FableCroft

Pre-orders for pickup at Conflux have now CLOSED but for ONE MORE WEEK you can still order a copy for delivery to your door anywhere in the world! This limited edition hardcover collectible is a must have for any Angela Slatter or Kathleen Jennings fan, and is both a wonderful reading experience and a gorgeous package. Availability ends FOREVER on... Friday September 29, 2017. Return to the dreaming streets of the cathedral-city of Lodellan, where a new generation of characters face fairy tales and nightmares. Cordelia Parsifal has an enviable life, hard won, but the ghosts of the past are soon to remind her that no sin or omission goes unnoticed. A darkly mannered narrative of a family facing its downfall, and the hidden secrets within. Deftly told in Slatters seemingly effortless prose, The Tallow-Wife is unexpected and shocking, with depths to be explored. Paired with vignettes from the same world, and featuring an essay by illustrator Kathleen Jennings. Should fantasy novels have a map? No, for three reasons. First, almost every fantasy author lacks the necessary geographic skills. Not only do you need to understand the interaction of tectonics and geology with climate, vegetation and the distribution of fauna, you also need to grasp historical and contemporary migration, settlement, trade and cultural patterns. You even have to know something about toponymy and the way this varies within and between cultures. Unless youre an expert (and even with a Ph.D. in geography, specialising in cartography. and a lifetime of academic teaching and research behind me, I often feel out of my depth) youre going to look silly in the eyes of an expert, as evidenced by these recent discussions . Second, your story should be self-contained. If it needs to refer to a map, surely thats evidence of poor writing. And if it doesnt refer to it, what use is the map? In fact, shouldnt we be moving away from those tired old epic fantasies where you need a map to work out where the hell you are? Third, and most important, due to ...Read More