Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

Grounding the strange

I’m having a fascinating time moving into the world of the fantasy novel. How lucky we are in SF/F to have such a diverse genre to play in!

In late August, my first fantasy, A Thousand Perfect Things comes out. I thought long and hard about what kind of fantasy to begin with. For awhile I considered a traditional fantasy, but some reason, I find the usual epic fantasy is not a style I relish. (Still, I love it when others pull it off well, like Martin, Erickson, Weeks, Abercrombie.) Nor am I comfortable with softer worlds of hedge-wizards and courtesans. It’s too easy-going, maybe. I like something a bit stranger than that.

I think what I love about fantasy as altered history is that I can create unusual and fun worlds and still have a tether to the familiar. Read More…

Fantasies as re-imagined history

Gloriana

Right now on Black Gate magazine: Mucking with the Mundane, my take on fantasies set in alternate historical periods.

How do authors get readers to abandon what they know about what already happened and take a ride with the fantastical?

I look at Moorcock’s Gloriana, Card’s Alvin Maker series and such works as Novik’s Temeraire series.

If you haven’t checked out the excellent Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature, try it now!

 

The lovely deep of the fantastic

Jemison cover

Cover of a recent favorite fantasy book, N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

When people ask me why I write science fiction and fantasy–or more often, why I don’t write, say, mysteries or mainstream–there is likely a question

lurking underneath: Why would I want to write sf/f?

I’m going to trot out this answer from now on: Mainstream is too restrictive for me.

Or, if I want to sound like a pompous twit (thanks for the great phrase, Don McQuinn) I could say that my mind just slips into metaphor. Because the fantastic is a meta-representation of the story. Read More…

Help pick my new cover art

I’m very excited to announce that I have a new novel coming out. This is a project I’ve been working on for several years. It’s an epic tale of magic in a reimagined England and India, where a Victorian woman dares to take on the scientific establishment — and the British Raj. The title is  A Thousand Perfect Things– available in late August from Premier Digital Publishing. Read More…

Nonfiction Inspires Fiction

It’s all cannon fodder. Everything you do, are, and think about goes into your fiction. Why? First of all, you can’t help it. You are your best source of experiences and facts. Next, you need tons of material to write short stories and novels; you have to mine the world to get stuff.

Short Stories from Newspapers

Take nonfiction, for example. If you’re like me, you do read nonfiction, for general education, out of curiosity about things, and to get a break from fiction. But often nonfiction will spark stories. Read More…