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Congrats to the finalists.

There's no erotic group as we're all too busy writing to have sex.

MAP OF NEW FAIRY POSTED

It's at my Flickr account, which is Rachel Parsons.  You will have to have a Flickr account to see it, but that's easy:  get a yahoo mail account, and then join Flickr  My account is considered unsafe, i.e., adult, so you will have to have that maturity rating to see it.  You will learn some things from the map:  where everything is in that part of Dareau, how forested New Fairy is, that it's a world 'on its side,' and why I don't teach handwriting or map making.  It really helped me to get it ready for view, and I modified my stories accordingly.  I changed the location of a kingdom, which doesn't play much of a role in this novel but will in the future, diverted the Severn, a river the width of a Great Lake, into two tributaries, and built a bridge where none had been before.  You may have to consult the story to figure out my handwriting, sort of a Rosetta stone to my scribbling. It is best seen with the Firefox viewer, as that allows you to zoom.  Things are clearer in large print.  Trust me on this. lol

I'm glad you like Rhiannon's voice.  I hadn't really thought of how similar to Fafhrd she is, but now that you've pointed it out, I can see it.  Thanks so much for the comparison, I humbly accept the imputed resemblance to the Master (Fritz Leiber). I suppose you could say he is to me as J.R.R. Tolkien is to George R.R. Martin, who even went so far as to steal Tolkien's R.R.  Only Fritz Leiber would have written the story from the point of view of Ioseff, and not from the point of view of the naked slave girl.

I don't think 'aftertaste' is quite what you mean, as that usually mans a bad taste, but thank you  I have considered that.  I don't know how exactly to do that in this forum, but I'm sure there's a way.  I can certainly do it to my Flickr account.

Hugs, Rhia

Congrats!  The easy part is over (heh); now, the really hard part--the editing and rewrite.

The only thing I'd add to Vern is that there aren't just seven plots.  There are 1 (Don Webb of Bewildering Stories), 2 (Aristotle), 7, (Christopher Booker), 36 (Carlos Grazzi), 69 (Rudyard Kipling), and "thousands and thousands." Recently, Matthew Jackson (University of Nebraska) created a computer program and analyzed thousands of novels, short stories, etc., concluded that there were really only two.  Not Aristotle's two:  his were:  solving a conflict through physical force and solving a problem by mental force.  Jackson's were:  "Man on a Hill" (The Great Gatsby), "Man in a hole" (Ahab).  Don Webb's was:  "there's a problem, there is an attempt to solve it."  Booker's, which Vern is probably thinking of, were:  rags to riches, overcoming the monster, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, rebirth.  Ronald Tobias thought there were 20.  I'd list Tobias' but I'm tired.

Just read a review by Suin and thought I'd mention some of my inspiration. I lean heavily on English history: sometimes unconsciously.  In order to do the battle scenes,  I drew a map. Then compared it to Wales. Yep, its a great big Wales. Rhiannon wanting the clans and packs in the constitution is based on the struggle to integrate the classes in Britain. The battles coming up are a lot like those in the War of the Roses and the Civil War, although there wasn't an alien invasion to complicate things. There's a scene right out of an incident involving the Duke of York, only Rhiannon did right by the innkeeper. So if things get confusing, just whip out your history of England.

I do think that the possession needs work.  There should perhaps be internal dialogue, a blending, then finally a takeover of Athens by Helga.  There was an episode of Sliders, where Quin Mallory ended up in the body of, well, Quinn Mallory, a double, only he didn't look anything like him.  The Quinn who wasn't Jerry O'Donald referred to himself as Mallory to distinguish, and said that Quinn was talking to him--only to finally disappear.  Heinlein wrote "I Shall Fear No Evil," where an elderly man has his brain transplanted into his young, sexy, and female assistant.  They communicate.  So there are models to help you develop this.  Maybe more on Athen's personality before she attempts suicide, so we can distinguish her from Helga and track the eventual dissolution of Athens into Helga.  If that's too much work, as the first part has been written, have Athens reemerge from time to time, so we can distinguish them.  This adds another layer of pathos, as Athens becomes a victim of Helga.