Suggested Reading For 2019

SUGGESTED READING FOR 2019 Christmas fell on a Tuesday this year, however that received’t cease me from my regular weekly post! To all my Christian friends, Merry Christmas, to all my non-Christian friends, have fun at the motion pictures. But anyway, for a “holiday version” this year, how about my recommendations for the way to spend those guide store present playing cards you bought this yearâ€"and please tell me you got guide store gift playing cards. Absent that, there actually must be a War on Christmas! In any case, you’ll find no scarcity of guide recommendations from me peppered all throughout Fantasy Author’s Handbook, but for this week, I’ll share books I’ve suggested, drawn examples from, or otherwise mentioned in my Writer’s Digest University on-line courses, starting with… This course came from Writing MonstersandThe Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fictionby lil’ ol’ me. Of course. First recommendation to all authors: Never pass up a possibility to put your individual bo oks in front of peopleâ€"any folks, just about anyplace! Your self-examine textbook! But courses like this demand examples from novels and quick tales so we will be taught from what different authors have accomplished. For this course I mentionedThe City and the Starsby Arthur C. Clarke, which I quoted on the subject of technology in science fiction. I also wrote rather more about this e-book right here at FAH. I specifically referenced the stories “Domestic Magic” by Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem (as regards to magic) and “The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times” by Eleanor Arnason (regarding fantasy religions) from The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Seven, which I used as a textbook for the original course I taught several years in the past at a area people school. There’s no method I may possibly talk about science fiction worldbuilding and not draw examples, specifically on the subjects of both authorities and faith, from Duneby Frank Herbert. But additionally on the same subject, a lighter take from the space opera epic Deathstalkerby Simon R. Green. At least as necessary as Dune, particularly when it comes to authorities and politics in science fiction is 1984by George Orwell, but I received an interesting quote from the lighter Podkayne of Marsby Robert A. Heinlein as well, showing that there’s reality and concepts to be found in nearly any story, meant for any audience. The troublesome subject of tradition challenges a lot of people who take that course, and I assume an example from Memory of Waterby Emmi Itäranta goes an extended approach to illustrating the difference between culture, authorities, and religion, and it’s a brilliantly written book in any case. And lastly, one of many assignments, regarding cultures, is impressed by a paragraph from George Orwell’s essay “The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius,” which may be discovered within the e-book Why I Write. There are amazing assets all around the web that will let us learn scans of original pulp magazines, and anyone with even a passing curiosity in the period will want to check out sites just like the Pulp Magazines Project, the Pulp Magazine Archive, Comic Book+, Online Pulps, and the Luminist Archives. This course relies across the “method” created by pulp legend Lester Dent, and more on his unusual life and profession can be gleaned fromBigger Than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage, by Marilyn Cannaday. A fun overview of the pulp period comes to life in the artwork-heavy The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazinesby Peter Haining and the amazingly weird Men’s Adventure Magazines in Postwar Americaby Rich Oberg, Steven Heller, Max Allan Collins, and George Hagenauer. This course begins with some important texts that actually won’t come as too huge a surprise based on the title of the course itself, but please tell me you’ve both already read On Writing, Danse Macabre, and Skeleton Crewby Stephen King or have them near the top of your to-learn pile. But the horror solar doesn’t rise and set on Stephen King alone, so I additionally drew from varied works of fiction for this course together with American Psychoby Bret Easton Ellis, The Terrorby Dan Simmons, Fledglingby Octavia E. Butler, The Strainby Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan, and the classics The Haunting of Hill Houseby Shirley Jackson, Frankensteinby Mary Shelley. And let’s not forget the brief tales, including “The Colour Out of Space,” “The Thing on the Doorstep,” “Pickman’s Model,” and the remainder of the quick tales of H.P. Lovecraft you’ll find in any of a variety of anthologies, or online; “The Death of Halpin Frayser” by Ambrose Bierce; the story “Wolfshead” by Robert E. Howard, which could be discovered in the assortment The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard; and the story “The Keeper of the Key” by August Derleth, which may be discovered in the assortment The Cthulhu Mythos. You ’ll also want to discover the tales “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” and “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison, present in The Essential Ellison; and, in fact, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe. And of course there are other books on the craft of horror or fiction in general, together with Hitchcock: A Definitive Study of Alfred Hitchcockby François Truffaut, Zen in the Art of Writingby Ray Bradbury, Writing the Breakout Novelby Donald Maass, and Take Joyby Jane Yolen, those final three popping up in most of these programs. And finally, for my newest course, which takes a much deeper, 4-week dive into horror, On Writing Horror, edited by Mort Castle; the anthology The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Ten, edited by Ellen Datlow; and my ownWriting Monstersare the precise textbooks for this course, but I additionally reference the primary guide of Horror of Philosophy by Eugene Thacker: In the Dust of This Planet, in addition to the novels The Ballad of Black Tomby Victor LaValle, and Hell Houseby Richard Matheson. If, like me, you’re planning on an aggressive 2019 studying problem (I’m going for 52 once more this 12 months), this could keep you busy for some time. So then this is me wishing you all a contented holidays, and a safe and pleased new yr. I’ll see you again right here in 2019! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Fill in your details below or click on an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of recent comments through e mail. Notify me of new posts through email. Enter your e mail handle to subscribe to Fantasy Author's Handbook and receive notifications of new posts by email. Join 4,779 different followers Sign me up! RSS - Posts RSS - Comments