Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, Past Worlds, The Lock Smith's Secret. Last week I introduced you to Nell, this week I have the second edition in her story. Enjoy this free steampunk story Nell twisted the knob, rolled the paper into her typewriter and stared at the blank white sheet. A string of expletives that would’ve made her mother blush rolled through her mind. She blamed the stable hand—if not for him she’d never have known such words existed. But that wasn’t what Bert wanted her to write, was it? Anyone could swear—except her mother. She’d have to take a more sophisticated approach if she were to show Lord Burnett he was wrong about her. She lifted her hands above the keyboard, poised to type, then dropped them. What was the point of messing up that lovely piece of white paper with ill-formed words; she’d only … [Read more...]
A surprising, gripping and somewhat profound contemporary fantasy: ‘Pilgrim of the Sky’ by Natania Barron
Title: Pilgrim of the Sky Author: Natania Barron Publisher: Candlemark & Gleam Gebre: Contemporary /metaphysical fantasy Description Just when Maddie Angler thinks she's over the death of her longtime boyfriend, Alvin, she discovers that he's not only alive, but he may just be part god. And a killer. Now it's up to her to unite Eight Worlds she didn't even know existed in the first place, before chaos reigns. My Review Pilgrim in the Sky is a surprising, gripping and somewhat profound contemporary fantasy. It begins in our world, takes us on a shocking journey to another, and just when we think we have it all sorted it, we find ourselves one level deeper again. I loved it, not only because it’s a very different story but because it stretches your mind with metaphysical themes—alternate worlds, beings that are connected, the same yet different, linked, like the eight points of a compass through time and incarnations. Pilgrim in the Sky takes you on a journey that gets … [Read more...]
What is Magical realism?
My young adult novel You Can’t Shatter Me is magical realism, and all my fiction has magical realism elements, in particular The Prunella Smith books . But what does that mean exactly? What is magical realism? Here’s what Wikapedia says about it. “Magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction [1] in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.” The question this raises is how is it different to fantasy? Magical realism is set in the real world. Fantasy is set in a fantasy world. Even in urban fantasy, the witches, fairies, vampires and so on that populate the world make it not the real world as we know it. The real difference lies in the purpose of the magical elements. In magical realism they are there to emphasize something, usually a … [Read more...]
Fiction with meaning
In a recent post I talked about literature as being not so much a genre as a description of quality within a genre. I based that post on the Concise Oxford Dictionary definition of literature, but the term is also often used to refer to writing that has some sort of meaning, often a social, political or spiritual comment. Literature is thought to raise issues and that’s one of the reasons why people like to use the term literature as something separate to popular fiction which often does make no attempt to impart meaning. However, just because some popular fiction doesn’t impart meaning doesn’t mean that all popular fiction is devoid of meaning, or that lack of meaning is necessarily a mark of the category. Take The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. You could consider it literary young adult dystopian because despite what you may think of it personally it is well written it has a powerful emotional effect on readers it makes a political statement The political statement gives … [Read more...]
Review : Book of Mercy by Sherry Roberts
Title: Book of Mercy Author: Sherry Roberts Publisher: www.osmyrrahpublishing.com Publication date: September 2011 Category : Fiction/Contemporary Women/ Humor/Relationships The Book of Mercy is a truly beautiful, heart-warming novel on book censorship, the nature of love, motherhood and friendship. I loved this book from the first page to the end, which had me in tears of joy - I’m a softy. When a group of influential women decide to remove “undesirable” books from the school library, Antigone Brown, a woman with dyslexia who keeps a stone in her pocket to help her remember right from left and despairs of ever being a good mother to her unborn child stands up for people’s rights to determine what they will read rather than having a bunch of self appointed guardians of local morality do it for them. Antigone ponders: how do we protect our children from the world but save the world for our children? The story strips the issue of censorship down to its bare bones of power and control … [Read more...]
