Crest of Hyrule (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I want to talk about my new short story that I am working on but first I just wanted to talk about a couple of books that I want to plug!

I’m currently in the process of reading two books: Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, by Cordelia Fine and Dark Light, by S. L. Jennings. The first is more like a textbook, but it is an interesting read. For a psychologist, it is especially interesting since human sexuality is my favorite area of psychology and human development. It really tears apart some of the old traditional theories about how men and women think. Conservative minds may not appreciate this book, just a heads up! The second book is a work of sci-fi erotica. I’m enjoying it so far and I’ll be sure to write a review about it on my blog when I finish.

I’ve only briefly mentioned my current project, so I thought I’d talk a bit about it. The main influences with this work so far is Zelda and Warcraft. It’s a medieval fantasy story about an elf who wakes up in a desert with amnesia. He has magical abilities and he must discover each one in order to survive the harsh climate and ultimately escape the desert. I’ve always felt that nature was an important theme in the Zelda series, even if it’s not explicit, there are always so many wonderful climates that Link visits and of course there are the animals and creatures he interacts with. I decided to focus on nature as being the main them of my new short story series and it seems fitting to use an elf as the main character. Elves are often protectors of nature in fantasy fiction.

Normally I like to use sci-fi for my novels, involving strange creatures and conspiracies, and my short stories are reserved for the comedy genre. But it was the medieval fantasy genre where I began writing for fun back in my high school days. J.R. R. Tolkien was especially influential in my early work as well as the story of King Author. I used to love the stories of knights fighting dragons and rescuing princesses. In fact, a lot of the video games I grew up with had characters rescuing princesses.

My current story does have influences from such works, but World of Warcraft has become a big influence too as well as The Legend of Zelda series. What I love about these games is that women are portrayed differently than they have been in the traditional romantic fantasy. Sure Princess Zelda  has in the past fit the traditional princess role, but she has become a more important part of the more recent games. Plus Impa is a kick-ass woman warrior!

My current work is codenamed: Nature. Hopefully I’ll be ready to self-publish the first short story in a month or so. I’ll  be sure to post updates of my progress!