When Wise Old Sages Won't Share
I've been thinking about sages lately (specifically the old and wise ones), and wondering why they all have to be so tight-lipped about really important stuff. Why don't they just tell the hero everything they know, everything *he* needs to know to defeat the bad guy and fulfill the prophecy and get the girl? I mean, their goal is for the hero to win, right? Give him all the help you can!Of course, the obvious reason is that telling him (and, through him, the reader) everything would eliminate much of the suspense and the stress and the element of solving a riddle–basically, it would eliminate the story. So, obviously, the hero has to figure out most of the whys and hows of th

A Poll!
As you digest your turkey, we at the Inkpot hope you'll feel like taking a poll to aid a discussion on maps in fantasy novels, planned for December 14. Here's the link...thanks for participating!

First Annual Inkies Giveaway Extravaganza!
Just in time for the holidays, we Inkies have decided to spread some book love – Inkie style. So we are opening our first annual Inkies Giveaway Extravaganza where 3 lucky readers will get to win one of the following fabulous basket categories:

November Book Club: The Wee Free Men
Terry Pratchett writes the best comic sentence since P.G. Wodehouse, but I’ve had trouble with the characters in his novels for adults. They’re there for reasons of farce, it seems to me—funny as all get out, but not particularly interested in being real people. I don’t have any trouble at all with his books for younger readers. In Nation and the three Tiffany Aching books —

Interview with Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books & Music.
I'm delighted to welcome my local Indie bookseller, Suzanna Hermans from Oblong Books & Music in Rhinebeck, New York, to the Enchanted Inkpot. Welcome, Suzanna! So, I understand that books and bookselling are in your blood? Suzanna: Yes! I was literally raised in our bookstore! Oblong Books & Music in Millerton, NY was fou