Thursday, July 28, 2005

The Write Fantastic

The Write Fantastic is a group of six fantasy authors who have teamed up in order to introduce the joys of fantasy fiction to readers who have never tried the genre, and also to show those readers who have stopped reading it, the breadth and depth that is available in current fantasy writing. The 6 authors are Sarah Ash, Chaz Brenchley, Mark Chadbourn, Juliet E McKenna, Stan Nicholls and Jessica Rydill, and their work covers the whole range of fantasy from orcs and dragons, through high heroic "swords and sorcery", to the reimagining of myth and history, and the magics of matter, mind and spirit. You can catch them at various events at Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow from 4th - 8th August, where they will be involved in various panels and activities. Juliet E McKenna will be talking about the 'Trilogy Middle Book Problem' and 'Subverted Elves, Hard Assed Fairies with Attitude, and Dragons Taking Tea' (with Terry Pratchett amongst others), whilst Mark Chadbourn (whose The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke wins the prize for the most surreal book I've read so far this year) will be wondering whether Tolkien's work still has relevance to young people today and 'How do you research things that don't exist?' Sarah Ash, meanwhile, will be talking about the 'British Landscape and the Fantastic'. Chaz Brenchley will discuss the 'Aesthetics of Horror Fiction', Stan Nicholls will talk about 'Mapping your World: Creating the Back Story' and wondering whether 'Tie In novels are worth it or if they stop people from reading real novels', and Jessica Rydill says 'It can't be fantasy - I like it !' These are just the highlights - or so they appear to me - of the talks and panels that these 6 authors will be doing - more information is available from the above-linked Interaction site. I want to assure you that I'm not a publicist for this group (or for Juliet E McKenna, despite my frequent mentions of her work, I just happen to think highly of her books), I just think the idea of The Write Fantastic is a good one, if it means more good fantasy books are reaching more readers, since fantasy is my favourite form of fiction.

2 comments:

Camille said...

It was my family's "fantasy" vacation to attend the Tolkien Society conference and this one too. School starts too early in Texas and the pocketbook prohibits but -- gosh -- it would have been fun.

Michele said...

I can empathise - I wanted to attend both, but like you, I don't have Harry's unlimited wealth, so I missed out on both... Looking at the programme for Interaction, I was practically drooling at the thought of all those authors whose work I've read and loved being so near, yet so far away !