U = Urban Fantasy

Unquiet Spirits – Sinister Visions http://www.sinisterfonts.com/

Urban fantasy

Urban fantasy is basically a fantasy story that takes place in an urban setting, historical, modern or futuristic. They are not limited to the city, but need to be primarily in an urban city, one that reflects a reality that is known to us through history, extrapolation or contemporary settings.

Urban fantasy is distinguished from high fantasy in that it is set primarily in a real world and brings in myth or legend to live side-by-side with a verisimilitude of reality.

The term has referred to many things other than the fiction with which today it is associated. The coinage of urban fantasy as genre began in the 1980’s.

Urban fantasy is an extremely popular genre replete with vampires, zombies, werewolves, and all manner of creepy crawly things from legend, folklore and myth.

Vampires, werewolves and zombies are among the most popular, but urban fantasy is limited only by the writer’s imagination and there are as many jumping off points as there are cultures and stories in the world. It makes for a pretty big field.

In future posts I will visit some of the great authors, well-known and not as well-known, and their works. There are far too many to even begin a list here.

Until then you might want to try your own hand in a walk on the fantastic side of things:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteAnUrbanFantasy
http://www.authorsalon.com/page/general/fantasytropes/

~lisa

Fantasy

 Fangsong
I love the name of this font, Fangsong. For me it evokes all sorts of images that I doubt have anything at all to do with the font. It comes from a Chinese company by the name of C & C Joint Printing Co., (HK) Ltd.

My research into this company, trying unsuccessfully to find the creator of the font, lead me to this very interesting site about Chinese fonts in the computer world: http://epeuthutebetes.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/chinese-serif-italics/. I especially like the discussion of how one tackles the problem of trying to italicize Chinese characters.

French Script by Stephenson Blake, 1905. I simply adore the look of this font.
Finally on fonts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_typefaces, a place that lists a great many typefaces by type.

FANTASY
You would think this would be an easy subject. I write fantasy, I read fantasy, and my imagination runs wild along fantastic lines of thought. This is one of my favorite subjects, but where to start in defining and explaining it?

Fantasy is something produced by imagination that is somehow removed from a semblance of known realities. It is fiction and often features strange settings, rules that fly in the face of traditional science or concrete beliefs and yet are made real enough that when the reader immerses themselves in the story they believe every word.

Fantasy is child’s play

It is also advanced visions, social commentary, satire, and almost assuredly something that has very little chance of every happening. If you prefer the things that have the illusion of possibility then reading science fiction will plunge you more into worlds where it is easier to suspend disbelief. Fantasy is an impractical or unrealistic idea made real.

While it’s true that by definition all fiction is made-up, in fantasy there is an extra step out of the realm of believability.

A very good site that dissects the elements of fantasy in today’s mediums: http://www.k12.hi.us/~mkunimit/MKt3/fantasy3.htm..

Originally fantasy sprung from themes found in myth and folklore, but the genre now includes all variations of imagination. Today’s fantasy makes its own rules. There can be magic, talking animals, themes and creatures from myth & folklore, other worlds, science, speculative, dystopian, cross-overs into other realms such as romance and horror, and many more. The limit is the imagination of the writer.

We will revisit fantasy many times over the life of this blog. I can tell you the bare-bones of what the genre is, but to fully comprehend the joy, the life, the child’s play that so many of us have forgotten, is to take a dip in the pool, run with someone else’s dreams and visions, and then to make your own.

My hope on sparking even more creativity is to once again visit the World Fantasy Convention. I’ve only done so once, and would love to do so again.

There are many smaller, more accessible conventions and these too are well worth the immersion into fantastical worlds and the people who dream them, draw them, discuss them, map them, and can explain the joys they’ve found in particular worlds.

http://worldfantasy2014.org/. This year the convention is in Washington DC, November 6 to November 9.

This one also looks like fun: http://www.fantasycon2014.org/ City of York in England, September 5 through September 11.

If these are too soon for adequate planning, prep and reading, then you can find some of the next ones in the queue or closer to your region at these sites:

http://www.conventionscene.com/schedules/scifiandfantasyconventions/ One stop shopping for a convention near you.
http://www.scificonventions.com/
http://www.upcomingcons.com/

Where do you go for creativity?  Where are the best conventions and places to share your love and enthusiasm for the fantastical arts? What inspires you?

Introducing Rainbow Hill Meanders

“Please excuse the mess. This blog is currently under construction.”

Rainbow Hill Meanders is thus named because (surprise, surprise) the house is on a hill and it has many skylights and some inlaid multi-colored glass.  When the sun shines, and even in the Pacific Northwest this occasionally happens, rainbows appear everywhere. The cats love this.  I also think the hill sometimes wanders through the space-time continuum.  When that happens who knows what will pop up here.

The author of this blog is Lisa Kraft, writer of fantasy and science fiction. You can find out much more about her at http://www.lisakraft.me/.   She also writes for the photo blog, Photocatography .

Meanders is also because my interests are varied and sometimes random.  I am passionate about writing and all things that involve words.  I’m a bibliophile (that implies a problem with buying too many books and over-frequenting the library). My other interests are a bit eclectic.  Beside books and writing,  I like Bengal cats, fantasy, seashells (especially the nautilus), remote places, linguistics, history, good narrative, tengu, world mythology and… I expect this list will grow into a sidebar. Right now, this seems a bit like a singles ad.  I’m also based just outside of Seattle so you can also expect Seattle to feature in some posts.

I’ve given up soda for lemon water, sugar for veggies and couch time for exercise. It’s a tough transition, but am now, better late than never, finally listening to all the advice I’ve always given my children.

Speaking of children, check out the Kansas City Ballet  http://www.kcballet.org/. It’s very cool. 

Also speaking of children, you’ll find a few things about teaching — high school.  I admire how brave she is.

When we speak of husbands, you will probably find several comments on Xbox and photography.  Did I say to check out http://photocatography.wordpress.com/ ?

A few other tidbits:  I love black opals, the diversity of the people around me, and the diversity of opinion which makes this world so fascinating to live in.

Favorite quote (or at least my favorite at this moment, for sometimes my nature is fickle):  “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt

I’m addicted to Twitter. Follow me there at @lisakraftme

I lurk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.kraft.547

Webpage is http://www.lisakraft.me/

I love feedback, comments and questions.  Looking forward to hearing from you.

— lisa