Contest

Following the 5th Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off

/ Nicola @ Thoughts on Fantasy / 14 Comments
The SPFBO5 finalists. Image from marklawrence.blogspot.com

I’ve been woefully absent in the blogging world this past month (both in terms of posting here and also catching up with other great blogs I enjoy), so I feel bad about that, but I’m finally getting to the end of other projects so I’m hoping to change things. I thought I’d start with a short post about the 5th Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off that recently came to a close. I’ve been following and enjoying it, so I wanted to share a few links and thoughts. Continue reading →

The Power of Competitions and Selections in YA Fiction

/ Nicola @ Thoughts on Fantasy / 9 Comments
Photo by Kreg Steppe (CC BY-SA 2.0)

If a best-selling young adult novel sucks me in after only a few pages, it’s often because the book is wielding a secret weapon. Or rather, a not-so-secret weapon, because I’ve seen it many times before. And although I recognise it, it still has the power to peak my curiosity and get me rooting for a character I know next to nothing about. So what is this clever trope?

It has two components, and these usually form a kind of structuring device that shapes the plot and climactic points of the novel: Continue reading →