Monthly Short Story Winner: Maiden, Mother, Crone
Xiagan
The depiction of women in fantasy is a controversial, fascinating, and ongoing topic. This month we had our entrants write a story about women. Specifically, we wanted a story with…
Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off #4: The Fall of the First Five
Geoff Matthews
* Disclaimer * Writing and reading are subjective arts. What some folks will absolutely love, others will dislike. It is a bit like Marmite in the UK – normal people…
Fantasy Worldbuilding: From the Bottom Up – Guest Blog by Cameron Johnston
Cameron Johnston
Falling down wiki-holes of research in the cause of plausible worldbuilding, and why magic shit is such an important resource. We’ve all seen those hefty articles on building fantasy worlds,…
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Eric Christensen
Robert Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside combines the action scenes and snarky banter of a summer blockbuster with the complex characters and keen-eyed societal critique of an Oscar-winner. What begins as a…
Once Upon A Time: Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Jo Niederhoff
Once upon a time… Just about anyone familiar with the Western literary canon knows that phrase. It opens familiar fairy tales we’ve grown up with, like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,…
Warriors by Erin Hunter – Series Review
A. M. Justice
When I hear my twelve-year-old weeping, I know one of two things is happening: a) she’s reached the climax of another Warriors book, or b) there’s been another tragic death…
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…
Weaving A Narrative
Aaron Miles
A story is more than its central plot tenants. It is more than the broad strokes of its grand events and dramatic moments. It is a woven tapestry of differing…
Darius Hinks Joins Angry Robot Books with The Ingenious – Guest Blog
Darius Hinks
Today we have author Darius Hinks with us to talk about his upcoming release, The Ingenious, due out February 2019, from Angry Robot Books! Waaay back in 2011 I wrote…
The Armored Saint by Myke Cole
Rakib Ahmad Khan
To be able to write efficiently in more than one genre is a rare talent. Although I loved his first series, I going to be really honest at the onset…
Frances Hardinge Interview – A Skinful of Shadows
Jonathan Thornton
Frances Hardinge is one of the finest fantasy authors around. Her inventive and beautifully written YA novels, the most recent of which is A Skinful of Shadows (2017), are widely…
Monthly Short Story Winner: Writing In A Subgenre You Don’t Like
We chose this topic to achieve two things: First, to acquaint entrants with something new, and second, to help entrants identify what they normally don’t like about their chosen subgenre.…