Dear (My main character), You might be wondering why I didn’t let you be as good and perfect and noble as I know you truly wanted to be. Why?–you might ask–did I not protect you from those moral dilemmas that you’re still not sure you dealt with the way you should have. Why didn’t IContinue reading “Dear Main Character”
Category Archives: Things Beloved
The Thing About Tropes is…
They only tell you what a thing might be, not what it is. I simultaneously love thinking through tropes, but hate using them as a guide. I understand why people like to do trope lists for books–a bullet-point format of why you might enjoy a given novel–but we all know that this merely skims theContinue reading “The Thing About Tropes is…”
The Double-Edged Sword of Fantasy
I love the fantasy genre. I write in the fantasy genre. You have so much room–as either a reader or a writer–to breathe, to explore, to wonder and wander. To experience joy or grief or hope or conviction and walk away enchanted, thrilled, and sated. Whether you love cool magic systems, strange cultures, epic battles,Continue reading “The Double-Edged Sword of Fantasy”
The Everlasting Trope: Battle Couple
When I was younger (a teen or so) and someone asked me what sort of things I find to be “romantic”, this was roughly my answer: “Sitting together, shoulder-to-shoulder before some great battle, drinking coffee next to a fire in the dark. Preparing for the danger to come, knowing what the other was thinking orContinue reading “The Everlasting Trope: Battle Couple”
Things Beloved: Mara Daughter of the Nile
I do not remember how old I was when I first read Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Mara Daughter of the Nile. 12, perhaps. And I have probably read it nearly a dozen times since then. This book rests firmly in the category of “books-that-I-love-till-death-do-us-part-but-am-not-sure-if-they-are-as-good-as-I-think-because-I-am-blinded-by-old-affection.” I find that books read in my teenaged years often fall intoContinue reading “Things Beloved: Mara Daughter of the Nile”
Things Beloved: Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have surely seen it more than a dozen times, and I’ll likely see it many more…and I’m going to tell you why, because this is some good storytelling. For those who have never seen or even heard of this movie, it is, at first glance,Continue reading “Things Beloved: Monsoon Wedding”
Things Beloved: Mulan
When I was very little (and to this day) I was not into Princesses at all. I mean, I loved to dress up, and I had a serious romantic streak but I just did NOT understand the princess thing, specifically. It was just outside my comprehension. This was actually extraordinarily advantageous to me when playing with mostContinue reading “Things Beloved: Mulan”
Things Beloved: Fiddler on the Roof
My not-yet-two-year-old asked for me to put on some music, a word he pronounces suspiciously like “magic,” by the way. Instead of putting on the same album that I always do because he likes it so much (Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos), I decided it had been too long since I’d listened to FiddlerContinue reading “Things Beloved: Fiddler on the Roof”
J. L. Odom 