To WriterDan: Not all fantasy puts the fantasy straight out there. Good fantasy (at least to me) doesn’t depend just on its fantastical elements. You make a good story and you add your fantasy elements that you have made or chosen to use to build that story as fantasy.

On robear61: you have it right except, I think it is better suited as a PG-13 Podcastle because I don’t think kids should listen to this sort of scary shit. (Please pardon my language.)

On that note my own personal rant:

While I was listening to this, I went back into that chamber of my mind. I hope you don’t mind if I use a little artistry here, and no I’m not crazy (I hope), I just have too much free time on my hands (especially on long car rides when I listen to these podcasts.)

So (and this is inside my mind as I’m listening remember) I’m walking through the Castle of Conscious (yes, my conscious mind is a castle) to the private section of my brain where I express thoughts without physically expressing them. Hollywood helped with this next part. So my private room is this bare room with a single hanging light that puts a single circle of light on the floor. Everything outside of the circle looks black and empty, so pretty much, there’s just that section of floor seen under the light. I walk into the middle of the circle, get down on my knees, cover my face with my hands… and I scream bloody murder. I am terrified, horrified, mystified, enraged, and just plain freaked out. At some point I get tired of screaming and I start crying. I’m scared for my grandparents, my parents, my friends, myself, my possible future children and grandchildren, and everyone else around me.

Needless to say, this story hit home. I could REALLY use a “fun” story about now guys.

Sincerely,
The Blaine Boy

P.S.
I want to hear if/ what parts of this go into the outro when you review these comments. That will be quite interesting/ ego-boosting. Hee! I feel like a terrible writer now. It’s fun!

By all means them. They’re the ones that pay the bills after all. Never meant to insinuate that the story wasn’t good or that people wouldn’t like it, just that it wasn’t fantasy in my opinion. I guess mostly this comment applies to me, and shows me as more of a purist than most when it comes to fantasy stories. I think that I could have easily enjoyed Winter Solstice if I had read it in some other setting, but got turned off because of what I didn’t see in it, but so very much wanted. And then back to the premise of your argument, Mike. What do I know? I haven’t even had a single story of mine published yet. Hats off to you.

>ynm1000 said,

>Why are almost all your stories about death and dark things? I >thought great fantasy was about quests and interesting places, with >fairies, and wizards, and courageous journeys? So many are mean->spirited and not too upright. Why not about powerful beings who are >good?

1. “Almost all” is a misstatement. I have sold more than 90 humorous stories in this field, more than any other writer, enough to fill five collections thus far. I am not responsible for the fact that podcast editors prefer and choose to buy my serious ones.

2. Great fantasy, like great any other kind of literature, is about the human heart in conflict with itself. Faeries, wizards, and courageous journeys are just the tools some writers choose to use (and some choose not to).

3. Powerful beings who are good are considerably less interesting than powerful beings who are flawed.

> WriterDan said

> And where are the editors who should be willing to tell an established > author that what they’ve written just isn’t fantasy?

This story sold to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, then and now the top fantasy magazine in the world. It sold to an original anthology. It has sold to sf/f magazines in Japan, Finland, Poland, Croatia, France, Russia and Israel (names and addresses available upon request, since you asked where they all were), and has been re-sold here on the printed page, electronically, and via podcast. It was nominated for a Hugo by the members of the 1992 Worldcon. It was optioned by Hollywood. You say it’s not fantasy story. Professional editors from 8 countries, a movie producer, and the people who vote for Hugos say it is. Honest answer, now: who should I believe — you or them?

I feel better already. Now I’ll go have my coffee.

– Mike Resnick

Just to expand my “Wow!”…
having Merlin born in our future is mindblowing.

“Winter Solstace” was a Hugo nominee in 1992, and I’ve since sold it nine more times, here and abroad.

Because it’s good.

“Winter Solstace” was a Hugo nominee in 1992, and I’ve since sold it nine more times, here and abroad.

– Mike Resnick

Benjamin, the movement backward in time is an old attribute of the Merlin character.

I too, had some trouble identifying with the first person “voice,” as the storytelling sounded much more third person. However, thinking about it, about how Merlin would see the world, and what someone that powerful and unbelievably smart might think about, it made more sense. Especially seeing as how (in frame of the story), Merlin is fast coming up on the end of a life that has spanned thousands of years.

I think this story would actually work fleshed out a little more, as a novella or whatever length the PodCastle Giant is. I would like to know more about what Merlin is thinking, and just how the backwards-time living is affecting him.

And, it might have been worth mentioning the Merlin Mythos a bit in the opening. I can see someone unaware of that connection being lost for awhile.

Overall, though, I have nothing but praise. I love it when an author takes a daring approach, and in this case, I think it was highly successful.