Collection: Fantasy

Writing advice tends to be full of 'rules' and 'tips' which are either too broad to be helpful or outright wrong. In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

ON WRITING

Part I: Prologues

Part II: The First Chapter

Part III: The Exposition Problem

Part IV: Foreshadowing

Part V: Villain Motivation

Part VI: Hero-Villain Relationships

Part VII: Final Battles

Part VIII: The Chosen One

Part IX: Hard Magic Systems

Part X: Soft Magic Systems

Part XI: Magic Systems and Storytelling

ON WORLDBUILDING

Part XII: Polytheistic Religions

Part XIII: Hidden Magical Worlds

Part XIV: How Empires Rise

Part XV: How Empires Work

Part XVI: How Empires Fall

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Part XVII: How I Plan a Novel

Dozens of side notes and extra thoughts on all the wonderful stories we discuss

The children of the Grace Field House orphanage must escape a macabre fate before it's too late.

Life at Grace Field House is good for Emma and her fellow orphans. While the daily studying and exams they have to take are tough, their loving caretaker provides them with delicious food and plenty of playtime. But perhaps not everything is as it seems...

As Norman and his group prepare their plan to eradicate all of the demons, Emma searches for her own path. Can she find a way to create a new promise that achieves peace without resorting to violence?

The Marvel Universe is no more! The interdimensional Incursions have eliminated each and every alternate universe one by one. And now - despite the best efforts of scientists, sages and superhumans - the Marvel Universe and Ultimate Universe have collided...and been destroyed! All that exists in the vast empty cosmos is a single, titanic patchwork planet made of the fragmented remains of hundreds of devastated dimensions: Battleworld! And the survivors of this multiversal catastrophe all bend their knee to Battleworld's master: Doctor Doom! What strange creatures inhabit this world? Which familiar faces will return? And what happens when Battleworld's domains go to war? The Marvel Universe is dead - and the victors of the Secret Wars will determine what comes next! Collecting SECRET WARS (2015) #1-9 and material from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2015 (SECRET WARS) #0.

"Baby Dragon's Big Sneeze" has earned TEN national and international book awards: (Mom's Choice; Readers' Favorite; Global Book Award; PenCraft Summer 2023 Award-Seasonal; Independent Author Network Award; Outstanding Creator Award for Top 25 Children's Picture Books) including FOUR first place wins: (PenCraft Literary Award - annual, non-seasonal; The BookFest; Outstanding Creator Award for Best Children's Book of Clash of Champions 2023; Outstanding Creator Award for Illustrated & Picture Books for Children).

A sweet story for dragon and fairytale lovers with themes of friendship, empathy and forgiveness.

A sick baby dragon feels terrible when his fiery sneeze causes problems for a neighboring village. Can they forgive and find it in their hearts to help the little dragon?

Follow one brave little girl who enters his cave and confronts the dragon. After learning about his plight, she advocates for him with the townspeople.

It will take problem-solving at its best to prevent further destruction and heal the ailing dragon.

Baby Dragon's Big Sneeze is a perfect springboard for discussions around:

• Found Family
• Building Trust
• Love and Kindness
• Helping Others / Sharing
• Reserving Judgement
• Accountability / Making Amends

Grab your copy now - a perfect addition to every home and school library.

God of the Dead. King of the Underworld. The Unseen. The Renowned.A King without his Queen.They were at odds for what felt like months living together, and just when he finally felt they were on stable footing, she's again wrenched from his grasp. Is this their true destiny? To be torn from each other over and over again? Yet, Demeter could never count on their mental connection, one as tied to the Underworld as they are. Too powerful and too old for even Demeter to touch.
Goddess of Spring: The Maiden. The Mistress. The Venerable One.The Queen without her King.It's another day on Olympus, as her mother's carefully guarded secret. Never seen. Never heard. Except for the dark, mysterious man who visits her dreams.One who keeps insisting they know each other. Not just know each other. He states quite clearly, they're married.
Destiny. Fate. Fortune. Kismet.Time's Up.Yet the lack of memory isn't their only problem, the Underworld is under attack. And the Titans are loose. Blood will be spilled. The Destroyer of Worlds will awaken. And nothing will be the same.

Every kingdom Rezkin touches has shattered, and the turbulence in his homeland is spreading across the Souelian. From the shards of kingdoms past, he begins to forge a new empire. But there is a price to pay for power, and the balance has come due. When Rezkin is confronted by something mysterious and ancient, he is stolen from his intended path and driven toward shocking revelations about his identity. With every whisper of knowledge comes new dangers and one certainty. Rezkin's past has finally caught up with him, and the mad king Caydean is playing a darker game than anyone realized.

Bev may not know who she was before she showed up in the quaint village of Pigsend five years ago, but that doesn't bother her much. She's made a tidy little life for herself as the proprietor of the Weary Dragon Inn, where the most notable event is when she makes her famous rosemary bread.

But when earthquakes and sinkholes start appearing all over town, including near Bev's front door, she's got to put on her sleuthing hat to figure out what-or who-might be causing them before the entire town disappears.

Drinks and Sinkholes is the first book in the Weary Dragon Inn Series.

Part-time student, full-time Soul Reaper, Ichigo is one of the chosen few guardians of the afterlife.

Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghosts--he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow--a malevolent lost soul--Ichigo becomes a Soul Reaper, dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping the tortured spirits themselves find peace. Find out why Tite Kubo's Bleach has become an international manga smash-hit!

Tattoo on the Sky

Ichigo and crew are determined to rescue Rukia from the Soul Society, and with the help of explosives expert Kûkaku, they actually have a chance of making it inside the walls. But the plan hinges on Ichigo getting control of his torrential spiritual energy, and with Rukia awaiting execution, there's no time to waste! And even if they can breach the Soul Society's defenses, there are twelve companies of angry Soul Reapers standing between them and their friend!

The dead have stories to tell. Are you listening?

On a sunny August morning, in 1935, thirteen-year-old Sophia Gray finds her friend, Rosemary wandering in the woods. Rosemary's yellow dress is tattered and stained, she walks with a strange lurch, and her eyes are vacant and glassy. She beckons to Sophia, desperate to show her something, and Sophia follows.

In an abandoned cabin, beneath a tattered blanket, Sophia discovers Rosemary's body.

It was not Rosemary who led her there, but Rosemary's ghost.

Step into the Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane

Twenty years after Sophia discovers Rosemary's body, she finds herself trapped in the sprawling, and eerily beautiful, Northern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, in the hands of a malevolent doctor who preys on patients who exhibit paranormal abilities.

Sometimes the dead don't rest

In present day 1965, Hattie, much like her mother, thirty years before, is led by a ghost. A newspaper hidden in an attic reveals a secret that has shaped the lives of Hattie and her siblings. Hattie with her sister, Jude, embark on a crusade to remedy the wrongs of the past and discover the tale of deception that stole their mother a decade before.

Hattie and Jude are in a race against time to discover a murderer and save their mother from a horrific fate.

Get lost in a uniquely chilling story that spans the life of a family and the ghosts who haunt them.

*National Bestseller*

The acclaimed retelling of the world's best-loved fairy tales by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Golden Compass and The Book of Dust--now in paperback, and with 3 new tales!

Two centuries ago, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their first volume of fairy tales. Since then, such stories as "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Rapunzel," and "Hansel and Gretel" have become deeply woven into the Western imagination. Now Philip Pullman, the New York Times bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, makes us fall in love all over again with the immortal tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Here are Pullman's fifty favorites--a wide-ranging selection that includes the most popular stories as well as lesser-known treasures like "The Three Snake Leaves," "Godfather Death," and "The Girl with No Hands"--alongside his personal commentaries on each story's sources, variations, and everlasting appeal. Suffused with romance and villainy, danger and wit, Pullman's beguiling retellings will cast a spell on readers of all ages.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

It's time to meet all the neighbors in Smurf Village! In this Level One I Can Read book, meet the iconic, charming little blue characters with big personalities. Featuring artwork from the all-new Nickelodeon animated series!

Who are the Smurfs and where do they live? What do they look like and what makes Clumsy different from Hefty and Brainy? Discover the ins and outs of the Smurfs cast. From Papa Smurf to Smurfette to the wicked Gargamel and his feline sidekick, find out what makes each Smurf smurftastic in their own way!

This introduction is perfect for fans of the ongoing Nickelodeon animated show as well as parents who wish to share the Smurfs with beginning readers.

Meet the Smurfs is a Level One I Can Read book, which means it's perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts of Level One books support success for children eager to start reading on their own.

"Football, food, fashion and wizards collide in Pratchett's affectionate satire on the foibles of sports and sports fans. . . . The prose crackles with wit and charm, and the sendups of league football, academic posturing, Romeo and Juliet and cheesy sports dramas are razor sharp and hilarious but never cruel. At its heart, this is an intelligent, cheeky love letter to football, its fans and the unifying power of sports." --Publishers Weekly

Football (aka soccer) comes to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork, upending the wizards of Unseen University--and dividing Discworld--in this wonderfully funny novel in Sir Terry Pratchett's internationally bestselling series.

The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things--wisdom, magic, teatime--but athletics, not so much. When Lord Vetinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive its sports program and field a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff--or lose the funding that pays for their nine daily meals--the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary. First, they have to understand what makes foot-the-ball so popular with Ankh-Morporkians. Then they have to learn how to play it--and win--without using magic.

Of course, the thing about football is that it is never just about football.

The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Unseen Academicals is the seventh and final book in the Wizards collection (and 37th Discworld book). The other books in the Wizards collection include:

The Color of MagicThe Light FantasticSourceryEricInteresting TimesThe Last Continent

"Spellbinding." --Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series
"A delectably immersive, eerie experience." --Kirkus Reviews

From New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance perfect for fans of Practical Magic, where dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods--and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.

Be careful of the dark, dark wood...

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it's this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman--the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago--and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he'd been missing.

Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver's presence. And it's not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn't know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own--secrets he'll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn't the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw shows us why.

In this twenty-ninth Heidi Heckelbeck adventure, Heidi and her friends have a pool party!

When Heidi's swim team, the Little Mermaids, want to raise money for new swim caps and goggles, Heidi helps with the perfect idea: They should throw a pool party! The temperature in Brewster has been hot, hot, hot, and all the kids in town are looking for a way to cool down. With the help of her team, friends, and a little magic, Heidi brings her pool party idea to life.

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Heidi Heckelbeck chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

Finally back in print, this second edition of the Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game Box Set contains everything players need to know about the world of the Guard, including rules for forming patrols and leading missions into the beleaguered territories.

This second edition of the Origins Award-winning game contains new art, additional Action, Weapon, and Condition cards, and a revised and updated rule book.

"Cat and Bones are combustible together."
--Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

Cat and Bones are back! New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jeaniene Frost returns to her remarkable Night Huntress paranormal series, pulling out all the stops on This Side of the Grave. The incomparable team of half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her all-vamp husband Bones face their most terrifying challenge yet as they race to prevent a "species war" that could devastate humans and immortals alike--and are forced to seek help from their sworn enemy, the Ghoul Queen of New Orleans. Gripping, intriguing, and hot as Hades, This Side of the Grave is where Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, and Christine Feehan fans definitely want to be!