As it's National Poetry Day, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on Byron. The celebrity cult of Lord Byron began while he was still alive, boomed when he died, and still continues today. He remains an object of fascination, scandal, and appeal. I've been interested in him since I first read about him in a "Famous People" encyclopaedia. It was a children's book, so it did not explore the more infamous aspects of his life. But it was enough to inspire me to delve further into research on the man and the myth - including the puzzle of the mirror . Ultimately, Byron went on to become a major inspiration for my first published book Day's Dying Glory , right down to its title. His early poems (generally my favourite ones) feature heavily in the book, and I enjoyed weaving in lines and references which Byron-fans would spot where others might not even notice them. Poets and poetry have inspired hundreds of writers. It is fascinating that language can be so power...
I could write for ages and ages about fantasy. It was the first genre I wrote, and I'm talking about being very much younger! It was also the first genre I loved to read. As I've grown older, I've realised that most fantasy authors try to instil a shock factor into their audience. I realised early on that, while I enjoyed middle grade fantasy, adult fantasy was often a bit too much for me. But, seeing as this is Middle Grade Monday, that's ok! What is fantasy? Fantasy are things that can't happen. Remember that Science Fiction ( here ) was things that can't happen yet . For fantasy, we just remove the 'yet'. Fantasy could, but doesn't have to, include magic, other worlds, parallel worlds, strange creatures, other humanoid races... the great thing with fantasy is that you can go wild! You want more stories about garden gnomes trying to rid the world of evil? You can write that! The Need for Rules Yes, you can make up the rules. But you do need to have...