This was a rant I wrote about 3 years ago, and decided not to publish because it was too rant-y. I’m now running low on character interviews for The Protagonist Speaks, so I decided to temper it down a little and publish. So here you are. A semi-relevant, rant-ish marketing advice from a lapsed author […]
Writing
Creative Writing and Product Management
And now for something completely different. No, not the Spanish Inquisition (bet you weren’t expecting that!) I’ve mentioned in previous updates how I have In Victrix drafted and half edited, and how I just don’t seem to find the time to finish it. This is mostly because of my day job — I enjoy it […]
Eclectic Musings (and Murderous Muses)
Salvete! Gratam hac nocte scriptor collectio… Err, nope. My Latin is still horrible. Welcome to tonight’s collection of random musings — mostly murderous muses 🙂
Things I won’t apologise for! (and the things I do)
This is purely about writing, not about my ability to parallel park (which is excellent, I tell you). Now that I’ve finished self-editing In Victrix (and am still flush with optimistic excitement, at least till the beta’s comments starts rolling in) there are a few things that hit me, in light of previous feedback, which […]
The Editing Process (or, Playing in the Big League for Fun and Profit)
I’ve talked about my writing process (and how to make the muse work for you slash keep track of rabid characters and twisty plots), so now it’s time to talk about editing (and how to keep your sanity). For the curious, there are three reasons why I’m blogging about this: one, it forces me to […]
The State of Writing
Some interesting articles about writing in these modern times. (And no, it has nothing to do with NaNoWriMo — though my best wishes to anyone surfacing for air from that 🙂 Instead, this article deals with several aspects of writing — from the story-telling to the actual chicken-scratching-on-dead-trees. First, an inspiring and encouraging piece from […]
World-building Historical Fantasy (or, of Unicorns and Icebergs)
The Historical Fantasy Book Club is one of my favourite FB groups (shocking, I know), and back in June they invited me for an “author takeover”. I thought rather than talking about my usual topics (Romans, and their obsession with fantastical beasts and how to cook them), I’d try to create a broader discussion, one […]
Fighting Rhythms and other rants
I’ve recently finished The New Magic by Joseph Malik (review to come soon — but his first book, Dragon’s Trail, was half of what prompted me to start writing advice on writing action scenes, as an example of how to do them right). Anyway. You often hear the advice about writing fight scenes to “use […]
All in a Name: Romans, Russians, and Fantasy
A character’s name will be the trait most often referred to in a book, so today I’d like to talk about historical and fantastical names, as well as literary usage. We’d start with a quick review of some interesting naming conventions from history (Romans, duh, but also others), then touch on fantasy and science fiction […]
I did NOT see this coming!
Here I was, typing away at In Victrix, very focused on the emotional grand finale, when, last Thursday, just as my train pulled in to the last station, this happened: That makes the official third volume of full-length Felix mysteries complete! Well, the first draft of which. I have quite a bit of notes in […]
FELIX THE FOX MYSTERIES 