Thoughts on power with reviews of Dune and Spencer
Fantasy
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Ages ago I signed up for a local library writing group run by Sian Prior (author of Shy). Since it was over subscribed I consistently missed each meeting, except the last one, which I did attend. It turns out this writing group delivered nothing I hadn't already heard, however some of the resources and handouts … Continue reading Challenge detected
Of myths, coincidences and writing histories
I was thinking the other day about author Sara Douglass. She had one of the best creative writing Genesis myths I had ever heard regarding the provenance of her book BattleAxe (and the subsequent Axis series). I could retell this story, but it is her's and she wrote it down for us. The entire concept … Continue reading Of myths, coincidences and writing histories
Writing somebody else’s world
I began a story for a particular call out for submissions. In a keenly felt tragedy of non-epic proportions I lost what I wrote in the first draft mid way through. I managed to start again and finished it. Mind you, I wasn't going to, but the ideas for this project kept percolating. What I … Continue reading Writing somebody else’s world
Genre-trification
This year I graduated with an MA in Writing and Literature. Throughout, the emphasis in the writing components was upon 'literature'. We could only use aspects of genre or sneak them sideways into our short stories or essays. However, I'm over artificially constructed barriers. Surely there is nothing unliterary with the works of China Mieville or Ursula Le … Continue reading Genre-trification