Part of looking at the big picture means not only making plans for further installments, but making sure that those further installments also involve good plotting and storytelling.* The series […]
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The Revolving Door of Death
This video hit the internet this weekend, as a sort of side-door promo for “Chronicle”, but it’s pretty entertaining stuff in its own right. Now, I’ve always said it’s pretty […]
Read moreWorldbuilding and Language: Idioms and Slang
As I’ve said before, I’m not too keen on doing the nuts and bolts of a constructed language as part of my worldbuilding. Well, more correctly, I think it’s a […]
Read moreStepping Back to look at the Big Picture
This weekend was spent, in part, organizing and purging. This tied, in part, to deciding to rename the warrior orders in Druthal. Going through documents, finding outdated info, changing the […]
Read moreUsing Structure to Best Effect
Like I’ve always said, I’m a planner and an outliner. I can’t just wing my way through a novel.I need my big picture. Part of having that big picture outlook […]
Read moreFantasy Tropes: The Noble Warrior
Generally speaking, the classic Anglo/Francan/Germanic knight doesn’t exist in Druthal or Maradaine. It’s a trope that doesn’t fit with the worldbuilding I’ve done, despite it’s longstanding place in the genre. […]
Read moreA less binary look at Genre Fiction Quality
Earlier this week, Strange Horizons reviewed Michael J. Sullivan’s Thief of Swords, in which the reviewer finds the book quite wanting. Her review is pointed and barbed, though entertainingly so. […]
Read moreFantasy Tropes: The Gentleman Thief
Right now my fiction-reading* is Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick, which I had heard from several sources as being the best fantasy book from a debut author in 2011. So […]
Read moreWhatever you prefix to the -punk
My good friend Dan Fawcett has started up his own blog, kicking things off with a conversation about the various subgenres in SF/F that get called (prefix)punk. Dan, being much […]
Read moreJanuary is not the Month of Doom, for once
Last year at this time, I was sinus-deep in misery, thanks to Austin Cedar allergies. It was pretty awful, much like it was in 2010 and 2009. It actually had […]
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