Browsing all articles by Kellie Doherty.
Mythological Creatures: A List Without Dragons
Fantasy has a longstanding relationship with dragons, reaching as far back as ancient Mesopotamian art and literature and as recent as Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa and House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess, both released this year. But there are other fantastic mythological creatures just as fearsome and powerful as dragons. Here is […]
Words of Wisdom from Comic-Con@Home
In a move that probably shocks no one, I went to yet another virtual convention—this time Comic-Con@Home back in July. But this time instead of waxing poetic about how awesome this shift to virtual is or exclaiming how this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some like I did before, this time I wanted to […]
On Writing Fanfiction
Fanfiction is amazing. Hard stop. For those readers who don’t know what fanfiction is, basically it’s where fans of an intellectual property use that property as a basis for their writing. (So, the fanfiction writers actually use the copyrighted settings, characters, etc. in whatever they’re writing—poems, one-shots, short stories.) There’s fanfiction for nearly every type […]
TorCon 2020: V. E. Schwab & Neil Gaiman
Editor’s Note: This post is a wee bit late. My June got a bit crazy and this article got lost in the shuffle. Apologies to the authors and organizers for the late posting. – JI Let’s look back for a moment. It’s the middle of June and COVID-19 is still raging across the lands, changing […]
House Spirits to Keep You Company
Well, friends, there’s no sugarcoating this; we’re in the middle of a pandemic. COVID-19 has ripped through the world and has overturned how we live. Some of us cling to normality while others thrive in the digital workspaces, but one thing is painfully clear. Sometimes we just need to escape. But where can we go, […]
Firefly – The Big Damn Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel
I am a big damn Firefly fan. You know this about me. It’s an amazing show, and the fandom flowed from my pen many times in the past. (See these Fantasy-Faction articles about A Traveler’s Companion to the ’Verse and Sting.) Well, when I got Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook for my birthday this year […]
Firefly Original Graphic Novel: The Sting by Delilah S. Dawson
If you don’t know anything about me, one thing you should know is that I am a big damn Firefly fan. I just got a Firefly cookbook for my birthday—which you KNOW I’ll be putting out a review once I try Book’s chicken noodle soup and Jayne’s mudder’s milk—and two action figurines—hello, Wash and Zoe, […]
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Have you heard of Becky Chambers? If you’re a regular reader of Fantasy-Faction, then perhaps you remember an article about her back in August 2018. Jessica Juby reviewed Record of a Spaceborn Few, where she chatted about Chambers’ Wayfarer series, how she was able to go meet Chambers (be still my heart), and sang the […]
Scarred Lands Player’s Guide – Role-playing Game Review
The Scarred Lands, Player’s Guide was originally created at White Wolf before Onyx Path Publishing and Nocturnal Media took it over. In a 2016 Kickstarter campaign, Onyx and Nocturnal successfully funded both the Pathfinder and the 5th Edition version, raising over $60,000 to make this book a reality. Thanks to Matt, from Onyx Publishing for […]
On the Importance of Critique Groups
Writing can be—and often is—a solitary journey. The stereotypical and sometimes romantic notion of a writer alone in a room penning the next great novel does stem from truth. Most of the time, writers do their work alone, whether that be in a coffee shop surrounded by people or in their one-bedroom apartment surrounded by […]
Harry Potter Day: Land of the Midnight Sun Style
We Alaskans know how to get nerdy with it. Geek culture is everywhere in Anchorage—from Bosco’s Not at Comic Con festival and SenshiCon to Geeks Who Drink trivia nights and the Critical Role critters strolling around town in t-shirts—we know how to let our nerd flag fly. So, when the Z. J. Loussac Library—our local […]
Writing Fantasy Saved My Mental State
Fantasy is sometimes referred to as “escapism” and it comes in many forms—whether that be reading a novel, getting immersed in a movie, or even playing a video game. That escapist state also comes while a writer is penning new stories—crafting new worlds, interesting magic, fun creatures, and adventurous plotlines. This is especially true when […]
