Book Review: Nomansland by Lesley Hauge

I do love a good post-apocalyptic novel. Hauge gives us one in Nomansland. Far into the future, there is an island where only women live. The outside world is one of eternal darkness and threat; men (and worse) are the enemy hell-bent on destroying the Island.

The world of the novel is disturbing and pitch-perfect. The climate is perpetually cold, with vicious storms and long, dark seasons. The Island itself is both treacherous and claustrophobic, trapping the characters in a

Book Review: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

A remarkably spoiler-free review

Plot

Georges' life isn’t going so well. Middle school is a gauntlet of awkward relationships and bully-avoidance strategies. He has been forced to move from his beloved home to an apartment building because his father lost his job. His mother, a nurse, is at the hospital all the time, pulling double shifts to make up the income gap. Georges only communicates with her via Scrabble tile messages (he leaves one before going to bed, and

Fairy Tale Friday: Yikes! Zipes!

Mmmm…mostly I want to talk about this quote from Jack Zipes with regards to the raft of fairy tale remakes this year. He feels that the recent films (specifically Mirror, Mirror and Snow White & the Huntsman) are "offensive" to women, because they highlight the conflicts between women, often to the point of physical confrontation. In particular, he doesn't like how they must symbolically "become a man" via wielding a sword or some such in order to defeat their

The 55 Word Story: Interval Training for Writers

I have a short attention span. My tolerance for overly long fiction has never been high, and it seems to drop as I age.

So I appreciate nanoficiton, microfiction, blink ink...whatever the kids are calling it these days. Many years ago, Saara Myrene Raappana (poet, philosopher, feminist, browncoat) introduced me to a glorious format called the 55-word story.

• The story must be 55 words long. No more, no less.
• The length does not include the title.

That’s it

Book Review: House of Dolls by Francesca Lia Block

So, FLB is kinda kooky. Generally good, but kooky. We know this. And for all her Weetzie Bat street cred, she's also written a fairy/satyr-based dating guide, so let's not start handing out free passes just yet.

House of Dolls, an offering for younger readers, is a wispy (about 60 pages of scant text) middle-reader-level story centered on the social and romantic life of several dolls in a rich girl's dollhouse. That girl, Madison Blackberry, acts as a malevolent

Fairy Tale Friday: Links Liquidated!

This Fairy Tale Friday brings some posts on the writing of tales, as well as notes on where the ideas bubble up from. To begin, here's a reflection on the global nature of folktales from Katherine Langrish at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles. (Click for the whole story…)

"…he was the genius astral of that island; that his place or residence in the days of Solomon and David was at Jerusalem;
that then he was called by the Jews Belelah