First Crusader Challenge, ROW80 and Tolkien versus Fantasy

ey there fellow crusaders, and partners in the Round of Words in 80 Days!






My goal for the Round of Words was to edit at least a page of my novel, Out of the Water, every day. I'm on about page 62 of 178, 54,808 words of 136,787 - and the finished novel is only supposed to be around 120,000 words! Slacked off a little here and there last week (pub quiz, anyone?) but at least was writing missing scenes on pen and paper when not editing.

The first crusader challenge was posted on Friday! Here are my replies, which include a secret, a lie, an interesting quirk, an annoying habit, one of my best character traits, and one of my favourite things in the whole world:

I never bloviate but I crack my knuckles. I listen well to others. My hero is not a dashing blade; he's a wandering ragged stranger, but he's kind. I can't wriggle my nose like a rabbit, though I can bend my pinkie all the way to the back of my hand. I had a dream once where my sister, my grandmother and I were fuliguline, and we soared over the water. O! the sound of the sea waves crashing in unceasing rhythm on the sand...

I may have revealed something about me that isn't strictly true. Can you guess which of the above it is?

Now then, for those of you that are writers and/or readers of fantasy, there's a really interesting discussion going on in the blogosphere. Sam Sykes first drew my attention to it when he linked to the original article - where, in a nutshell, Leo Grin claims that modern fantasy doesn't hold a candle to Tolkien and Howard.

I happen to think that not many writers - fantasy or not - hold a candle to Tolkien, but that's just my personal preference, and the bloggers and authors that responded to the original article all had valid rebuttals on why such comparisons ultimately don't even need to be made at all:
Magemanda wonders how the author could conveniently skip over mentioning women writers.
Adam states that the author of the article missed the point of Tolkien completely in stating that he wasn't nihilistic.
And he-reads-The-Lord-of-the-Rings-every-year-too! Joe Abercrombie asks why all these divisions and groupings have to be made in the first place.