“As a reader, I can get over this. I have done so many times — easily, eagerly. Prydain, Krynn, whatever The Wheel of Time’s world is called … I’m game. I’ll admit, I appreciate it when writers knit their creations into the skein of reality — I’m thinking of Philip Pullman, his matrix of worlds — but if a nonsensical premise opens the door to something fun and interesting, well, great.
It turns out my charity does not extend to myself. As a writer, I cannot, in fact, get over it. This was a surprising discovery, and a vexing one, because I have long coveted the pleasures and possibilities of the fantasy mode.
Many times I sat and schemed, sketched and dreamed, and every time I hit the same wall. The same question. Where the f — is this supposed to be?”