Original articles
This is a little exercise I sometimes do, to help me write. It’s probably old news to some authors, and won’t work for others, but for me it’s a useful little bit. I write Felix’s mysteries in first-person voice. This means that we see the case unfolds through Felix’s eyes, we learn the evidence at the […]
A guest post I have written as part of Mystery Thriller Week, originally published on Rae’s “A new Look on Books” blog. What’s in common between the latest scientific research about virus propagation, genetic modification for interstellar colonisation, and ancient priests poking about in animal entrails to predict the favour of the gods? More on […]
As part of Virtual FantasyCon (that awesome event where Murder In Absentia received an unprecedented five awards ;-), we did a blog hunt. As an introduction to this site, I did a post about the historical inspirations behind the fantasy lighthouse of Egretia. This post was originally published on L.D. Rose‘s site, and is replicated […]
I’ve seen people talk about the number of reviews on Amazon that can somehow trigger the “amazon algorithm” to start promoting your book. Some debunking is in order. This is my takeaway from the below article by Cate Baum: Amazon will promote your book whenever it thinks it has a chance to make money. If […]
This is an opinion column, originally written for the Science-Fantasy Society, and first published on their blog here. It collects my thoughts on writing historical fantasy, at least in relation to the blending of science fiction & fantasy. Science Fantasy and Historical Fantasy Historical Fantasy is “a category of fantasy and genre […]
This article was originally posted on my Quora blog. I’m posting and summarising my experiences in writing and marketing my novels, both as notes to myself and as advice from the trenches for other budding authors. One of the worst aspects of becoming an author, is marketing your own book. I mean, if I was some kind […]
I get asked often about the research I do for my novels. Even when I’m not asked, I volunteer information… Besides reading proper history books (mostly by modern historians, but the occasional translated original source as well), I particularly like what might be termed “experimental archaeology”. These are people with a keen interest, that review […]
This is a guest post I’ve written for Pure Jonel’s blog. Originally published on: http://purejonel.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/GP.AM.html Of Fantasy Worlds and Roman Gods I have a confession. It’s about one of my pet peeves. Whenever someone casually mentions the “Greek and Roman gods”, or goes on to describe a “Roman mythology” by quoting tales of the Greek pantheon, […]
I’ve written before about what it took me to get published. It was a collection of tips and lessons-learnt, which Lifehacker grandiosely called “The complete guide”. However, every so often I come across an article from one of the literary greats about the topic. A couple of really good ones I came across recently, from […]
A few weeks ago I posted my views on Digital Piracy. I then posted it around the net, engaging authors in discussions with the hope of trying to reduce stress for my fellow indies. There were mixed responses. This thread on Goodreads shows one extreme: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/17798481-dealing-with-book-piracy?comment=145391619#comment_145391619 The author stopped just short of blatantly accusing me of […]
