“A few bad investments—well gambles—had cost him his horse, his good sword, and most of his travel fund.” In the first chapter of To Court a Queen, we are introduced to our hero, Sir Devin Carlton. Because he is anxious to get home after losing so much, he strays from […]
“And they lived happily ever after.” A common, if trite and clichéd, ending to a fairy tale. It paints a picture in the reader’s mind that nothing untoward will happen to your beloved characters after this point in the narration. Usually, the characters have suffered enough through the stories. In […]
My name is Jim Doran, and I’m a writer of genre fiction. This website is composed of short stories, reflections on writing, and shameless plugs for my novels and short stories. Purchase my new novel, Forlorn Harbor : Purchase link Forlorn Harbor is a YA horror novel about seven teenagers […]
I am happy to announce the sequel to my first novel Kingdom Come, entitled On Earth, As It Is. This book will be a standalone novel as well as a sequel. Most characters will return, and a number of new characters will be introduced. I don’t think I’m giving too […]
The novel, 30 Days Without Wings, a fantasy novel aimed at YA readers, tells the story of Elise, a fairy who trades in her wings for legs and her tiny size for human height. Elise is at the age where she must declare what she will do for the rest of her […]
A new trend in fantasy is dealing with the aftereffects of visiting another world and then returning home. It’s no longer Edmund Pensieve’s exclamation of “Oh, I forgot my torch in Narnia!” The movie, Prince Caspian, dealt with this phenomena briefly at the beginning with Susan’s character. Wonderfully acted, the […]
Fairytale characters get a bad rap. The heroes and heroines are looked at as weak, sexist, fetish-minded, duplicitous, and superficial. The current trend is to glorify the villains in these stories because, as the saying goes, the villains are the most interesting characters. Interesting, maybe, but I think people give […]