#literary fantasy

[azeutreciathewicked]

This was a pleasant surprise. It's a bit lengthy, but given that it's about an immense magical library, it's understandable.

Beautiful prose throughout, great themes about how we dehumanize our enemies and hoard knowledge. I feel a little called out on the bibliophilia, but I accept that burden.

Avoid spoilers for this -- it delivers on promises made early on if you stick with it.

I'm picking up #2 tomorrow and am excited.

This is definitely one of my favorite books this year for what it does and how it executes it.

[irisvradenberg]

My Debut Novel is Now Out!

Talk about a life dream coming true!

I've been writing and crafting stories since I can remember. I've worked on this novel for over ten years, sometimes putting it aside for other projects, but always coming back to it.

The novel, Sasha the Witch, is a low fantasy about a witch in small town contemporary New York who joins a coven, and how her life spirals out of control afterwards. 

This is the book for you if you like complicated protagonists, sad girl books, female friendships, lyrical prose.

It's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Books-a-million, Kobo, Google Play Books, and can also be requested at your local indie bookstore or local library.

[hedgehogoftime]

Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.

I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.

[booksteacupandreviews]

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - atmospheric YA fantasy

The Bear and the Nightingale is beautiful, imaginative, and atmospheric historical YA fantasy with amazing world. The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy #1) by Katherine Arden Publication Date : January 1, 2017 Publisher : Random House  Read Date : September 12, 2023 Genre : Fantasy / YA Pages : 430 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Synopsis At the edge of the Russian…

[cjjasp]

Pacing part 2 – plotting the midpoint #amwriting

As I said in my previous post, Foreshadowing and the Strong Opening, I am writing the first draft of a new novel. I am filling in and altering the outline as I go. This means that nothing is canon, and many plot points, even major ones, will have changed by the time I am ready to publish this mess. Some novels are character-driven, others are event-driven, but all follow an arc. I’m a poet, and…

[ivynightshade]

fatima aamer bilal, from being unwanted is a language.

[text id: the world is happening in a room that i can't enter, life is happening in a gathering i am not invited to. / being unwanted is a language i am fluent in.]

[benevolenterrancy]

~ Extremely Unwilling Magical Protagonists Attempt To Outrun The Plot And Not Fucking Die ~

(@takofukkatsumi this tag is from a while ago but it hasn't left my brain -- L-Space got very weird all of a sudden)

[dommnics]

FAIRY TALE ART SERIES | Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid' | PART VIII

Continuing with my Little Mermaid designs, this is my take on the woman who the little mermaid ultimately loses her true love to. I've named her Abigail, and I just wanted her to look sweet and doll-like.

--

Check out more of my work on other platforms!

My Instagram -- My Twitter

[mysharona1987]

[fairydrowning]

"I sit with my grief. I mother it. I hold its small, hot hand. I don’t say, shhh. I don’t say, it is okay. I wait until it is done having feelings. Then we stand and we go wash the dishes. We crack open bedroom doors, step over the creaks, and kiss the children. We are sore from this grief, like we’ve returned from a run, like we are training for a marathon. I’m with you all the way, says my grief, whispering, and then we splash our face with water and stretch, one big shadow and one small."

– Callista Buchen

[mostlyghostie]

First quarter of my 2024 reads, Jan to April

So far It’s a toss up between A Month in the Country, Fingersmith and Lessons as my favourite.

Instagram / Shop

[maypearlss]

trying to motivate myself to be a little more active here, i want to discover some new writeblrs to follow!! feel free to reach out if you wanna!

i'm particularly interested if you...

🎧 write adult fiction, especially literary fiction, horror (gothic or otherwise), gothic romance, fantasy, or really anything with a gritty/emotional feel

🎧 like any bands from the 90s grunge scene (or 80s hard rock) (i can and will yap for days)

🎧 like vampires, pirates, or cowboys

🎧 are a fellow college student (we can struggle together!!)

even if we don't have any of this in common, i'd love to chat anyway! hopefully this finds some folks <3

[camelidae]

I did a short literary equine series a while ago, but I don’t think I ever posted this little lady. This is Skata from The Scorpio Races. She likes to drag people to their watery doom when they try and tame her, and you know what? Same.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

literary & character tropes (pt. 5)

Tropes - themes, motifs, plot devices, plot points, and storylines that have become familiar genre conventions

All writers manipulate language to create certain effects. At the level of individual phrases and sentences, the skillful use of tropes is key to creating writing that’s fresh, memorable, and persuasive.

Ancient Evil: A character, concept or thing that's old and evil.

The Blind Seer: Are blind, and yet they can see more than we can, metaphorically speaking, by using heightened senses, divination, or some type of magical powers to gain knowledge of the world around them. It is a recurring theme in mythology; Justice is blind, Odin plucked out an eye to gain knowledge, and the Graeae had had only one eye among three of them. Time and time again, the sacrifice of sight is shown to result in greater cosmic knowledge.

Bloodbath Villain Origin: The villain's Start of Darkness began with sudden mass murder.

Botanical Abomination: A strange, incomprehensible organism that looks like a tree or other plant, but they came straight out of a forest from your nightmares.

Changeling Tale: Babies who are abducted by fairies and replaced.

Chronoscope: A chronoscope or time viewer is a device that uses images that show past or future events like a television. They can sometimes also cause time travel. They are common in sci-fi, and often take different forms.

Goo-Goo-Godlike: An all-powerful child who doesn't know any better.

Hide-and-Seek Horror: A game of hide-and-seek is played for horror.

The Omniscient: A character that knows everything. Either literally everything, or simply everything worth knowing under the circumstances. Beings with this ability tend to be background characters that the reader is told little about.

Reading Tea Leaves: Tasseomancy (alternatively known as tasseography or tassology) is a form of divination that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. The method involves the quarant (the person getting their fortune told) being provided with a cup of a particular drink (Tea, Coffee and Wine being the most common forms). They are asked to drink from a specific cup, leaving a small amount for the leaves and/or pulp to gather. The leaves/pulp then form a variety of shapes, from animals to inanimate objects, even mythical creatures and specific people. These shapes hold symbolic significance, their presence spelling things ranging from good fortune to omens of doom.

If these writing notes helped with your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

More: Literary & Character Tropes

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

WOTN: The Unkindest Tide by Seanan McGuire

The Unkindest Tide is the thirteenth novel in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. And if you haven’t heard of or read this series before, you’re missing out. The series follows Toby Daye, a private investigator and Hero to the Fae. Toby has made a lot of bargains and promises in her past, specifically to a powerful woman known as the Luidaeg. And now it is time to pay up. And it doesn’t…