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...
Blog of a struggling writer.