This post is part of OWS CyCon 2019! Come say hi to us here. For this post I’ve been asked to talk about what makes my fantasy world(s)–because I have several–unique. Happily, this is something I’ve put a lot of thought into! I’ll start with my main fantasy world, which I feature in The Zemnian Series. […]
Read more "What Makes My World(s) Unique? (Hint: It’s a Woman’s, Woman’s, Woman’s World)"The Monastery Zakhar Prilepin “Humanity is dark and terrifying, but the world is human and warm.” So ends Zakhar Prilepin’s massive historical novel “The Monastery” (Обитель), about the Solovki monastery-turned-prison-camp, the seed of the GULAG system. Following the fortunes of Artyom Goryainov, a prisoner in the camp, the novel charts all the aspects of prison […]
Read more "“The Monastery” (Обитель) by Zakhar Prilepin"Well, it was a close one this week, with the Carolinas getting hit unexpectedly hard by Hurricane Michael. Luckily for me, I was not one of the hundreds of thousands of people to lose power, which means I have been spending my fall break busily working away to get The Dreaming Land II ready for publication. I’m […]
Read more "Racing like Wolves: Writing Medieval Russian Epics into Contemporary Fantasy"In my last post I talked about how I incorporated the story of Gray Wolf into my books. With Hurricane Florence currently playing will-she-won’t-she with my part of North Carolina, today seemed like a good time to talk about how I worked various forms of magical water creatures into my stories, along with some good […]
Read more "Stormy weather: Rusalki, Vodyaniye, and other forms of water magic in modern fantasy"Last time I talked about how I incorporated the character of Baba Yaga into my novels. But she is hardly the only Russian fairy tale character I have repurposed for my own ends. The one who appears in all three of the mini-series that comprise The Zemnian Series, and who was one of my favorite as […]
Read more "Thrown to the Wolves: Writing Russian Fairy Tales into Contemporary Fantasy"
E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 