What Makes ‘Epic Fantasy’ Epic?
Chloe Smith
What does the term “epic fantasy” make you think of? For most people, even most well-read, card-carrying members of the fantastic-fiction-reading community, these words conjure an image of a very…
Articles
Google Middle-Earth
Overlord
OK, now, if you thought the posters for The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug I posted up earlier were cool… wait until you see this. You know how Google…
The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler – Cover Reveal
Jennie Ivins
Django Wexler’s first book in his Shadow Campaigns series was well received here at Fantasy-Faction. The series, set in a world of gunpowder and magic, began with the first book,…
Politics in Fantasy
Leo Elijah Cristea
The idea of politics is usually a tricky subject: along with religion, politics is one of those subjects supposedly unfit for healthy (heated?) debate at the dinner table, or when…
Amazon Policies Frustrating Fantasy Authors…Again
Interesting article by Paste Magazine today on a kind of customer behaviour, which they refer to as “jerk-like”, whereby certain customers are choosing to return ebooks after they’ve read them…
Fantastical Creatures of Greco-Roman Mythology: The Taraxippus
Faith M. Boughan
Raise your hand if you believe in ghosts. Oh, come on. You, over there, reading this on your laptop on the bus—go ahead, raise your hand. No one will know…
Is Pirating Books OK if you buy it later?
I’ve been pointed to a post on Reddit.com that asks whether pirating ebooks (i.e. downloading them FREE off the Internet using illegal file sharing sites) is OK so long as…
Surviving the NaNoWriMo Apocalypse: Tips For Becoming A Master Word-Slayer And Staying Alive Through November
Adrian Faulkner
NaNoWriMo tends to get painted as this quirky, fun activity during the month of November, but whether you’re currently taking part or have in the past, you know that it’s…
When YOU Were The Hero – An Adventure In Gamebooks
Steff Humm
Gamebooks aren’t something you see much of these days but back in the 80s and 90s they were doing a roaring trade all over the world as readers embraced the…
The Enduring Power of the Fairy Tale
Zachary A. Matzo
Over the last two weeks, my kids and I have begun watching Once Upon a Time on Netflix. What is it about the classic fairy tales that have kept the…
Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes – Part One: Your Heroine is Too Beautiful
I’m not trying to open a can of worms here—I’ll say that right off the bat. I acknowledge that this topic is enormous, complex, and encompasses both a dearth of…
Monthly Short Story Winner: Battle
In September’s short story contest, participants wrote us stories about battles. There were a lot of great entries, but before we look at the winner, here is the write up…