cornerofmadness

I had a few idea as to what to talk about today but then Betty sent me this article Why Fantasy Writers Should Embrace Their Heritage

I will say I've been seeing that a lot lately, especially with Asian authors and to be fair those stories will be a lot more 'new' feeling to western readers than yet another retelling of Cinderella or Snow White. As for me, I adopted this rather unconsciously about 2 years ago, maybe three. First it started with my new location and Mothman rubbing off on me.

So for the last several years I started working with OH/WV cryptids since I've been living here for 20 years now. Not really heritage but it is my adopted hometown at this point, like it or not (not, but that's another story). One of these stories will be coming out later this year. One of my novellas as Jana deals with the haunts of another place I lived, Cassadaga FL and a novel by her is set right here with the haunts of Ohio.

But more recently I've started digging into my heritage. The last half dozen stories I've written have all been steeped in Italian folk lore. Another is with Pennsylvania cryptids (where I was born) and I want to do more with the Italian monsters and look into the Croatian ones.

If we think about it most of the fantasy we see is mostly British and German influenced (and yes I've written stories with monsters from both)I suppose if that's your heritage you'll have a harder row to hoe to make it feel fresh and new. There is so much more out there and it'll be interesting to see people tap into that.


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