Writing Fantasy

Review of an event at The Lit and Phil, Newcastle

One author in obligatory leather jacket sits in front of select group of groupies and tells them how he does it. The formula is familiar from countless signings, conventions and promotions, but when the speaker is local thriller/fantasy writer Chaz [don't call him Charles!] Brenchley, then the mood is unique. For one thing, the man's trademark combination of terminal laidbackness, mind melting intelligence and inspirational love of language flatters his listeners into instant familiarity. He starts the evening by reading a thoughtful piece on the nature and functions of fantasy literature, but after that he's up for grabs - there's no issue of waiting for question time, as Brenchley's attitude both invites instant comment and incorporates it into his train of thought. Ideas are interspersed with anecdotes, so there's a real feeling of the author as an everyday bloke, who has been known to fall asleep in conferences, to moonlight as a [female) romance writer and to realise in volume three of a trilogy that he got something wrong in volume one, He's written gritty crime laced with the supernatural and fantasy entirely without elves. He's also an engaging and illuminating speaker, and more strength to the Literary and Philosophical Society Library for hosting public events of this kind, that help bring the processes of modern fiction to life.

Gail-Nina Anderson
The Crack, August 2005

The Write Fantastic is a new project, a group which will promote fantasy fiction in the same way as the Murder Squad promotes crime: a group of published and professional fantasy writers, finding themselves in danger of being written off as mid-list and hence not worth marketing, coming together to promote themselves, each other and the genre as a whole, to a literary world too ready to dismiss genre in general and fantasy in particular.

Read more about The Write Fantastic on this site or visit The Write Fantastic website.