Essays
Ariel Hudnall’s official blog and random soapbox.
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Archetypes: Innocent
What endears us to a character? Centuries of literature from all across the globe have shown us kings, highwaymen, samurai, wisemen, star-crossed lovers, and wizards––many so common that they have become archetypes in our consciousness. According to Carl Jung, there are twelve in all, set into three different categories of Ego, Soul, and Self. In…
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Read-Along: The Sharazad Project (Part 1)
There have always been storytellers to keep the night at bay. There have not always been books, and as the oratory tradition of stories is a precarious form of literary remembrance, the oldest stories ran wild in countless incarnations before eventually being recorded in writing. There are some names synonymous with the telling of fairy…
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Archetypes: The Anima & Animus in Fantasy
Tropes. Clichés. Archetypes. From the Hero’s Journey to magic swords, these devices abound in works of fantasy, from the most ancient of mythologies, to more contemporary works of fiction. While tropes and archetypes should not be confused with the more negatively-defined cliché, all work together to build a story that is not only accessible to…
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The Lady Koi – An Excerpt
Well, it’s finally out! Darkly Never After is now available in paperback and ebook formats, and I couldn’t be happier with it. My paperback copy showed up a couple of days ago, and the print quality is really nice. It’s a thick book, nearly 400 pages, and it’s chock-full of all kinds of dark fairy tales, fables,…
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Blood of Amber: A Review
Blood of Amber by Roger Zelazny My rating: 3 of 5 stars It is the second book in the Cycle of Merlin, and in typical Amber fashion, the intrigue is stacking up. Merle begins the story trapped in a crystal cave by his friend Luke (relationships being complicated in Amber, and who is one day your friend…
Ariel Hudnall 