I have a fondness for contemporary fantasy and the idea that maybe the fantastic lives among us, hidden away where only the lucky, or unlucky, might stumble across it.
What would it be like if monsters truly lived among us? Would mythic creatures have to have a mythic personality, or would they be as ordinary as us in their own way? What if monsters had to worry about making a living and were capable of making mistakes and getting embarrassed, were shy or egotistical, or got drunk now and then? I think Tom Holt is a master of combining the fantastic with the ordinary in his characters and his stories kill me, every time. They are Discworld combined with the right here and right now. If you can find Flying Dutch or Djinn Rummy, read them. Seriously.
Would a new banshee need a test before being allowed to scream a real death knell? Where would sirens go to practice their singing, and would they attract anything that heard it, such as passing pelicans? If a gorgon had a bad hair day would that mean a snake fight? What lives down in the wedges of an anechoic chamber? I wonder about these things, and some of them become stories.
The anechoic chamber is just a suspicion. At the moment.
