Monthly Archives May 2022

Tucson, Arizona, fantasy artist Jessica Feinberg’s little “guide to hybrid creatures” is a visual delight. Each of the over five dozen beings—mostly hybrids of dragons with one or more other life forms—is beautifully and dramatically rendered in vibrant watercolors. OK, maybe the illustrations don’t quite live up to the standards of a John James Audubon, but I doubt that was ever the artist’s intent!

And I don’t care.

Each painting is accompanied by a brief note on the creature’s composition, history, habitat, preferred diet, size, and level of danger to curious humans. Good things to know, should you wish to have one as a pet—or avoid them...

(cover image)

It’s important to understand what David Williamson’s short book is and what it is not. It is not, and readers should not expect it to be, a complete or exhaustive guide to how to effectively critique another writer’s work. It’s clear Williamson never intended it to be that.

Instead, the book is a collection of 26 slightly revised blog posts, plus three additional articles, that provide brief discussions of some critique topics and techniques. Because the original posts—running in alphabetical order from “Appearance” to “Zaftig”—were short, Williamson could only scratch the surface, touching on a few topics each time.

In general, he does a reasonable job with the space he has available...