Review: The Bird of the River, by Kage Baker

The Bird of the River is the third and final book in Kage Baker's fantasy cycle.  It was released posthumously and is a fitting farewell from the author.  Returning to the world created in The Anvil of the World, Baker returns to that first novel's breezy feel and anachronistic humour that made it such an unusual and enjoyable fantasy read.

Holiday Gift Exchange: The Writing Prompt

At the end of last year, the writing group I joined at the local library had a holiday gift exchange.  The catch was that gifts had to be writing prompts, objects, words or some combination thereof designed to spur ideas for a writer.  After an anonymous gift exchange, I ended up with a lovely little Christmas card, with a passage written within, which I've reproduced below.  It's an evocative passage, chock full of possibilities.

The story that I wrote garnered a positive response from the group (a good sign, as they are thorough and incisive critics) and once I'm done final edits, I'll put the results up in a later post and expand a bit on the thinking that took me from the prompt to the full story.

What story ideas come to mind for you?

You've been troubled by insomnia and your grandson suggests you smoke a little weed with him. You are desperate so you agree.

You fall asleep easily. Soon you are dreaming of the time when you were twelve and so delirious with fever that your parents called that faith healer, grandma swore by.

You can't get her chanting out of your head, it is driving you mad.

You sit up, wide awake and your mother exclaims, "It's a miracle!"

 

Recommendation: The Anvil of the World, by Kage Baker

I recently finished the third book in the late Kage Baker's fantasy cycle and will be posting a review of it shortly.  It has been a while since I read the first book, so I won't have a detailed review of it here, however I'd like to give it a recommendation, especially since I recently had a discussion with a friend about it.  She was not normally a fantasy reader and was interested in books that might get her introduced to the genre.  The first book that came to mind was The Anvil of the World, by Kage Baker.

The Contest

This year's Toronto Star Short Story Contest is up and running.  I was going to enter a story I wrote recently as part of a writing prompt gift exchange with my local writing group (more on that later) when I came across this piece interviewing last year's winner.  Fred Ni says that most short fiction is dark in tone.  Based purely on what I've read, I have to agree, and that certainly covers most of what I write as well.  As a challenge to myself, I think I'll try to write something upbeat and positive and enter it in this year's contest.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my blog. I'm a writer of mainly fantasy fiction, but also science fiction and supernatural fiction. I'll share some of my experiences of the writing process here, and some selections from my work as well.