by Drew Ellenwood | May 8, 2018 | Fantasy & Theology
Here’s a blog from my daughter Lucy on one of her and my favorite movies, Signs. A great discussion starter. Enjoy. Let me go ahead and offend 95% of evangelical Christians: I do not like Christian movies. I’ll let the evangelicals freak out for a moment…they’re...
by Drew Ellenwood | Aug 2, 2014 | Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy & Theology
Fantasy and science fiction fans are accustomed to extraordinary beings. We expect such things. Star Trek introduced an alien race of blue bipeds. Farscape one upped them with a sentient species of blue plants. How’s that for fantastic? Creatures with tentacles,...
by Drew Ellenwood | May 21, 2014 | Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy & Theology, Path to Publishing
Hold a book in your hand. Where did it come from? The publisher, of course. The publisher probably got it from a literary agent. The agent represented an author. The author had a story to tell. But where did the story come from? Stories start as a spark of an...
by Drew Ellenwood | Mar 12, 2014 | Fantasy & Theology
When I think about what makes an engaging character in a book, I begin to think on what it means to be a person. What is ‘me’? In writing science fantasy, I’m not interested in simply ‘human’. Human is a species. I want to know what it means to be a person no...
by Drew Ellenwood | Jan 15, 2014 | Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy & Theology
Invincibility is a story killer. The magic in fantasy or the technology in science fiction can be so awesome that nothing is able to stand against it. For storytelling, this is bad. Story needs conflict, a way to endure or overcome, a real chance of failure. If the...
by Drew Ellenwood | Sep 27, 2013 | Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy & Theology
In order to connect with us meager humans in the real world, a fantasy novel needs to have at least a few things in common with life as we know it. Your populace could well have tentacles about their mouths or three arms at the top of their heads or hair on the...