
Wrapping up our fascinating fantasy race series is KD Sarge, here to tell us about elves. Like faeries, elves are an extremely versatile race, with many different interpretations, from tall, ethereal creatures to small, trickster types. They tend to be
Fantasy Race Series: Faeries
Moving away from the mysteries of the deep, this week we travel into another element and take a look at faeries. Fairies, fae, nature spirits, trickster spirits…faeries go by many names and more guises. They can be tiny, mischievous creatures,
Fantasy Race Series: Mermaids
This week we veer away from the undead and the angelic and look into a race with that generates more of a splash. Ah, mermaids, temptresses of the sea. Sometimes they frolick through the waves, sometimes they lead sailors to
