Fantasy

Audio of Weird: A Clutch of Christmas Ghost Stories

Snuggle down, drink up and listen in to a read-aloud of ‘Rats’ by M.R. James and ‘Over Before Christmas’ by Alec Worley

Dec 16, 2025 • Alec Worley

Who Dies First? Conan the Barbarian vs. The Bloody Nine

Fantasy writers, learn how to keep your fight scenes sharp with two classic examples of sword and sorcery

Dec 2, 2025 • Alec Worley

Vampires Don't Have to Be Horrible

How Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos (1992) subverted the bloodsucking genre

Feb 20, 2025 • Alec Worley

Fantastic Beasts and How to Write Them

Some Jurassic examples of great monster-writing

Jan 28, 2025 • Alec Worley

Make Camelot Weird Again

How David Lowery's The Green Knight (2021) brings strange new meaning to an antique fantasy text. And, yes, it’s a Christmas movie. Fight me.

Dec 13, 2024 • Alec Worley

The Furry Folk Horror of Watership Down (1978)

How the animated adaptation of Richard Adams’s novel terrified a generation and builds a non-human epic fantasy that casts a dark and enthralling spell

Nov 11, 2024 • Alec Worley

What Hawk the Slayer Got Right

Defending a sword and sorcery kinda-classic

Oct 25, 2024 • Alec Worley

Lessons From Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin’s 'A Wizard of Earthsea' may be a classic, but does anyone still care? Writers and creators of fantasy, neglect this book at your…

Jul 24, 2024 • Alec Worley

Evolve or Die: Is this the End for Sword and Sorcery?

Can the genre ever move on from Robert E. Howard's Conan? How can writers possibly innovate within this narrow fantasy subgenre? Is the sword and…

Jun 5, 2024 • Alec Worley

Old Sorcery, New Edge: Q&A with Molly Tanzer

The award-winning author of 'The Diabolist's Library' trilogy on her route to writing, taming research and penning the official resurrection of Jirel of…

Feb 12, 2024 • Alec Worley

Over By Christmas (a short story)

A weird winter's tale of lost time, lost hearts, and a devil's bargain - published here for the first time anywhere (30-minute read)

Dec 21, 2023

How We Built Black Beth

Resurrecting a British sword and sorcery heroine and what it takes to write a character 'well'

Nov 6, 2023 • Alec Worley

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