title: Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference: An Indispensible Compendium of Myth and Magic
author: Writers Digest
description: The fantasy writer has a lot to keep track of: fantasy cultures and races, magic, mythological creatures, unusual punishments, castles and fortifications, and more. Plus, though fantasy writing "must be grounded in both truth and life experience if it is to work," says Terry Brooks (<i><a href="/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345379632/${0}">A Knight of the Word</a></i>) in his introduction here, it must also be "as inventive and creative as the writer can make it." Find your groundedness elsewhere. This is the place to turn for all the other stuff. Need a refresher on the difference between <i>aleuromancy</i> (fortune cookies) and <i>alomancy</i> (fortune-telling by salt)? Can't remember the term for starting a new witches' coven (hiving off)? Need a glossary of particularly gruesome punishments from the Middle Ages? It's all here, and more. With illustrations of architectural structures, Maori weapons, and various types of dress and armor; and references to many more sources, should you crave even greater detail. <i>--Jane Steinberg</i>
zlib_text: Dedication
  
   _For Tania, my last child, the joy of my life_
  
  Epigraph
  
   _A safe fairytale is not true to either world._
  
   **J.R.R. Tolkien**
  
  Contents
  
  Dedication
  
  Epigraph
  
  Prologue: The Transit Circle
  
  Part One: The Ghost of God and Dreams
  
  > 1\. The Invention of Love
  
  > 2\. Book Soup
  
  > 3\. Lonely Hearts
  
  > 4\. Gift of the Magi
  
  > 5\. Normandie Avenue
  
  > 6\. Gwen
  
  > 7\. Ashton and Riley
  
  > 8\. The Red Beret, Take One
  
  > 9\. Phantasmagoria in Two
  
  > 10\. Griddle Cafe
  
  > 11\. Duende
  
  > 12\. The Four of Them
  
  > 13\. Pandora’s Box
  
  > 14\. Shame Toast
  
  > 15\. Charlie’s Dead
  
  > 16\. Fields of Asphodel
  
  > 17\. A Rose by Any Other Name
  
  > 18\. Lilikoi
  
  > 19\. Mystique
  
  Part Two: The Tiger Catcher
  
  > 20\. Klonopin
  
  > 21\. The Apothecary
  
  > 22\. Waterloo
  
  > 23\. White Crow
  
  > 24\. The Question
  
  > 25\. The Widow’s Daughter
  
  > 26\. Great Eastern Road
  
  > 27\. Red Beret, Take Two
  
  > 28\. When We Were Kings
  
  > 29\. Zero Meridian
  
  > 30\. Notting Hill
  
  > 31\. Time Over Matter
  
  > 32\. A Boy Called Wa