Tag: fantasy
-
At World’s Edge
On the edge of the world, an old man had built his house. This house, of old brick, dark wood, and clay tiles of burnt orange, was naught more than a lean-to, though it served his purposes well. In fact, it could hardly be called a lean-to, as it had nothing upon which to lean.…
-
Pomegranate Wine
I arrived in New Orleans’s muggy dawn haze to see a team of men spraying last night’s vomit into the chunky gutters of Bourbon Street. Mucus water rushed down the drains like my romantic hopes for the city, leaving behind a beery stench and your troubled narrator, puzzled over where to begin. Following the example…
-
Upon Finding Your Old Prison Letters Poem
My Upon Finding Your Old Prison Letters poem is from my poetry podcast. I’m reading first from my book Inconveniences, Rightly Considered — a collection of poems I wrote between 2005 and 2017. Featured Download: For a quick tutorial on how to write your own poetry, click here.
-
Doors of Stone release prep : Kingkiller Reread Intro
Ten years ago, I read Name of the Wind and felt captured by a kindred spirit who cared deeply about the state of the world, the fantasy canon, and the capacity of prose to be poetry and myth. Five years later, I read Wise Man’s Fear and the feeling compounded as I started noticing layers:…
-
Worldbuilding Checklist for Writers
Every story needs a small, believable world but when you’re worldbuilding for an epic fantasy or historical saga, what can you do? You can apply a simple checklist to the other worlds and cultures that interact with the small, knowable world of your main character — both his foreign and his familiar. I’ll elaborate on each…
-
Bilbo it up.
A few weeks back, Pat Rothfuss challenged us on twitter with the following: Get out there and Bilbo it up! Bare feet! Crispy leaves! Live a little! I want pictures too! pic.twitter.com/Bu8ckvUVl1 — Pat Rothfuss (@PatrickRothfuss) October 18, 2015
-
Contra Graham :: the War to Define YA Meaning and Maturity
Often in literary circles people will “punch down,” as critics of Charlie Hebdo have claimed. But sometimes it’s worse. Sometimes we kick the kids and even the young adult readership. As any family, the literary community is messy. We have a great many flaws to work through. But one issue that can wait no longer…
-
My Commentary on the Slice of Life Ballad
The following comes from the original email in which I delivered my manuscript to Ellie for the Slice of Life ballad. I knew that my work can be kind of dense at times, so I used the postscript of the document to write her an explanation. It explains the major thrust of the poem :: Hey sister, Though…
-
New Free Stories from Conference Readings
For the convenience of my fellow conference attendees, I added the stories that I read during the Bedtime Stories reading series.
-
Quick Poll ::
[polldaddy poll=8328706] [polldaddy poll=8328714]
-
050: La Fin du Monde
Read the world’s ending in a book again today and I laughed not out of disrespect but determination to laugh I’ve determined laughter helps us finish strong. It’s not the first book today printed whose themes feature the end of the world it’s a popular transition from fantasy to science fiction to move from eschatology…