One of the joys of writing fantasy is the bizarre search history you accumulate along the way. Worlds need to work – they need logic, texture, movement, sensations and the occasional detour into absurd topics. These rabbit holes not only enrich the writing process, they also help worlds feel genuinely occupied. These are 10 things…
Some days it’s tricky – even for dedicated bookworms – to find a few minutes to read. I’m not talking about those glorious, all-consuming books that seize you by the collar and drag you through chapters until you reach the end. Those books somehow create their own time and momentum. You sneak them in between…
“Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it.” – The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley Lately, I’ve found myself turning over character names like shells from the ocean –…
In fiction, change doesn’t always enter a story with fanfare. It can arrive as a mild or unpleasant disruption: a knock at the door, an email, even unwelcome invitations or news. Yet when the call to adventure is obvious, like a dragon at the village gate, or a map discovered in a mysterious location, characters…
A child sits in the playground, knees drawn up, face half-hidden behind a book. Perhaps it’s a little girl with a comic hidden inside her Maths book while the other kids shout and swing. To the outside world, she is hiding, but inside something else is happening entirely. The way I see it is that…
In February, often our thoughts turn towards love mainly because of all the commercial hype about it. It’s the red and pink heart month, after all. During the month, however, I’m so grateful for all the kinds of love that shimmer at the edges of everyday life — connection, tenderness, self-compassion, and the soul-deep longing…
January is predictable in that it tends to circle back each year with its invitation: begin again, or begin better. Life recalibrates and in that suspended period during the festive season, we pay attention to what we have, what we may have overlooked and who we are or want to be. Perhaps that’s also why…
Fantasy stories often begin – or let their most transformative moments unfold – beneath the canopy of a forest. There’s something timeless and magnetic about sun beams through whispering leaves and paths that spiral forever. The cool dampness and the distant call of birds. It feels familiar, reaching out to the part of us that…