magical beings
what? you might say. didn't you study physics? didn't you study engineering? shouldn't your mind be a cold, hard fact machine? yes, yes, and yes. and yet. I also read all the Conan books by Robert Howard. I read almost all of the Poul Anderson books. I studied science and engineering, but I love magic - up to a point. in my stories, you encounter fairies, elves, trolls, a fire elf, gryphons, lions that speak, a flying lion with a sense of honor, two kinds of demons, wind spites (no I didn't misspell that), a dwarf, many magical swords, a spider-woman, a gun that turns into a laser device, another that shoots lightning in the appropriate circumstances. mostly though you encounter human beings, caught up in awfulnesses that they or other human beings created. but the magic you encounter in my stories is limited. a magician can raise a local storm, but it blows itself out in minutes. a wind spite can make the wind throw a tantrum that will knock over a Harley, but she cannot conjure a hurricane. a mermaid can heal a human who should have drowned, the granddaughter of a river can keep a boy from drowning and talk her grandmother into keeping him from dying when his lung is punctured by an arrow. but the river cannot rid humanity of slavers. and she cannot flood surgically. a flood is a flood. the queen of dreams can let a man sleep with one of her four hundred daughters, but she cannot make her daughter stop loving him. none of my magical swords shoots bullets. I do not know why, but having magical powers is important, and having limitations is just as important. I respect my magical beings, and they respect my stories.
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