oh, oh, oh what's magic? do you know?

Heaven help me, I've decided to add a character with magic abilities into my story. I'm really getting in over my head here, first with fantasy, then putting magic in too?! To be honest, I don't really know the first thing about writing a story with magic in it. I've read a few and can say when one is better than another but I can never really articulate why which means creating my own magic is a bit confusing. Thankfully, my wonderful husband has read quite a few books where magic is a prevalent part and his astute observations have already given me a pretty good framework of rules to go by. I'm also reading a book by Orson Scott Card about writing science fiction and fantasy, it's pretty neat.

Speaking of neat, have you guys seen this video yet?

Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love

The lovely Chelsea Poplin of doid and a sublime fool introduced me to it the other day and while there are a few things I'm not super keen on, I love the idea of Cupid as a lonely creature. I do wish the ending didn't...end the way it does, but maybe I just like depressing things better than happily-ever-afters right now.

We just wrapped up our fairy tale unit in my Folklore class and I have to say, I've never actually read the originals of most of our common fairy tales and they are disturbing. For instance: Bluebeard? Not a pirate as it turns out, but a horrific serial killer. The Grimms thought people told this stuff to their children? Good heavens. They do make for fantastic raw material if you're doing a retelling or just trying to incorporate some motifs into your stories so I definitely recommend reading them if you haven't :)

So I'm officially getting into the throws of this semester and not particularly liking it, especially as my recreational reading time has been consumed by academia once again. I did, however, manage to read Tin Swift by Devon Monk [sequel to Dead Iron] before things got crazy so I thought I'd review it.

Devon Monk has a unique writing style to anything else I've ever read. That being said, and considering that it's been a while since I read Dead Iron, it took me about a chapter or so to get into the rhythm of her writing again. I think this aspect may put people off at first but, believe me, it is well worth the time to get into her groove because she has an awesome groove. The Age of Steam series of which Dead Iron and Tin Swift are parts 1 and 2, is, simply put, a steam punk western that takes mysterious Native American curses, witchcraft, an extra scary dose of the supernatural, steam-age gadgetry, and good ol' western gun fights, and throws them all in a pot to see how they play out. Cedar Hunt [our dashing and mysterious loner/cowboy figure] has made many promises: to the questionably sane Madder brothers to find all the pieces of the Holder, to Mae to help her safely home to the coven who's calls are stealing her mind, to Rose to keep her safe and take her along to see the world, and to his brother William to find a way to break the curse they're both under. Tin Swift sees his determined attempts to fulfill all of these promises, discovering dashing airship captains, terrific battles, and a more disturbing Mr. Shunt that we ever saw in Dead Iron [and yes, he can get more disturbing, I may or may not have had nightmares about him]. Monk does a fantastic job of keeping you on the edge of your seat, constantly raising the stakes. Strong characters, delightful dialogue that you'll be compelled to read aloud to others, and just a bit of romance round out this tale of mystery, vengeance, struggle, and gears. I honestly can't wait for the next book to come out [this summer!]. This is a book I'm glad to have on my own bookshelf :)