I don't normally publish three posts in one day, but I just finished reading the anthology and I wanted this post up ASAP rather than scheduling it.
After finally getting my copy of The Magical Book of Wands, I got to start my weekend off with a magical bout of reading and I'm eager to share my thoughts.
After finally getting my copy of The Magical Book of Wands, I got to start my weekend off with a magical bout of reading and I'm eager to share my thoughts.
What I love most about this mix is we somehow managed to cover a lot of ground without consulting on things such as sub-themes or age group. I can't say I'd recommend the whole book for all ages, but it's certainly subgenre diverse. My own entry blends dark fantasy and sizzling romance. Yet, it does show a vast array of styles and unique voices.
You don't have to take my word for it. I have a horse in the race here, but once it's pulled from the anthology's limited time run (one year), I'm going to repackage it in my own short story collection that branches off from this entry. I really enjoyed this short trip and I'd like to write some new characters and new adventures with the dark Fae theme linking them. Short stories are nice project dividers and a different challenge altogether.
Indie authors are a hard-working lot, so we really rely on people giving us a chance to grow. Readers are in the unique position to critique and encourage and support the authors they choose. They are given agency to consume stories that may not have been out there otherwise, to not settle for what agents and publishers whittle down for the masses. That's not to say indie authors can't grow bigger, be involved in movies or TV shows. I've said it before but those who think the market was airtight before are deluded. Not to mention, an open market makes it more possible for non-readers to find some guilty pleasure and change that.
I can't say enough how proud I am to be an author. Someday I'll wrap my head around marketing, but really, these years of writing and growing have been too amazing to fret about that. I try to read my stories dispassionately but I get sucked in again and again. Not because I wrote them even. I don't always like myself very much. Even when I try to hate myself, I look at what I've done and say 'damn, chick, you're the shit.' These stories consistently resonate with themes I love, games and books and movies and dreams that have had an impact on me. Stories written by me that I can still be surprised by.
I'm seriously in danger of tooting my own horn, but what I really want to talk about is the anthology line-up. I'll give you a short run of what to expect in my own words. Some might be easier to sum up than others. Let's give it a go!
The Enchanted Sword/ Raven M. Williams: A quick twist on Cinderella. Ashby is a young boy at the mercy of his wicked stepbrothers, trying to protect his father's legacy, all while charming a princess.
The Wand of Luminance/ Rick Haynes: An old wizard spends decades of his life patiently repenting for his crime against a goddess. He is determined to return something of hers, no matter the cost.
Gretel's Gift/me: When an old man returns from his wife's funeral, the anniversary gift she never got to give him holds the key to a secret she kept.
The Dragonbone Wand/E.P. Clark: Year after year, a recruiter comes down the mountain to find the ones worthy to become dragons. Convincing a young healer to go through the test, she is drawn into the blessings and curses of what being a dragon truly entails.
The Wand Whisperer/J. Steven Young: It has always been believed there is more to magic than a wizard choosing a wand. When a bumbling wizard discovers he can hear the voices of the wands, he learns that wands have more influence than anyone thought possible.
An Ill Wind/Devorah Fox: A young woman returns to her home after a hurricane tears her city apart. When she finds a box containing a neighbor's effects, she discovers that kindness contains its own magic.
A Wand Needs a Witch/Victoria Raschke: An accomplished magician, remembering his mother's words when he first discovers the wand that had so much impact on his life, takes on three young sisters who have the potential to be great witches someday.
The Keeper of Callister Space/Shakyra Dunn: Two sisters stumble on the journal of a mysterious witch making a bold claim. Curiosity wins over practicality as they brave dangers to find out if the claim is true.
The Long Way Home/Guy Donovan: U.S. history meets spectacular fantasy as a man journals his struggle from orphaned laborer to hard-working inventor that discovers a secret... and struggles with the burden of it.
Magen/Edward Buatois: Rylen is marked as the typical goth weirdo with a hobby for witchcraft. His practical older sister, Naia, raised him but tires of his passive attitude towards being bullied and his delusion about the existence of magic. When they are violently separated, Rylen meets an elf woman who seems eager to help him find his sister even though they don't speak a common language.
Spellbinders: Judas Mirror/ Bryan Rainey: In a world parallel to our own, magic is par for the course. Yet when a dinner between a newlywed couple goes sour after an attempted murder, the aftermath is anything but usual.
The Smallest Spark/Nils Nisse Visser: It's a sci-fi dystopia where names are meaningless strings of numbers and colored marks are rewards and punishments on the spreadsheet of life. A grandmother (Jill) remembers a time when nature was green and renewable and wonders if all that waits for her granddaughter (Sally) is a brown, poisoned future. Although books are forbidden, one of the gifts she can give her daughter are the remembered fairy-tales of her youth. But perhaps there is more after all.
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It's a good exercise, throwing out some hooks for these stories. As you can see, it's a very eclectic mix of fantasy and written from many points of view at that. I truly enjoyed finally being able to read through these. It's been in the works over the course of a full year, everyone turning these in for publication.
A thanks is in order, of course, for Raven M. Williams, who led the charge and consulted with us via group communications concerning cover design, information gathering and ultimately, the formatting. She also runs a Mystic Realms Curio Shop and writes her own novels while creating jewelry inspired by her books, aside from running yearly anthologies. Another multi-tasker like myself, so I know the struggle and commend her for all the hard work.
Feel free to preorder The Magical Book of Wands, available October 31, and check out these 12 short stories. You'll find links to these authors and you can find these authors and more available for Virtual FantasyCon (November 4-10), an annual FaceBook event gathering where you can find great fantasy authors and interact with them.
For any of my author friends, the cut-off date for being a participating author has passed this year, but if you're interested in being on future rosters, there is no cost to join unless you choose Option 2, which just adds your discounted books to a vendor section for more exposure. Authors and readers alike can always get more details from the VFC Reader's Corner, a public group on FaceBook.
I'm seriously in danger of tooting my own horn, but what I really want to talk about is the anthology line-up. I'll give you a short run of what to expect in my own words. Some might be easier to sum up than others. Let's give it a go!
The Enchanted Sword/ Raven M. Williams: A quick twist on Cinderella. Ashby is a young boy at the mercy of his wicked stepbrothers, trying to protect his father's legacy, all while charming a princess.
The Wand of Luminance/ Rick Haynes: An old wizard spends decades of his life patiently repenting for his crime against a goddess. He is determined to return something of hers, no matter the cost.
Gretel's Gift/me: When an old man returns from his wife's funeral, the anniversary gift she never got to give him holds the key to a secret she kept.
The Dragonbone Wand/E.P. Clark: Year after year, a recruiter comes down the mountain to find the ones worthy to become dragons. Convincing a young healer to go through the test, she is drawn into the blessings and curses of what being a dragon truly entails.
The Wand Whisperer/J. Steven Young: It has always been believed there is more to magic than a wizard choosing a wand. When a bumbling wizard discovers he can hear the voices of the wands, he learns that wands have more influence than anyone thought possible.
An Ill Wind/Devorah Fox: A young woman returns to her home after a hurricane tears her city apart. When she finds a box containing a neighbor's effects, she discovers that kindness contains its own magic.
A Wand Needs a Witch/Victoria Raschke: An accomplished magician, remembering his mother's words when he first discovers the wand that had so much impact on his life, takes on three young sisters who have the potential to be great witches someday.
The Keeper of Callister Space/Shakyra Dunn: Two sisters stumble on the journal of a mysterious witch making a bold claim. Curiosity wins over practicality as they brave dangers to find out if the claim is true.
The Long Way Home/Guy Donovan: U.S. history meets spectacular fantasy as a man journals his struggle from orphaned laborer to hard-working inventor that discovers a secret... and struggles with the burden of it.
Magen/Edward Buatois: Rylen is marked as the typical goth weirdo with a hobby for witchcraft. His practical older sister, Naia, raised him but tires of his passive attitude towards being bullied and his delusion about the existence of magic. When they are violently separated, Rylen meets an elf woman who seems eager to help him find his sister even though they don't speak a common language.
Spellbinders: Judas Mirror/ Bryan Rainey: In a world parallel to our own, magic is par for the course. Yet when a dinner between a newlywed couple goes sour after an attempted murder, the aftermath is anything but usual.
The Smallest Spark/Nils Nisse Visser: It's a sci-fi dystopia where names are meaningless strings of numbers and colored marks are rewards and punishments on the spreadsheet of life. A grandmother (Jill) remembers a time when nature was green and renewable and wonders if all that waits for her granddaughter (Sally) is a brown, poisoned future. Although books are forbidden, one of the gifts she can give her daughter are the remembered fairy-tales of her youth. But perhaps there is more after all.
----------
It's a good exercise, throwing out some hooks for these stories. As you can see, it's a very eclectic mix of fantasy and written from many points of view at that. I truly enjoyed finally being able to read through these. It's been in the works over the course of a full year, everyone turning these in for publication.
A thanks is in order, of course, for Raven M. Williams, who led the charge and consulted with us via group communications concerning cover design, information gathering and ultimately, the formatting. She also runs a Mystic Realms Curio Shop and writes her own novels while creating jewelry inspired by her books, aside from running yearly anthologies. Another multi-tasker like myself, so I know the struggle and commend her for all the hard work.
Feel free to preorder The Magical Book of Wands, available October 31, and check out these 12 short stories. You'll find links to these authors and you can find these authors and more available for Virtual FantasyCon (November 4-10), an annual FaceBook event gathering where you can find great fantasy authors and interact with them.
For any of my author friends, the cut-off date for being a participating author has passed this year, but if you're interested in being on future rosters, there is no cost to join unless you choose Option 2, which just adds your discounted books to a vendor section for more exposure. Authors and readers alike can always get more details from the VFC Reader's Corner, a public group on FaceBook.
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