She was renowned for her love of children, though that love had sinister qualities. (Artwork by Vania Zouravliov)
Tag: Fantasy
Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/27/17: Angels
Be careful who you trust; the devil was once an angel. Old proverb I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape. Desmond Morris We cannot pass our guardian angel’s bounds; resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs. Saint Augustine Angels have a long history in Western culture. …
A Wrinkle in Time [Reading Challenge 2017]
A Wrinkle in Time by Madelene L’Engle Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010 (Originally published in 1962) [Challenge # 3: A book you loved as a child.] Like many children of a certain generation, I read Madeleine L’Engle’s classic SF novel A Wrinkle in Time in fifth or sixth grade and fell in love with it. …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/29/17: Imaginary Constellations
In a pre-industrial society, stars and constellations had more impact on the viewer because there was less light pollution. Pictures could be traced, paths, and stories, all providing a commonality among members of a tribe or society. One common example is the constellation of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major, imagined by many ancient cultures …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/22/17: Supernatural Beings
There are all sorts of fairies, elementals, grues, demons, devils, angels, nature spirits, and the like in fantasy. Often they serve a purpose in the story, and just as often they are there for window dressing, like the offhand mentions of pookas or kelpies causing trouble. In fact, things wouldn’t be the same if …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/15/17: Venice or Venus
Fantasy writing published in English-speaking worlds relies heavily on Medieval England as a setting. I suppose it’s because most early fantasy writers were, in fact, English, and then there’s the influence of the Inklings that included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. It’s a heavy base that has only gotten heavier over the …
Tigerpillar
A little known creature from Chinese mythology, the Tigerpillar combined the ravenous appetite of both creatures.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/1/17: Quaint English Towns
You’re driving along in the English countryside on your way to the next bed-and-breakfast. Villages and towns appear as you turn a bend or crest the hill, then disappear as the road steers you away. Or you’re reading some cozy mystery book set in the British Isles, or a tale of Eldritch horror where innocent …
Meeting with Medusa
Meeting with Medusa An erotic short story for Halloween. Note that it’s comparatively mild, but still NSFW. I knew I shouldn’t have tangled with a Gorgon. It could have Medusa. She’d been reported working in Vegas by the other Hunters I’d been in contact with. Or it might have been Stheno or Euryale, her …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/25/17: Bogies
They are the things that make children wake screaming, blind with fear, in the middle of the night. They are the things that slip through the cracks under bedroom windows, the things that turn the knobs of bedroom closets and push them open with agonizing slowness, while the children cower under their blankets and pray …