Tag Archives: realism

Hard Weird

Posted on September 25, 2019 by

I think I’ve come up with a new way to describe what genre it is that I work in. Hard Weird.  I think that’s an evocative phrase, and I hope it’s fairly self-explanatory. SF/F fans are familiar with the phrase … Continue reading →

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Smash The Mirror

Posted on August 24, 2019 by

Describing a character is just about the worst way to introduce a character to me. Sadly, it’s also one of the most common. Now, maybe it’s just me, but when a story opens up by focusing on a character–not just … Continue reading →

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He Came Home From The War With A Party In His Head

Posted on May 11, 2019 by

This is a follow up to my earlier post, If I Exorcise My Devils Then My Angels Will Leave Too.  In that post I talked about the concept of personal growth as a story arc and why I think it’s … Continue reading →

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If I Exorcise My Devils Then My Angels Will Leave Too

Posted on May 11, 2019 by

Recently I gave up on three books in rapid succession, and all for the same reason. Unlikeable protagonists. More than that–protagonists who were introduced in such a way as to showcase their negative characteristics. And I see these books–and quite … Continue reading →

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A Dragon Among Dragons: The Decay Of Fantasy

Posted on May 6, 2019 by

“The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel the hero is abnormal; the centre is not central. … Continue reading →

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Superscience, the Uncanny, and the Miraculous

Posted on April 4, 2019 by

This post has grown out of a discussion regarding my earlier post on the subject of magic in fiction and a comment that was made regarding Clarke’s Law. Clarke’s Law states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  … Continue reading →

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Leaving the town in the keeping of the man who is sweeping up the ghosts of Saturday night

Posted on March 24, 2019 by

This is in reply, more or less, to posts made by some writers I know. First Alexander Hellene talks about the Mythic in fiction,  then Xavier Lastra discusses magic use as a plot element in genre fiction, and then Rawle … Continue reading →

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