Last month, in Post #1 of my Heroines series on Supernatural Underground, one of the featured heroines was Elfrid, from Ru Emerson’s debut novel, A Princess of Flames.

I took a more indepth look at Elfrid about a decade ago now, in a series on (the late, great) SF Signal, titled “Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World.” One in which I shone a spotlight on my favourite Fantasy heroines, not only revealing who each one is, but why I believe they kick butt and take names as characters.

Here’s what I had to say about Elfrid then:

“A long time standout in my cast of favorites is Elfrid, the “Princess of Flames”, from Ru Emerson’s book of the same name. At face value, Elfrid’s arc might seem to be somewhat stereotypical for a Fantasy heroine. She is the “misfit”, illegitimate daughter in a family of legitimate half-siblings, and is also adept with weapons in a society that disapproves of women warriors. Exiled with her deposed father (nods to Cordelia and King Lear), Elfrid returns eight years later, impersonating a famous, fighting Archbishop (Gespry of Rhames) to wreak revenge on her half-siblings and endeavor to save the kingdom from their tyranny.

Yet although that is the basic plot, Elfrid is not in the least bit stereotypical. Here’s why: firstly, she’s not only good with weapons, she is an effective warrior – but in a matter-of-fact way that I really like. When the chips are down, she both knows what to do, and proceeds to take care of business. This includes both in battle, where she has to emulate Gespry’s fame as a general, but also in duels:

“Hyrcan’s sword pressed down, slipped harmlessly away as [Elfrid] executed a swift, circular movement of the wrist. Three clashing blows rang out.”

It would still be easy to write a cardboard cut-out woman–warrior, though, but Elfrid works because she is very much a real person. The fabric of her relationships—with her exiled father, the loyal companions surrounding the ostensible Gespry, and both old friends and enemies when she returns home—is very much the heart of the book. Elfrid is convincing, too, because of her combination of determination and uncertainty as she walks the knife edge of deception, for high stakes.

“There were long. awkward silences between the King’ words, silences into which anything might be read, and her own inner sense caught radiating suspicion, fear, uncertainty. Alayya, Elora, if he has suspected, if he suspects – ”

I also like that Elfrid is unarguably equal in all her relationships, including with the man she loves. When they first re-meet after eight years, she is prepared to kill him to maintain her imposture and protect her companions, at least until she can be persuaded of his good faith. But after he has sworn to her, she is also clear that:

“…we ride … as equals, you and I, or not at all.”

Loyal to those she loves and respects, strong of arm and of will, but also fairminded, both a warrior and a leader – it’s hardly surprising that Ru Emerson’s Elfrid continues to rock my world.”

Hello March! And to post two in my Heroines series on the Supernatural Underground.

This month’s dynamic duo are Yeine Darr from NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Rowan Birchmoon from m’own The Wall Of Night series.

At face value, these may seem like two wildly disparate characters — but I have found some common ground. To check out more, follow the link:

A Year of Heroines #2 — Yeine Darr and Rowan Birchmoon

And enjoy!

USA

UK/AU/NZ

On February 16, I posted on Bandersnatch meters and Vorpal Blades, fulfilling a promise made on December 1. In that same post, I also promised a “little more on zooming out and in” — so here goes!

Plenty of Korra ‘zoom’ happening here!

The premise is fairly simple, but it can be quite a powerful too, especially when one has been close to the authorial coalface for a long time. So if something in not working, in terms of either the narrative or a character’s arc, it can be really helpful to “zoom out” or even right out, and refocus on the big-picture plan for the story. Although not an infallible remedy, it very often provides sufficient realignment, along with a refreshed perspective, that allows the problems of detail to resolve.

You gotta take that big, blue sky view

When and if it doesn’t work, I then have to consider whether the problem is one of even finer detail: some problem so subtle that only the muse-subconscious fathoms it, but which is effectively acting as a spanner in the whole works. So if zooming out has drawn a blank, it’s definitely time to zoom even farther in to find the problem.

Dig into that detail; take no prisoners…

In both cases, once the issue is identified and resolved, the writing always flows again. So as author, I have to be willing to do the work to ensure it does, however frustrating that may feel at times.

Doing that thar work

And if neither zooming in nor out works, and bandersnatch meters are going off all over the show? Well, one option is definitely “Panic” (ha-ha—but which has been known. #Just Saying 😉 ) Another is to reach for the vorpal blade—but there may be one or two other tools in the kit first. Rest assured, I shall come back to you on those. 😀

It may take a writer’s cottage, in a wildy-wood

Previous Post

February 16:  Bandersnatch meters and Vorpal Blades

Penning this month’s Supernatural Underground post on Heroines, which features Aerin, from Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown, prompted me to take another look at Ms McKinley’s The Blue Sword, which is also set in the land of Damar, albeit centuries—or maybe even a millenium—later.

I have read The Blue Sword several times, so only intended to dip in and out, ensuring I had all my facts aligned for the SU post, but immediately I started reading I was hooked. I had forgotten dear readers, quite how much I like this book — and there’s so much to like.

Starting with the worldbuilding, which delivers a double or triple whammy, depending on whether the reader started with The Hero and the Crown.  Because the Damar of Aerin is very different to that of Harry (aka Angharad, Hari, and Harimad-Sol), the heroine of The Blue Sword. What was a green and temperate realm is now largely desert—but not only that, there are effectively two new worlds in one, because a large part of Damar has now been included into the Homelander Empire, which calls it Daria.

Kindle Edition

Daria has definite Victorian and British Raj vibes, which makes for an interesting twist on the Damar worldbuilding. Not to forget the demon races to the north, who also featured in Aerin’s day.

The cast of characters is great as well, from Harry—thrown into the deep end of her Damarian heritage with magic (kelar), warrior training, and learning to wield the blue sword—to her mentor, Mathin, and an assortment of Darian and Damaran friends and allies. There’s romance, too, in the form of Corlath, the Damaran king and fellow kelar wielder — and no one does lovable animal companions quite like Robin McKinley. In this case, the two stars are Tsornin (Sungold), Harry’s warhorse, and Narknon, a hunting cat (think lynx-cum-cheetah) play starring roles.

Audio edition

And then, of course, there’s the magic, the demonic enemies, and the adventure… As I said, so much to like, which will be why I read it from cover-to-cover in short order. (At 272 pp, short order is feasible. 😀 )

What’s up? Lots of great posts, that’s what!

I kicked things off on February 2 with the first in my 2026 series. The theme is Heroines and I started with the now-classic Aerin (The Hero and The Crown by Robin McKinley), the largely unsung (but imminently worthy) Elfrid from Ru Emerson’s The Princess of Flames, while also checking in on Malian from The Wall Of Night series.

Meanwhile, Kim Falconer is on post #2 in her Fiction Predictions, aka Writers As Seers series — and not surprisingly, she’s honing in on Jules Verne and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. It’s a classic read and definitely predictive science fiction.

Plus there are two new Backlist posts:

Why Do People Like To Read Scary Stories by Merrie Destefano. Merrie’s come up with a comprehensive and compelling lists of reasons, so whether a writer or reader, you’ll want to check it out.:)

And guess what, there’s another Helen Lowe post from aways back in 2014, on the topic of Streetwise Heroines The original post is here, with some great additional recommendations from commenters. Feel free to post more suggestions now, too. 😀

Every now and then, I like to revisit a post from the …on Anything, Really backlist — and I think this post on Trees in Fantasy Fiction, posted in 2016, is worth a revisit. I hope you agree — and enjoy!

Trees In Fantasy Fiction (Reprised)

Isn’t this picture marvelous? Or more correctly, aren’t the tree roots pictured in the photo marvelous? (I am more than prepared to admit that my photography is definitely at the ‘fun snap’ end of the spectrum.)

The roots belong to the Moreton Bay fig I featured yesterday, which resides in Auckland’s Cornwall Park. I have always loved the species’ snaking, twisty roots — and as a Fantasy reader as well as a writer, they always make me think Entish thoughts.

Ents, of course, are probably the most famous “trees”, or in their case, treelike beings, in Fantasy literature. They feature in the second and third books of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and played a major part in The Two Towers film, with the attack on, and destruction of Isengard:

“Pippin looked behind. The number of Ents had grown — or what was happening? Where the dim bare slopes that they had crossed should lie, he thought he saw groves of trees. But they were moving! Could it be that the trees of Fangorn were awake, and the forest was rising, marching over the hills to war? He rubbed his eyes wondering if sleep and shadow had deceived him; but the great grey shapes moved steadily onward.”

Sentient trees also feature in CS Lewis’s Narnia series and I’ve always loved the scene in Prince Caspian where Aslan reawakens the trees that have slept as a result of the Telmarine invasion.

“What Lucy and Susan saw was a dark something coming to them from almost every direction across the hills. It looked first like a black mist creeping on the ground, then like the stormy waves of a black sea rising higher and higher as it came on, and then, at last, like what it was — woods on the move. All the trees of the world appeared to be rushing towards Aslan.”

Sometimes, however, it is not a forest but a single tree that features — like the world tree in Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree series, which is first encountered in Tymon’s Flight:

“To starboard of the vessel…stretched a vast and furrowed mountain of bark, so wide that it’s curvature was almost invisible and so high that both its summit and its base were lost to view. The immensity of the wall was broken by a profusion of spoke-like limbs, the largest many miles in length. Several hundred feet above the dirigible the trunk culminated in the gently rising plateau of branches and twigs that made up the Central Canopy’s crown.”

Guy Gavriel Kay’s Summer Tree, from the book of the same name, may not be a world in size, but it is still intriguing, magical, and powerful:

“…and he came into the place wherein stood the Summer Tree. Very great it was, dark almost to black, its trunk knotted and gnarled, wide as a house. It stood alone in the clearing, in the place of sacrifice, and clutched the earth with roots old as the world, a challenge to the stars that shone down, and there was power in that place beyond the telling.”

Werewolves and other were-beasts have become very popular in recent years, but Fantasy contains at least one instance of tree-shifting: Danan Isig in Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed, who teaches the skill to the protagonist, Morgon:

“Was I a tree? Sometimes I stand so long in the snow watching the trees wrapped in their private thoughts that I forget myself, become one of them. They are as old as I am, as old as Isig. . .”

When discussing trees in Fantasy I don’t think I could go past the weirwood that stands at the heart of Winterfell, in George RR Martin’s A Game Of Thrones:

“At the center of the grove an ancient weirwood brooded over a small pool where the waters were black and cold. “The heart tree,” Ned called it. The weirwood’s bark was white as bone, its leaves dark red, like a thousand bloodstained hands. A face had been carved in the trunk of the great tree, its features long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful.”

Trees feature in my own books as well, as I discussed in a recent post series:

Thornspell and the Enchanted Wood

The Influence of Trees on Landscape: The Heir Of Night

The Influence of Trees on Landscape: The Gathering of the Lost

The Influence of Trees on Landscape: Daughter Of Blood

The Influence of Trees on Landscape: The Wall Of Night series

~*~

If you have any trees you would like to add, please do leave a comment. 😀

So-o, back on December 1, when I posted re completing the revision of another WALL #4 section, I also mentioned “bandersnatch meters and the accompanying significance of vorpal blades” in the revision context.

Azula on the WALL face — channeling that revision vibe

I also indicated that I might illuminate their mysteries pre-Christmas, but in the end was way too busy revising the next WALL #4 section to have time for that. Now, however,with the manuscript delivered, I have a little more breathing space, so here it is — the post in which the Bandersnatch Meter mystery is revealed. 😀

Now, I know …on Anything, Really blog followers are both knowledgeable and well-read, so will be very aware that both bandersnatches and vorpal blades feature in the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, featured in full here.

Jabberwocky illustration by John Tenniel, 1871

In the poem, the “frumious bandersnatch”, along with the jabberwocky with its “eyes of flame” must be shunned, but the hero nonetheless takes “his vorpal sword in hand” and seeks the “manxome foe” — and once found the aforementioned “vorpal blade went snicker-snack” and it was all over for the jabberwocky. The frumious bandersnatch, however, remained…

…and even wandered into my revision process. How so, you may cry — but it’s straightforward enough. 😉 When embarking upon an edit, one not only looks for the sort of things mentioned in my recent post on Hunting Infelicities but also for bandersnatches at large in the manuscript: that’s BS, of course,  for short. 😀

Jabberwocky is part of “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”

So in order to ensure the manuscript, when published, will be BS free, one first needs a BS meter, to detect the (ahem) bandersnatches and a vorpal blade to go snicker-snack and detach ’em in short order, wherever they may be encountered. All of which is why I maintain and aver that a really good Bandersnatch Meter and reliable vorpal blade are essential to the manuscript revision process.

BS (bandersnatch!) meter & vorpal blade not shown.:)

USA

I’m sure you all know the “Meet the Minor Players” drill 😉 — i.e. that it’s a post sequence that features the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series. One of the reasons for posting this series is because the major characters always get featured and discussed, but: —

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that (also) “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ Helen Lowe (from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview)

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

~*~

UK/AU/NZ

Rastem: First to Queen Zhineve-An of Jhaine and leader of her Seven

The escort warrior on the chestnut horse moved forward, close on his queen’s right. His voice, when he spoke, was clear as the ring of sword on sword…“I am Rastem, First of the Seven sworn to Queen Zhineve-An of Jhaine. I greet you, in the name of Jhaine and the Nine Queens.”

~ from © The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Chapter 33, Maraval

On January 22 I posted a quote from Sylvia Plath (1932-1963):

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Rather than just leaping in with my own thoughts, I offered blog readers  and followers the opportunity to share their view — so a big thank you to Gail Halsted who replied as follows:

“…Not sure about this but certainly the hesitation to have ones work critiqued by other good authors. Also the lack of discipline and procrastination.”

All of which prompted me to reflect a little more deeply and then (as is often my way 🙂 ) emulate a Tolkien elf and answer “both yes and no.”

So I agree with both Sylvia Plath and Gail that a lack of belief in oneself can definitely sabotage creativity, particularly if it leads one to not create at all — or to create, but be reluctant to show the work to others, or put it out there into the world. Self doubt may also lead to “overdoing” the creative work, e.g. overediting a novel or poem, which can feel very self-destructive.

My but, however, is that self-doubt may also aid the creative process if it leads one to review and question what has been achieved; to strive to be and do better; and to remain open to feedback and be willing to change where that feedback resonates. In these circumstances, it may support creative achievement, rather than undermining it.

In summary, if self-doubt is of crippling proportions, or leads one to always heed others’ views over one’s own creative instincts, then I agree that it undermines, or may even overwhelm, creativity. But if it’s part of the picture but kept in balance, then it may play a positive part.

Needless to say, I am very happy to hear more viewpoints on this. 😀

Tis a long weekend ahead, plus it’s summer here as well — and I’ve been beavering away on my infelicity hunt, so it really does feel like time for a little “inside Middle Earth” magic. To which end, this particular photo is taken very close to the location that became the Westfold of Rohan in The Two Towers. 😀

Also, I’m aware some of you in more northern climes are feeling the cold right now, so I post this by way of a promise of brighter skies ahead.

Be careful out there, one and all. 🙂