Tag Archives: Fantasy

FIRST LOOK: “Legacy” by Joanna Hoyt

14 Tuesday May 2019

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Thanks again for supporting The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today, our excerpt is from the beginning of “Legacy,” by Joanna Hoyt. Enjoy!

Did you know that for only $5 more, you can receive a special, Kickstarter-exclusive bundle of five more excellent short stories? Tomorrow, we’ll start posting First Look excerpts of the bonus stories so you can get a taste of what could be yours…

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May 20, 1954: California

David straightened up carefully. For a moment he let himself feel the pain in his spine and hips, the sweat sliding down his face and his back. Then he let those go and focused on Daniel, one row behind him, bent over the melon plants, his short-handled hoe moving quickly, rhythmically.

Daniel looked over as though he’d felt his father’s glance like a touch; straightened a little too fast, winced, smiled. Not the quick eager way he’d smiled when David said he was old enough to come and work. This was steadier, a little rueful and more than a little proud. David smiled back and bent to work again before Gord the crew boss could come over and shout at either of them.

He would have liked to offer his son some easier way of being a man, work that wouldn’t be hell on his joints, work that would let him marry a sweetheart and go home to her every night instead of leaving for months at a time. But that wasn’t what he had to give. And maybe, after all, there was no easy way.

(Read more…)

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FIRST LOOK: “She That Was So Proud and Wild,” by Misha Burnett

12 Sunday May 2019

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Thanks for following The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today’s excerpt is from a story by Misha Burnett, in which a family clinging to its old ways and old magic confronts a prodigal son who wants to live his own life. Enjoy!

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At the old fuel station off the highway Jenni went in to get some snacks for the road.

Marc stayed with the truck and had the attendant fill the two jerry cans he kept in the back as well as the truck’s tank.

“Headed up country?” the attendant asked, using an expression Marc hadn’t heard in years.

Marc nodded. “I’ve got folk in Carne Shant.”

“Not as bad as it used to be,” the attendant observed. “There’s stations up in the delves now.”

“I’d rather be prepared,” Marc said. “Better to spend wisdom than earn it.”

The attendant grinned at that. “Old church?” he asked.

Marc shook his head. “Not anymore.”

Jenni came back with warm fudge wrapped in waxed paper and bottles of ginger soda.

Marc paid the attendant as Jenni climbed in, then waved as he drove off.

“Friendly people,” Jenni said.

“They can be,” Marc observed.

“Funny thing…” Jenni began, giving Marc a sidelong glance, “There was a sign at the register about not taking coins unless they’re rolled. The last place we stopped had the same sign. What’s that all about?”

“Old church,” Marc said absently. “They don’t use paper money.”

(Read more…)

The Wand that Rocks the Cradle—Author Interview with Frank Saverio

10 Friday May 2019

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Thanks for supporting The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today’s interview is with Frank Saverio, who contributed the short story, “To Find a Peach”. Enjoy!

 

If you had to tell someone, “If you like this person’s stories, you would like mine too,” who would you pick?

The obvious answer is good old G.R.R. Martin. But if you like my crime fiction as Frank Zafiro, I think you’ll see some similarity in this story.

What attracted you to writing?

Tough question… it’s always been there. I equate it to a musician being attracted to music. It’s an almost instinctual draw.

How did you get to this point in your writing? Did you take classes, or intensively study particular authors, or simply do a lot of writing and learn as you go? All of the above?

I think I took one class in college. I would say I am mostly self-taught, but that is a term that belies what really goes on. I’ve learned from all the authors I’ve read, and those I’ve worked with directly, as well as my own trial and error and subsequent growth.

Are there particular themes that run through your writing?

I try to be real, so my stories are sometimes a little bit of a downer. But one of my favorite songwriters is Bruce Springsteen, and a lot of his songs are downer songs (some are super upbeat, too, but those aren’t my favorites). Despite the darkness in many of these songs, there’s always an underlying sense of hope, or at least resiliency. Since much of what I’ve written has been crime fiction, I’ve found it useful to follow this same philosophy. I think readers will see it in my short story for this collection, too.

(Read more…)

The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Interview with Elana Gomel

08 Wednesday May 2019

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Thanks for supporting The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today’s interview is with author Elana Gomel, who contributed the short story “The Dragon Detector.” Enjoy!

 

What attracted you to writing?

When I was five or six years old, I had an incredibly vivid dream about an infinite house. The house went up and down forever and if you fell off a balcony, you’d fly for an eternity. The dream was so compelling that for a while I was sure I was actually living in this house and my everyday life was a dream. Now the infinite house exists in my award-winning story “In the Moment”. I can share my dream with a multitude of people. This is what writing is for me: creating shared worlds out of private imagination.

If you had to tell someone, “If you like this person’s stories, you would like mine too,” who would you pick?

Before I was a writer, I was a reader; and since I am also an academic, writing about other people’s books, I have quite a long list of personal favorites and role models. I love generic hybrids: sci-fi and horror; mystery and fantasy. I appreciate vivid imagination and unsettling details. So if you like Clive Barker, China Mieville, Tim Lebbon and Tony Ballantyne, you might like my writing. My two recent novels, The Cryptids and The Hungry Ones have been compared to Barker and Mieville respectively.

(Read more…)

FIRST LOOK: “Dead in First Grade,” by P.L. Sundeson

07 Tuesday May 2019

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Thanks for supporting The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today you’re in for a treat: the first of our story excerpts! You’ll be happy to know that the stories are nearly finished with the first round of edits, which let’s us raise the curtain just a little bit. As the days go by, we are going to be periodically posting excerpts from the stories in the anthology to give you a little taste of the full package. Our first excerpt is the beginning of the short story “Dead in First Grade,” by P.L. Sundeson. Enjoy!

 

As an only child who did not play with many other children, Emma Peters had no one to tell her what school was or should be like. She was sure, though, that your teacher was not supposed to be dead.

* * *

Emma knew the days of the week, and she knew Thursday was a Work Day.  So she was startled to see Daddy, in his dark gray suit and tie as always, waiting outside their gate that cool September morning.  She threw herself down the steps and hugged him around his waist. “Daddy!  I’m glad you came.  Mommy said you had work.”

Daddy stroked her head.  “I couldn’t let my little girl go to her first day of school without me.”

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The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Interview with Marion Deeds

06 Monday May 2019

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Thanks for supporting the Kickstarter campaign for The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today’s interview is with author Marion Deeds, contributor of the short story “Bellwethers Know Best.” Enjoy!

 

If you had to tell someone, “If you like this person’s stories, you’ll like mine,” who would you pick?

What an interesting question! I couldn’t really think of anyone at first, so I asked some friends, and the responses were eye-opening.

People have suggested Seanan McGuire. I assume they mean her contemporary fantasy Incryptid series. I do see some similarities there, and with Tanya Huff, who was another suggestion. Both writers deal with an everyday world that incorporates magic, and characters who struggle, not only with the supernatural, but with universal issues; family, relationships, jobs.

Writers I would love to be compared to? I’d have to say Mary Robinette Kowal, especially in her short fiction. There are two San Francisco Bay Area short story writers whose work I greatly admire. Laura Blackwell has a story called “An Accidental Coven.” Laura Pearlman is published a variety of places, and her work seems light and humorous at first but soon you realize that there is more happening beneath the surface. I think I write in a similar vein.

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The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Interview with W.O. Hemsath

03 Friday May 2019

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Thanks for following our campaign as we launch The Hand that Rocks the Cradle! In our quest to help you get to know our authors better, today we will be interviewing W.O. Hemsath, author of the short story “Coffee Break.” Enjoy!

What attracted you to writing?

I don’t have the skills to draw or sketch, and that’s always made me a bit sad. But I loved to read and I loved to talk, so I developed a big vocabulary when I was little. When I learned I could paint with words to create art the way others paint with lines and colors, I realized I had a medium that allowed me to transfer the ideas in my head into someone else’s. From that point on, I was hooked. I’ve been writing stories and telling stories ever since.

How did you get to this point in your writing? Did you take classes, or intensively study particular authors, or simply do a lot of writing and learn as you go? All of the above?

When I was in grade school, I wrote for fun—short stories, poems, song lyrics, choose-your-own-adventure serial pieces for a friend’s on-line magazine, anything I could find. In college, I went to film school and got my degree in screenwriting. After that, I took off about ten years to serve a mission for my church, get married, have kids, etc. I dabbled with writing here and there during that decade, kept a journal of all the story ideas that kept popping up, but didn’t write much. I did start a Master’s program in Creative Writing during that time, but I quit towards the end of the first semester. I wasn’t learning enough from it to justify the commitment at the time.

In late 2016 I got serious about my writing again and was at a point in my life where I could dedicate some time to it. I joined a writing group, went to writing conferences, read various craft books and blogs, watched Brandon Sanderson’s online lectures, listened to podcasts on writing—anything writing related I could get my hands on, really.

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The Wand that Rocks the Cradle—Author Insights from Misha Burnett

01 Wednesday May 2019

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Thanks for visiting the campaign for The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family! Today, we’re presenting author Misha Burnett, who will introduce you to his fantasy setting, Dracoheim. Enjoy!

Forget it, Jake, it’s Dracoheim

The publication of The Wand That Rocks The Cradle will include my third story (and fourth, for those of you pledging at the Bonus Stories level!) set in the city of Dracoheim, and I’d like to take a moment to talk about the city and how it came to be.

One thing that it is easy for modern readers of fantasy classics to overlook is that while the settings seem exotic and strange to readers born in the late 20th Century, the writers of those stories chose those settings because they were mundane and prosaic to the readers of the time.

Tolkien wrote about the Shire because that’s where he grew up. The name of Bilbo’s home, Bag End, was taken from the name of his aunt’s house in Africa. L. Frank Baum put a magical scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz because scarecrows were such ordinary objects for his readers, something that children of his era would routinely pass by on their walk home from school. C. S. Lewis put Narnia in a wardrobe because he had one in his bedroom growing up…

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Coming this Sunday: First Look at “The Wand that Rocks the Cradle”!

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

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I’m so excited, I can hardly wait—the Kickstarter for The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family is going live this Sunday!

We’re going to have all kinds of great content over the next month: interviews with contributing authors, dramatic readings of story excerpts, and more.

If you enjoy fantasy, and you also enjoy stories exploring family, and you definitely enjoy fantasy stories exploring family… then don’t miss The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! You can pre-order starting on Sunday, and get all kinds of cool backer rewards too.

Looking forward!

Coming Soon: “The Wand that Rocks the Cradle”

14 Sunday Apr 2019

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Sorry for the radio silence recently! You’ll be happy to know that it’s because:

  1. I’ve been mailing out the paperback books to Kickstarter backers of The Odds Are Against Us,  and, of more general interest,
  2. We’re getting ready to launch another Kickstarter for the next anthology!

This one is the “Family” fantasy anthology which we announced back in December. I am pleased to reveal that the anthology’s title will be The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family.

We have a great lineup of authors for you, and the stories will take your breath away. You’ll be able to pre-order your copy soon, along with all kinds of fun bonuses; so if you want to know when the Kickstarter goes live, sign up here and be sure to check “Fantasy Fiction.”

Editing this collection is so much fun! I can’t wait to get it into your hands.