Browsing all articles tagged with magic.
Monthly Short Story Winner: Letters
This month we had our entrants try their hand at writing a letter. Sounds boring and not fantasy-ish at all? We hope not! We didn’t want them to just write a random letter. Instead there were four topics to choose from, some funny, some sad, some what they make out of it. First person was […]
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Do as you will, but harm no one. What you give will be returned to you threefold. Fall in love whenever you can. The last of these rules is particularly difficult for the Owens women to follow, as their ancestor, Maria Owens, laid a curse on her descendants. As she had been crossed in love, […]
Creating a Magic System
The naming of a thing gives you power over it. Sorcery is the will and the word. Cast fireball now and you won’t be able to again until tomorrow and have finished your revision. Magic systems exist in scores of fantasy novels. Diverse in their rules, varying in complexity, they instruct us in how the […]
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
I first discovered magical realism in twelfth grade, when my English teacher assigned us to read One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a wonderful book – and still is – but I wasn’t quite sure how to define it. It was definitely historical, even if I couldn’t quite figure out exactly where in history […]
Knocking People Out: Easier In Fiction Than In Real Life
It’s a common scenario in many kinds of fiction, including fantasy: a character passes out, either because they’ve been knocked on the head or injured or drugged, and the world “goes black” or they “fall into darkness”. The unfortunate character usually wakes up several hours or days later in a new place, disoriented and sometimes […]
Monthly Short Stories Winner: Alien or Eldritch Artifact
A massive artifact appears all of a sudden and (violently) disrupts the everyday life (of a tribe, a city, a country, the world). It can either be an alien artifact (science fiction) or an eldritch artifact (fantasy). This month, we wanted our entrants to think big. Something huge happens and humanity (or whoever else) barely […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Story Generator
This month’s stories were all crafted using the Official Bea and Xia Story Generator™. Rules: 1. Entrants must go to Roll Dice Online. Choose number of sides 5; number of dice to roll 7; number of rolls: as many needed to find the perfect theme. 2. Prose must be 500-1500 words long. 3. Poetry must […]
Trees in Fantasy – Part One: Trees as Symbols
Magic in fantasy, myth and legend usually occurs as a natural phenomenon, with its own place in the world of the story outside of what is created by mankind and civilisation. The connection between magic and nature has been a common theme in fantastical tales since the earliest days of storytelling. Trees, both individually and […]
Worlds Within Worlds – Part Five: Qi and Fantasy
Most people associate magic with strange symbols, chanting, and waving a wand around. Dusty books are usually in the picture, along with ritual circles or sacrifices. The mages themselves are usually old men with grey beards—frail but knowledgeable. I’ve already written about them. Compare that kind of magic and mage to qigong and (arguably) its […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Omens
“An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. People in the ancient times believed that omens lie with a divine message from their gods. These omens include natural phenomena, for example an eclipse, abnormal births of animals and humans, and behavior of the sacrificial lamb […]
Monthly Short Story Winner: Urban Fantasy
We haven’t had a genre as our monthly theme for quite a while, so this time entrants wrote us a nice, little urban fantasy story. This means that story should take place mainly in a city. Any city, any time? No. To make it a bit more specific, they had to stay on our world […]
Worlds Within Worlds – Part Three: Magic Warfare
Fallout taught fans that war…war never changes. Military historians, however, argue otherwise. Case in point: the stirrup. Before firearms dominated the battlefield, it’s generally agreed that the stirrup was the most important innovation in warfare for a couple centuries. Fans of the Rohirrim will recognize why: cavalry is fast and maneuverable, and the stirrup allows […]
