K. Marvin Bruce

Transformation.  It’s an idea older than the mythological Greeks.  It seems that people everywhere have wondered what it would be like to be something else.  It’s also a staple of fantasy literature. I recently read The Lizard Princess by Tod Davies.  It is a heavily symbolic work, and one that makes the reader think.  Nothing can be assumed in this world.  Even death is not what it seems to be. Fantasy novels rely on a willing suspension of belief.  It is difficult to read such stories with a critical eye and enjoy them.  Ironically, I found George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones difficult to get into.  The writing is what I call “power writing”—full of bravado and flash.  A fantasy, it seems to me, should have a certain gentleness to the narrative. I’ve occasionally presented Boeotian Rhapsody, my Medusa novel, to publishers as a fantasy.  It really isn’t.  Magical realism, perhaps.  Fabulism maybe.  W...

Sometimes I fear my imagination might run out.  Throughout my life it has been my experience that good things tend to run out while bad things seem to exist in amazing reserves.  Imagination is a good thing. Part of the problem, admittedly, is the ubiquity of work.  Trudging back and forth to the office each day drains a writer of energy.  At least this writer.  When I’m in the midst of a big project (as one of the six novels I’ve finished) I’m full of ideas, ready to write constantly.  When I finish, I can go months groping about for an idea that works.  Meanwhile I work. I was glad to read Tod Davies’ The Lizard Princess because it takes place in a fantasy land of ideas.  Although I’ve termed some of my stories fantasies, the fact is I don’t really write in this genre.  I think “magical realism” might be the more appropriate way to describe my work, or “fabulism.”  Genres can be constraining. The Lizard Princess makes no...