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In this series of articles, I explore how The Hunger Games works as a dystopian novel.

Suzanne Collins did one thing right that so many other authors of dystopian fiction don’t seem to get—she created a dystopia that made sense. It was horrible, cruel, oppressive, and those in the Capitol were unbelievably blind to it, but it wasn’t arbitrary. It didn’t appear out of nowhere. It had been created for a very specific reason that worked for those in power.

That’s it, really, in a nutshell. I could...

The final book in one of my favourite fantasy series’ is coming out this year, and if you’re not afraid of reading 11 chunky books with flowery language, I highly recommend it. Janny Wurts speaks to my slow-reading heart with an incredibly complex and nuanced world, compelling characters that go through the most painful experiences imaginable, and a plot as twisty and knotted as a ball of wool your toddler got to.

There is political intrigue, a constrained magic system, a sci-fi element of a...

The Type of Writer I Am

My journey to writing has been an interesting one, and despite my very logical, linear brain, I am not a natural plotter. I am much more of a discovery writer. My daughter Emalyn, on the other hand, is a firm plotter, even though her brain is not linear, but rather thinks randomly. I don’t write the next scene until I’ve finished the one before. She leaves massive gaps in her story and writes whatever excites her in that present moment.

I find these differences...

I had the opportunity to take my daughters to see The Phantom of the Opera today, so after delivering a swathe of content warnings to my thirteen-year-old, we settled into our seats prepared to enjoy the show—for it is genius. Written in 1910 by Gaston Leroux, the novel has been adapted into several films and more than one musical, but it is the 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber version that has entranced me and many others for decades.

What is it about Phantom that is just so juicy? Well, it is a...

Romance is the number one selling genre at the moment, a long-term trend unlikely to change any time soon—if ever—because love, belonging, and connection are basic human needs. And though in our culture we are saturated with sex, I believe we are starved of authentic love. So we seek it. It’s primal, instinctive, necessary.

Hence the current debate about sex, commonly referred to as ‘spice’ or ‘smut’, in books— particularly YA books. I don’t want to get embroiled in mud-slinging, but I do...

I’ve been studying a lot of story craft recently, and one of the things I’ve struggled with was the concept of the ‘best bad choice’. It really did my head in. Growing up, I thought choices were either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and I was supposed to only make good ones. So why must my characters always be making the best ‘bad choice’—or else choose between two irreconcilable ‘good choices’? Shouldn’t they, too, be trying to do what they thought was right (even if it ended up being a mistake)?

It was...

Right from the very first episode, I knew The Chosen was going to be something special—and it hasn’t disappointed me. Dallas Jenkins and his team have produced, and are producing, a unique and masterful retelling of the life of Christ. And it’s not just for Christians. The production quality is so high that even non-Christians are watching and enjoying it—a fact which is telling.

Apart from a few stand-outs, such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion, so many faith-based productions have a certain...

What if Buttercup hadn’t given up Westley for dead in The Princess Bride? What if she had gone after him? This was Brandon Sanderson’s inspiration for writing Tress’s story. He also wanted to write an entire book in Hoid’s voice—so he’s our narrator. Others have commented that the style of Tress of the Emerald Sea is very different from Brandon’s usual, and this is the primary reason—it’s narrator heavy, with Hoid going off on little amusing, and often insightful, tangents. The narrative is...

Eclecta Perennial. It’s odd isn’t it? But so are we! ‘Eclecta’ is derived from ‘eclectic’, chosen because we derive our ideas, style and taste from a broad range of sources—even though our output is primarily fantasy novels. ‘Perennial’ was chosen because it means persistent or enduring. We want our writing to stand the test of time and incorporate the consistent and recurring wisdom found at the bottom of the big Truth.

Star Wars and Pride and Prejudice sit quite happily on our shelves, as do...