Dec 26, 2015 | Excerpts, fantasy, Kingdom Blades |
I’m not sure what inspired me this year (maybe your calls through the ether have reached me subliminally), but it occurred to me that one way I could express my gratitude to you, my readers, is by posting a couple of chapters from Kingdom Blades, the...
Oct 19, 2015 | Book Three, Cephrael's Hand, Character Development, fantasy, Kingdom Blades, Paths of Alir, Philosophy, Sexuality, The Dagger of Adendigaeth, Themes |
Some of you have written in asking me about the presentation and treatment of homosexuality in my novels. You pointed out that the majority of incidents involving homosexual characters portray those characters as being evil. You indicated to me that in presenting...
Sep 4, 2015 | Allegory in fantasy, Artists, Character Development, fantasy, Imagination & Creativity, Inspiration, Kingdom Blades, Writer's Block, writing |
Inspiration is one of those elusive words, like “muse” and “success.” It evades us, confounds and confuses us, bewitches when it visits and devastates upon its departure. It’s that girl glimpsed across the subway terminal, or that place in a dream that you just can’t...
Jun 5, 2015 | Allegory in fantasy, Book Three, fantasy, Fantasy tropes, Paths of Alir, Philosophy, Series mythology |
Destiny versus choice, fate versus free will—these are core concepts in fantasy. Whether addressed indirectly (“You were born to save the world”) or as a subject of the character’s growth (“Accept this role and take up your sword”), the concepts often form the woof...
Apr 21, 2015 | Allegory in fantasy, Character Development, fantasy, Kingdom Blades, Paths of Alir, Philosophy, Story Concepts |
A reader wrote in to me recently and mentioned that while she didn’t have the same visceral reaction to a particular scene (no spoilers) as many other readers had, she didn’t like that one of the characters had to use sex as part of the resolution of the...
Apr 7, 2015 | Adepts of Elae, Cephrael's Hand, fantasy, Maps and Artwork, Paths of Alir, Series mythology, Story Concepts, Strands (Elae), The Dagger of Adendigaeth |
Many of you have been asking about the magical strands of elae and their associated Adepts. This is a pared down version of the chart that appears in Paths of Alir (that chart contains information that would be spoilers for the earlier books). I plan to soon include...
