“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
Edgar Allan Poe

         Greetings, I am honored to be the guest editor for this issue of the Writing.Com Fantasy Newsletter ^_^ I believe that all creative writing, be it poetry or prose, has an element of fantasy. We write what we know, perceive, and imagine.

         The word “fantasy” has myriad definitions; but thumb through any dictionary, or surf dictionary.com or wikipedia.com, and you will see that they all begin with “imagination.”

         Is that not what the writer does? ~ Observe, perceive, or visualized an object, emotion, situation, and with pen/pencil, or keyboard, use words to develop a story or a poem that relates that observation, perception, or vision.

         Fantasy writing has been with us throughout recorded history, evolving with the times, with the storytellers and writers who observed, perceived and recorded the visions of their muse, to the delight of readers to the current day.

         Urban Fantasy is one step in this evolution, where magical stories are set in contemporary real-world urban settings, as opposed to wholly imaginary landscapes or settings. Some Urban Fantasy writers of poetry and prose have also reworked the rural pastoral settings of classic fairy tales in modern settings. While the story line may be recognized as a folk-tale of old, the story or poem is unique and fresh, with characters and settings that are relevant and immediate to the ‘real’ world of today’s reader.

         In the urban fantasy, fantasy elements exist (magic, paranormal events, mythological beings), or intrude somehow, in the real world of today. The fantastical characters interact somehow or are relevant to the ‘real’ world, yet their existence remains secret enough (by writer’s sleight of hand/pen) that the reader can believe that fantasy elements can hide or be hidden from the majority of people, and the media. If everyone in the story knows what’s going on, then it’s an alternate history, not fantasy.

         Modern urban fantasy is nearly 100 years old, the oldest mainly children’s fiction in the 1920’s, but it kept evolving. By the 1980’s, urban fantasies grew up and, along with stories for kids, were also being written for young adults and adults. The term defining this type of fantasy writing became more widely used, earning it’s own classification. Some of you may recall reading Moonheart by Charles de Lint, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, or the Borderlands series by Terri Windling. War for the Oaks is more narrowly classified today as “elfpunk,” a sub-genre of urban fantasy where faeries and elves are transplanted into modern urban settings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy)

         Urban fantasy continues to evolve, as does the urban landscape, incorporating modern events with the fantastical in a conceivable manner. A few of the authors currently in print with urban fantasies include Clive Barker, China Mieville, and Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Joss Whedon’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer are but a couple urban fantasies that have also been worked into film.

         What I’ve noticed about urban fantasies I like to read, is that I can envision the city, the events and people, as creatures or events that I might, could, perhaps, encounter myself one day on my way to work downtown. The characters who inhabit the stories fit the environment, belong in the city and, somehow, by happenstance or design, interact with or become part of something fantastical, if only for a while. It’s not an alternate reality, but a reality where the fantastic inserts itself in some small (or major) way and makes the life of one or a few people a bit (or a lot) different; affords the characters a different way of seeing the world.

         Not a bad idea for a writer ~ step outside the box (the daily grind) and imagine or envision a day or an hour perhaps to encounter an elf, or a god of old, or a being that can walk through the locked office door without turning the knob?

         The urban fantasy is a splendid venue for the poet’s eye, and the writer of short stories as well as the novelist. If you have such a story or poem in mind, or perhaps you’ve written one, you may wish to send them to either of the following for a chance at publication ~

         Strange Horizons, a weekly on-line magazine that pays for and publishes short stories, poetry, and art; their guidelines at (http://www.strangehorizons.com/) or perhaps

         Sybil’s Garage, a magazine of speculative fiction, poetry and art (accepting submissions for the current issue ‘till November 5), guidelines at (http://www.senesfive.com/blog/category/paper-cities/).