SOUNDARTUS

Welcome to the Phantastic Worlds of Christopher Kaufman: Author, Composer, Film Maker and Illustrative Artist. Featuring his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The Ocean City! Escape to Tir’whol and its myriad of fascinating characters and creatures. Join young Harl’ut and his lifelong companion, the telepathic pegasus Vispushin, on a terrific adventure which features epic battles and masterful world-building!” “A collage of vibrant images adorns the pages of Tales Of The Ocean City, treating readers to an intensely immersive experience!” “Mixing qualities from graphic novels, abstract art, and classic fantasy, Christopher Kaufman's book is an imaginative adventure that treats readers to an intensely immersive experience!” “Enjoy the Video Book version filled with cinematic music and dramatic narration! Read or Listen!” All Found at SOUNDARTUS BOOKS Here (with terrific discounts): https://kaufmantales.com/products/tales-of-the-ocean-city-book-one-battle-in-the-sky

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#thephantasticworldsofdoctorkaufman #dancingnighthawk #talesoftheoceancity #thephantasticzoo  #themusicalforest #thetalismanofahaukin

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Escape Into Immersive Adventure! Be sure sound is on!

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MY QUEST:

I am on a quest to find kindred spirits for whom fantasy is a vital part of their lives. This can take many forms; like waking to the fact that every-day life feels empty, something is missing, our imaginations are starved. Perhaps, like for me, fantasy stories have been at the core of surviving difficult situations. The possibilities are endless.

Please use this site to share your experiences with fantasy (this includes sci-fi and horror, of course). I/we will treat them respectfully. By curating comments, I will protect my readers and sharers from bullying and denigration.

WRITE ME HERE

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I hear there is a meadow formed in the heart of the Dunsany preserve. When you enter it, the world changes, you lose time and emerge transformed, you see every-day life differently, all is more colorful and your imagination creates stories out of everything you see. They say a small thatch cottage formed at its edges, it is hard to see in broad daylight, but when you approach in twilight, and especially when thunder is near, you can make out the dimly-lit face of a wise woman who holds secrets we long to know…and remember.

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Join the conversation! https://www.thefantasypower.com/?p=469

Beyond The Fields We Know – Fantasy Prime

“Beyond the Fields We Know”. That is the recurring phrase in the work of one, Lord Dunsany.

It is fitting that a writer who is considered to have lain the groundwork for modern fantasy, lived in a castle – Dunsany Castle – perhaps Ireland’s longest lived-in home by a single family. Dunsany’s relatives go back to the 12th Century.

One can imagine him walking the ancient halls, walkways and gardens, allowing his imagination to go wild, as a child and to the end of his days. Most of his writing took place in a room in one of the towers. How great is that?

I wonder if he was, in fact, a wizard…perhaps the last of the true wizards, and in his fantasy work he bequeathed to us the magic of the olden times so we may take it forward, so Tolkien could bring to life his illustrious Istari protagonist…perhaps even Ian McKellen is of this order…why not imagine it so? I think Dunsany would be pleased.

In his first book, The Gods of Pegana, Dunsany created a fictional pantheon. Now such is commonplace with much fantasy. The core of his work for me, however, and that which I call ‘Fantasy Prime’, is his ‘The King Of Elfland’s Daughter’.

CONTINUED HERE: https://www.thefantasypower.com/?p=469

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Join the Conversation - thefantasypower.com

It was a Thursday, I remember that. I also remember the traumatic domestic environment we were in, my sister Alex and I.

She was Inky, a plastic ocelot animal figure. I was Alli, an alligator.

We played all night, into the morning, skipped school and played some more. I remember being mostly on the floor of the attic, while she moved around the room; shelves, walls and furniture.

I wish I remembered the exact details of the story we lived that night many years ago. It would make a great book unto itself. All I know now is that it was wildly imaginative and healing, Alex, being about five years older, led the way.

This started years of imaginative adventures…and an ever expanding palette of characters and creatures, including animals and hot wheel cars, which we nabbed from the local drug store, Kresges, and whatever was around us.

At some point we added music; Tchaikovsky and Uriah Heep, especially their song, The Wizard.

Thus we survived dark times. And, of course, this led us to Tolkien, Lewis, Alexander and Michael Moorcock, especially his Corum Chronicles, Elric came later for me, then Fritz Lieber and, even later, Jack Vance.

Fantasy kind of saved us. Our imaginings were a way to process, survive and grow. They were much more real to me than the bland goings on of dismal surroundings and bad schools.

I began writing my own stories. At some point I found music and lived the life of a composer for years, but my stories never left me, I imagined them every night when putting myself to sleep. I emerged from music conservatory with a Doctorate in Music Composition and a full-fledged fantasy series in my head, titled Tales Of The Ocean City.

I tried writing it down, but it wasn’t…“It”…then I started narrating, recording and combining the story with music…and there it was, like when Alex and I did our D&D-like imaginings to Tchaikovsky and Heep.

I finished the initial series just a month ago…finally.

That’s my story with Fantasy…what’s yours?

Join the Conversation - thefantasypower.com

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Emerging Into Life - Join the Conversation

on site: https://www.thefantasypower.com/?p=378

You are, let’s say, emerging from childhood to preteen years or beyond.  You are disappointed with what you see around you.  Something is missing.  Things seem dull…grey, ordinary.  Your imagination is starving.

So you turn to fantasy, the deeper stories…filled with heroes, monsters, histories and quests.  Most importantly, they inspire your imagination.  The world around you changes a bit. You are discovering a powerful secret.

I believe in the power of imagination to transform lives.

Sure, as Tolkien states, fantasy can be an escape…a refuge…a path you are honor bound to take and bring others along with you.

But it is also, like Lloyd Alexander says, a way of talking about real things and people, a way of morphing challenges and monsters into, as Guillermo del Torro tells us, “…living breathing metaphors”, where your inner heroes can deal with them.

A true fantasy reader can transform everything around them; a shaft of light into a magic spell, the darkness in the corner of the room into a rich sci-fi adventure, the bully and the dullard into orcs.

You sit in a classroom. An uninspired teacher rattles on, repeating facts you already know.  You, as a fantasy reader, can stare into the darkness behind them and imagine an army of alien life-forms coming to take them away.  Perhaps you’ll hear dialogue and imagine the look of surprise on their face as alien creatures subsume them, or, like the riddikulus spell from Harry Potter, you can turn them into some humorous creature in your minds-eye.  You can enjoy the befuddled look in their eyes when they see you regarding them with a bemused smile, or when you hide laughter after they said something completely banal.

This is only the beginning of a secret power that can transform everything around you.  

You walk along the sidewalk.  You see a flower emerging from a crack in the cement and you understand, your imagination sees the truth. The flower is on a quest, a quest for light and water, a true hero in a world of tar and cement which once was a forest garden.  That flower remembers the garden and is trying to return to it, to its home filled with wonder and life.  Now it is a parking lot.  

You know the truth.  You cannot be bored.  Waiting in line becomes a pleasure from which you resent being interrupted.

Ultimately, imagination, as developed and nurtured in great fantasy, can help you transform your surroundings and your future in ‘real’ ways, for you can imagine something for yourself that no one around you may have any idea about.  Your future becomes free.

It is your secret. Keep it close, it is precious.  Share it only with true friends who may accompany you for long or short periods along your path.

Feel free to share your thoughts here, on this blog…in comments. We can share how fantasy is now helping, or has helped us, through overly ‘normal’ times, or…much more difficult ones.

I look forward to reading, curating and responding to your writings. I will protect everyone from ‘negativists’ and we can support each other in our quests.  Be patient.  If you have a lot to say, over time, I can offer you a special ‘guest-posting stream’ here.

Here, on this refuge.

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Join the Conversation. The Power Of Fantasy - Lloyd Alexander

https://thefantasypower.com/?p=407

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Join the Conversation!

#fantasy, #fantasypower, #lorddunsany, #hplovecraft, #lloydalexander, @jrrtolkien, #michaelmoorcock, #ursulaleguin, #cslewis, #jackvance, #annmccaffrey, #fantasyart, #fantasybooks, #fantasymusic, #epicfantasy, #classicfantasy

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Apply imagination to all things...

“There is adventure in every shaft of light, every shadow behind a chair, every flower or weed striving through cement to find again the garden that was there before the parking lot tar was poured.  In the corner of a workplace as you sit, that cobweb…what creature made it?  Maybe it is from another dimension or ‘beyond the fields we know’ as Lord Dunsany would say.  That sound, it is the bounce of a water bottle, the scrape of a chair against the floor…or something more mysterious?You walk by the park and see wild glints of sunlight rippling across the pond…and you can understand how people, not so long ago, thought they saw fairies dancing there and thought them real.  You can let yourself see them too…and pretend they are real, just for a moment…or for a lifetime. Time loses its grip on your spirit.”

JOIN the conversation ; https://thefantasypower.com

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Great music!

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Christopher Kaufman Storyteller / Author / Composer / Artist jmusic800