You’ll find debates on this topic in lot of places. High fantasy, urban fantasy, Sci-fi…if it doesn’t currently exist then it’s fantasy right?

I suppose. But there are different levels of the fantastical and differing purposes for using the fantastical. That’s where my own definition starts to come into play. Why fantasy? Why the impossible?

To me,  the fantastic serves a purpose greater than itself. It is metaphor, steeped in symbolism. The word fictional dream–which someone uses to describe the active part of reading–is exactly what fantasy is–fictional dream. Everything has dual purpose. Everything is symbol. Decoding it and making sense of it, is the act of reading a fantastical story. I tend to think of it more in the way fairy tales are constructed, a purposeful construction. Just as in a real dream, your mind can make anxiety or fear into a tangible object you can feel, see and touch–the same with fantasy. Dragons, magic, a bear skin….symbol.

What fantasy isn’t? A magic escape hatch to get your characters out of trouble. An easy way for them to resolve their problems. Note, in fairy tales there is always a price for the easy solution. It typically works in ways that drag the characters deeper into trouble.

Even urban fantasy, which is barely fantasy still has some symbolism in it. Not by purposeful construction o f the authors though–it’s like writing unicorn stories–symbolism is inherent in a well known fantastical creature. Whether or not they pursue it is a different matter. Mostly not. Maybe with a surface level twist.

Anyway, I guess I’ve just been thinking some about it. You don’t have to love or write high fantasy to use the fantastic–but at least understand what it is and how it is best used. Just my own preferences.

Oh, what are you thinking?

Print on demand is never a good deal for the artist. Never has been. But now we’ve reached a new low, one that will cause me to pull my little shop from their market place, if not from their entire operation.

It’s pretty clear cut in my mind. Café Press has a market place where they index all the stores and the designs–so if you are looking for a picture of a Dalmatian, well you can find one from a multitude of options. It used to be, that is all the marketplace did. It linked your art to a data base. The buyer went to your shop and bought from your store. It was a benefit for those people who don’t get a tremendous amount of traffic from their own sites.

Well now it’s different. Café Press has taken the liberty to set its own prices for my work in their marketplace. They compete with me using my own work. And of course, its dirt cheap–because they figure a ten percent mark up is a fair bargain. 10 for me/90 for them using my work–to sell their product–on which I promise you, they are not making a mere 10 percent above production cost.

I don’t think so. We just sold a 35.00 print, for which I got $ 3.50. Barely a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Now maybe if they would actually cut me a check for 3.50 I might feel a little better, but they have a check cutting threshold. If you don’t meet it, they just roll that money back to themselves at the end of your year. Apply it towards your shop fee.

Not a bad deal—for them. Now they don’t do that for book or music, because that is proprietary content they say. Oh…and painting is not?

That better have been a very nice print. At least don’t screw up the quality. I don’t know if the buyer knows how much I made off of it, but just in case they imagine it was more than three dollars–I don’t want them to feel cheated. Like I ripped them off. It sucks when you feel abused…Café Press…oh, your unfair, extortionist policy….I’m going to remind everyone I know who uses that place just how unfair you really are.