The Fun of Writing Fantasy

I have two loves when it comes to fiction: horror and fantasy. Just as I've lost myself in a novel by Stephen King or Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon or Brian Keene, so, too have I gone to other worlds in tales by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and George R.R. Martin. By extension, I've tried my hand at writing fantasy, too, to mixed results.

One of the first original novels I did was fantasy. I intended for it to be the first of a series, and while I think there were some go...