Writer for Young Adults
In September I wrote about Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn book, The Final Empire, and what it taught me about introducing a complex magic system in fiction. Today I want to examine how Sanderson builds his fantasy world. When you're devising a fantasy world, you're filled with so many ideas that it's so tempting to throw in everything but… Continue reading Lessons in Fantasy World-Building: Creating the Magical World
Josh is a HUGE fantasy fan. As in, we call the books he reads "brick-a-books" (because they're all doorstoppers). As in, he's keeping a list of all the series he's in the middle of (because the writers take an understandably long time to finish the next installments of said brick-a-book series). So now that I'm working on… Continue reading Lessons in Fantasy World-Building: Introducing the Magic
In keeping with my study of historical fantasy, I just finished Brandon Sanderson's The Rithmatist, on Josh's suggestion. He's a huge Brandon Sanderson fan, and this YA novel sounded right up my alley. It was a lot of fun, with an intriguing world and compelling plot. But the book's attempt to integrate colonial American history within… Continue reading Responsibility in Writing Historical Fantasy
Abby Murphy 