My musings, however orderly or disorganized they happen to be, about all things fiction and fantasy related. Reading, writing, craft, you name it. And sometimes, the relevance might not be immediately obvious, but I assure you, it will always tie in somehow (and you’ll see how if you read the whole post) into how I write, what I write, or what and how I like to read. Or both, more likely.
The stories we tell and hear are both signs of our culture, and what makes it. They influence us, give shape and color to our beliefs and our understanding of the world around us. They reflect what we believe and what we see, whether that's deeply religious sentiment, or simply how we think human interactions …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Why We Need Stories With “Incorruptible” Protagonists
In DragonWing, my male MC, Noren, a young man from a small wilderness village, visits the city. And the way a lot of the people in the city talk sounds … sloppy, less articulate, more slurred to him. Not that he really thinks about it that much. But it certainly does not sound more educated. …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Where the Richest Language Really Comes From
Is it anthropocentric to write non-human point-of-view characters? A few weeks ago, I had a short conversation on social media that touched on why I only rarely write the perspectives of non-humans. I've thought about this before, but I had sort of forgotten about it, so I'm revisiting it, and I decided it might make …
Hey! Usually, Saturdays are for art, right? Well, I don't really have that much art. Though if I did a day for every illustration and chapter header in my books, it might be closer. Anyway, I decided I don't have enough 'Fantastic Ramblings' for every other week, or enough art for every Saturday except the …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Not “Disability Representation” – Or Do You Think So?
February is sort of an annoying month sometimes. Not that I mind the time of year. But all the romance stuff always annoys me, especially since a lot of people use the word 'love' as a synonym for romance. Which brings me to the main post of this post. Several years ago, I decided to …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Why Did I Name My Blog/Website “Enthralled By Love”?
“Research, and get your research right.” “What's the most recent thing you researched for your novel?” What if that research is wrong? This question is posed by the fact that I happen to have some first-hand experience with … horses. And I was recently reading a book where someone who had recently been turned into …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: On Some of the Limits of Research in Fantasy
I don't rate my reviews. At first, all I knew about why I decided not to rate my reviews, and to (with occasional exceptions) only post reviews to my blog (which I can do whatever I want with) and to sites that don't require ratings, was that I could never decide what I wanted to …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Why I Don’t Rate Books I Read
Hello. So far, I've tried to write something about stories or in some way related to fiction, whether my own or others, for these every-other-monday posts. However, sometimes I just can't get myself to write any decent nonfiction. So here's a bit of flash fiction. No, it doesn't have anything to do with any of …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: A Flash Fiction – Shards of Hope
I'd always understood the phrase 'character development' a certain way, but a while ago I read a review of a certain book I had also read (which review and book is not, I think, necessary to this post), which complained of poor character development in the novel. Specifically, what was considered to be poor character …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: What Does ‘Character Development’ Mean?
Everyone has heard of mood readers. Well, maybe not everyone. But a lot of people. Basically, some (many?) readers like different kinds of books when they are in different moods. Those of us who read like this often start many books, and take a very long time to finish many of them, if we ever …
Continue reading Raina’s Fantastic Ramblings: Have You Ever Heard of – Wait for it! – Mood Writing?
Enthralled By Love 