Fantasy Archives - Page 11 of 11

Coming to You June 26th: The Illuminated Heart

Thea van Diepen

That’s right, folks. The Illuminated Heart is coming to ebook in one week. Paperback is experiencing delays due to flying gerbils, and will be coming out in August. But seriously. June 26th. Be there. Dagný’s only brother, Kaj, is dead. He died of illness before his life had really begun, and Dagný blames God for it. About a week after his death, Kaj comes back as a draugur, a creature intent on the ruin of those it had known in

The Real Story Behind “The Illuminated Heart”

Thea van Diepen

Every once in a while, I experience an emotional meltdown (what some might refer to as “a spiritual awakening”). Occasionally, I even blog about it. In March I had a meltdown during the weekend of a conference I was volunteering at, and it led to the final piece of the puzzle I needed in order to begin writing The Illuminated Heart… the piece that I’ve been mentioning the least, incidentally. Today’s emotional meltdown involved my Indiegogo campaign. It also occurred in the kitchen

If Rumpelstiltskin Were 100 Times More Snarky

Thea van Diepen

Or: I Totally Forgot How Random the Ending Is (Announcements: I wanted to let you know that there won’t be a post next week -August 15- because I’m taking a week off from the computer in order to go to camp. Yay for camp! Now, the show is about to begin. Please turn off all cellphones and other distracting devices, and put away your cameras, as photography is strictly prohibited. Thank you, and enjoy the show. :) ) Act

Ahuiztol or Ahuizotl, and Does it Matter?

Thea van Diepen

When thinking of the next water monster to talk about, some part of my mind dredged up a freaky Mayan creature I had once read about. All I could remember was that it had a hand on its tail and vaguely what it looked like, and I was pretty sure that the book I’d read the information in didn’t mention its name. So, I turned to my friend, Taryn, who’s working on a book that involves a culture that she styled

Nøkken, Stromkarlen, Fossegim, Oh My!

Thea van Diepen

Five or so years ago, I remember reading about various mythological water monsters and coming across one mentioned in passing called a “Neck”. No joke. The name struck me as odd, and the book I was reading had infuriatingly little information on the creature, so it awoke my curiosity. I would like to say that I promptly researched everything on Necks and became and expert, but I hadn’t the slightest idea how to search for information on it, not only