Hello and welcome to antiquity! Tonight, for your edification and amusement, we collect a number of heretofore unheard and unseen mysteries, and attempt to unlock the secrets of the ages! Get ready to expand your mind from the comfort of your couch, as we delve into time itself. Pre-history Ever chewed gum in class and […]
History
Feasting in the Shadow of Death
This is all stuff that came up during the research and writing of In Victrix, and found it’s way in some off-hand way into the book. I’ve mentioned before how small trivia and throwaway lines make for rich world-building. For me, I love exploring all those articles for the enjoyment in learning more about a […]
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 […]
Ancient News
As most of you know, I love reading news about discoveries from ancient Rome. This post collects some recent articles, as well as a short piece I wrote for Virtual FantasyCon event about using real historical detail as background colour for storytelling. First, a bit out of In Numina. I use a lot of real […]
National Maritime Week – two millennia ago
A few weeks ago, Mary R. Woldering has asked me to contribute a piece for her blog, with the theme of National Maritime Week. I have chosen to address the issue of the life of ancient galley-slaves, and who really rowed the naval war galleys. Below I reproduce the full post. Hi, and welcome to the […]
Live(ly) bickering with my protagonist!
UPDATE! The interview is now posted on YouTube for your enjoyment – and for a chance to win a signed copy of Murder In Absentia or an ebook copy of Anais’ latest release! See the interview and comment on YouTube with the answer to the trivia question posed in it 😄 Anaïs (of anaisbelieve fame) has […]
Dressed to Kill (no, really!)
This is about historical clothing, not about clichés 🙂 It’s inspired by Marie Brennan’s post on Tor.com: How to Do Karate in a Victorian Dress. I suggest you read the entire post! Replace ‘dress’ with ‘toga’ and this is totally something I should be doing! I am happy to say that I do pay close […]
Epic World Building
Over at Our Epic Worlds, a blog dedicated to fantasy world-building, M.L. Spencer was kind enough to interview me about creating the historical-fantasy world of Egretia. I got to answer a few questions about Felix and the magical world he lives in. Here’s a short extract: How does the landscape or geography of your world […]
The Immortality of the Mystery
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 […]
Life up a Creek
This is a different style of creative writing, hopefully reminiscent of Gerald Durrell (whose books I admired as a child). As some of you may know, we have recently moved houses. The new place is wonderful, with a large backyard that has a creek running through it. You can see it in the background in the […]
