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Yokohama Future
Today is my first full day back in Ireland after my travels. So far I’m coping well with the shock of living in the past. This is only partly a joke, because there were moments during my stint in Japan where it felt like I was living in the future. In this post I’ll concentrate on my experiences at Worldcon in Yokohama. Warning: it’s a long entry. Martin and I arrived the day before the start of the convention, and resisted the tidal-pull of sleep, which was stronger due to the hot, muggy weather. Instead we navigated the subway system (not difficult), arrived at the Minato Mirai area, and from…
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reading Sontag
Susan Sontag was a remarkable woman. I’ve long admired her writing, be it prose or her critical work. So, I was interested when I noticed that The Guardian published recently an essay of hers from just before her death in 2004. Writers will find it an illuminating read. It is stuffed full of practical advice, as well as being an incisive discourse on the nature of narrative with some thoughts about its evolution. I’m at a loss as to what to quote, although this early paragraph is excellent: I’m often asked if there is something I think writers ought to do, and recently in an interview I heard myself say:…
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generic thinking
As I’ve noted before, I have difficulties reading and writing fantasy fiction for a variety of reasons. Yet, there are a couple of stories brewing in my head that insist on the genre. So be it. In a quest for inspiration on how to write good fantasy I turned to the master: Fritz Leiber. Luckily, I was able to snag the two volumes of collected Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, so I’m currently embroiled in adventures across the dangerous smog-drenched streets of Lankhmar. Leiber, along with his peer, Robert E. Howard, trailblazed the modern notion of heroic fantasy. These chaps were churning out tales of adventurers abroad in strange…
