Recent content by tlbodine

*cracks knuckles* Fairy tale-type folklore: SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Fairy Tales, Fairy Tale Books and Illustrations Gods and related mythology: Encyclopedia Mythica: mythology, folklore, and religion. Urban legends (the "old wives tales" section may be of particular interest to you)...

Amusing anecdote. When I was first introduced to tabletop RPGs, my friend handed me a Changeling: The Dreaming character sheet and helped walk me through the basics. In the White Wolf system, you get to give your character flaws, and for every flaw, you can spend a corresponding number of...

That there is the key to getting "out there" IMO. When looking at exposure, the amount a publication pays is less relevant than the amount of readership it has. The problem with the free small presses is they seem to exist solely to stroke the owner's ego, and are read only by other writers...

Hah, yes. There really is a middle ground between "tediously describing everything" and "leaving readers floundering to understand what is going on" and it really is your responsibility as a writer to find it.

Has anybody seen this yet? The 10 Commandments of New Fantasy (Part 1) - Amazing Stories I thought this was interesting. I also thought the author had an axe to grind about things that don't seem that important (like the misspelling thing, while maybe annoying, doesn't bother me as much)...

What I loved about OOTP is how incredibly political it is. I loved the way they handled Umbridge's regime and the parallels to modern fascism. I think that captured the obvious undercurrents of the books, like the obvious parallels between Voldemort and Hitler. What I loved about POA (the...

Do you have a release date yet? If it were me, I'd start publishing now, and in the bio say something like "Feo Takahari's debut novel, Blah Blah, is scheduled to release on This Date from This Publisher. For more information, see His Website Right Here." That way, people already kind of...

This is hugely helpful. Thank you guys. I have some to add, but I'll have to retrieve the list. As soon as I find it I'll post some more.

I personally haven't read any, but my understanding is that they're hugely popular in urban fantasy right now. To the point that some agents are saying "oh dear god, please no more angels." I think the standard plotline is something along the lines of "angel is stuck on earth for some reason...

I inflicted the first seven movies on my fiance over the duration of a weekend in preparation for #8 coming to theaters. It was fascinating watching him watch the movies as he'd never read the books or seen any of the films, so he was completely new to all of it. I'm one of the only people...

*likes all y'alls* Mine is here: https://www.facebook.com/TLBodine.writes It's mostly family & friends as well, but I'm slowly getting the hang of what type of content to share.

I wrote a blog post on the topic of strong characters not so long ago. I came to the conclusion that the key ingredient is agency. T.L. Bodine: On Strong Women, Agency and Default Narrative States

Recognizing you have a problem is the first step. Kudos on you for the self-awareness -- it's something more people could stand to have. I think three things need to happen here. I think, first, you need to read widely and seek out books with female characters. Do this in part for...

Welcome aboard! Folks here are very helpful and full of ideas. I hope you find the community to your liking :)

My dark-fantasy novel, Tagestraum, now available at all the major e-tailers :)