Young Adult Fiction’s Hottest New Trend: Mermaids?
YA books, like everything else for teens, are subject to the whims of trends and fashion. Remember when they were all about vampires? Or all about magical boarding schools? Or magical boarding schools with vampires? Or hyper-violent anti-authoritarian post-apocalypses? Those trends are all in the past — and they’ve been replaced by some sexy amphibian…
12 Questions to Ask Yourself About the System of Magic in Your Fantasy Novel
Mette Ivie Harrison, author of Tris and Izzie and the forthcoming The Rose Throne, has some great, succinct advice for anyone creating a new fantasy world. Before you start having people sling magic around all over the place, make sure your system of magic passes the sniff test. Here are Harrison’s 12 questions you should…
12 Magical Items and the Real Life Gadgets that Resemble Them
We were really sad to hear that you can no longer buy magical items on eBay — these amazing toys and miraculous devices are what make us love fantasy stories. We all dream of owning Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, or Harry Dresden’s magic duster. The good news? Science is working on creating these things in…