The Goblin Crown by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, a review

Like Guy Gavriel Kay’s FIONAVAR TAPESTRY and Suzanne Collins’ wonderful UNDERLAND CHRONICLES or C.S. Lewis’ CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, Robert Hewitt Wolfe’s THE GOBLIN CROWN, is a story of ordinary people suddenly thrust into an extraordinary, magical world. We know up front that this world is a dangerous place and that the stakes—whatever they are—will be real and that actions will have consequences for Billy, Lexi, and Kurt, as well as all they meet.

Billy, our hero, is an outsider, a kid who has NEVER felt he fit in anywhere and who certainly doesn’t expect that his high school experience is going to be any different. Billy is, a familiar enough character, but Wolfe nails him, bringing him to vivid life on the page. But pretty Filipina Lexi—who really isn’t very good at minding her own business—and bullying jock Kurt are also three-dimensional and believable people. These characters are grounded—no, rooted—in reality and we believe they act in a way that has context. (There’s a lovely, magical moment when Billy meets all the freckle-faced, redheaded men who came before him and takes courage from the encounter.

We all get by with a little help from our friends--and Kickstarter

David Simkins gave me my first computer. It was a Mac Classic II and the sweetest little machine ever. I loved that computer because it was so user-friendly. I've known David since the Eighties when he was developing a movie at Silver Pictures. He and I pitched a television pilot together and were in a writer's group that included talented people like Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Kevin Messick, James McQuaide and Peter Lenkov. Everybody in the group wanted David to critique their scripts because his notes were so good and he was so generous with his time.

Simkins went on to work on  television shows as different as Charmed, The Dresden Files (with the aforementioned Robert Hewitt Wolfe), Angel, Lois & Clark, Warehouse 13 (and most recently) Grimm. He writes great characters and terrific dialogue and if you tune into a show he's written, you're guaranteed a good time. (And in case you're wondering, the heroine of my Misbegotten stories, Kira Simkins, is named for him.)

David Simkins is running a Kickstarter campaign for his new project Lily, and one of the premiums you can get for your contribution is a critique of a television script by him. Forget the project--those notes alone are worth the contribution.

I know you see a lot of pleas for Kickstarter campaigns, but this one is different. Really. The campaign is to fund a show called LILY, starring Lynn Ayala. It's a crime show but not like the cookie cutter crime shows the networks give us every pilot season. check out the campaign here, and let the creators tell you about it. There's a lot of talent involved and it's going to be something special. Wouldn't you like to be a part of that?  I know I do.