Err, nope. William Wallace was a devout Christian, never actually wore a tartan kilt (they became popular three centuries later), and certainly never sported blue face-paint for battle (associated with the Picts, centuries earlier during Roman Britain). He’d likely wear chain-mail to battle, and use a standard one-handed sword that can be used with a […]
Writing
Aquae et Ignis – a new, free Felix novella is here!
I’m excited to announce that Aquae et Ignis, the brand new Felix novella is here! It is a stand-alone novella in the Stories of Togas, Daggers, and Magic series, with Felix’s latest bizarre case. Though the events described are set between In Numina and In Victrix, it is a completely independent story. It makes for a […]
Rory’s Story Cubes
A review of something other than books (for a change) but that is still intimately related to storytelling and storytellers. I’ve picked up a set of Rory’s Story Cubes (specifically, the orange “Original” set and the green “Voyages” set) a few years a ago as something to do with my daughters. This was before I […]
14 Tips for using InDesign for Fiction Authors
Do you want professional looking print and ebooks to delight your readers? Of course you do! Following my post about the best tools I found to create and produce books, here are some 14 specific, highly-useful tips about how to use Adobe InDesign to create print-ready PDF files and ready-to-upload ePubs for the best effect! […]
Author’s tool-chain
We talk a lot about how to write books, about author’s craft and writers’ tips. This post is instead focused on the act of writing — on the recording of words. There are probably as many methods of writing a novel as there are authors — writing longhand with a Montblanc fountain pen in a […]
The Mystery of Amazon Reviews
I’ve started the year with 116 reviews for Murder In Absentia (and, I think, there were about 3-4 reviews that have been removed over the years). By now, the number of reviews is up to… <drumroll> … 110! (EDIT: It’s now back to 116, but all the new reviews are post-launch of In Numina, after […]
Aquae et Ignis – A New Felix Novella!
The ink is still warm on In Numina, and I’ve started work on a new Felix novella! I aim for about a quarter of the usual Felix novel size, and hope to complete it by the end of the year. I’ve already written almost half of it over the past two weeks! In this story, […]
A (literally!) earth-shattering book launch!
This week marks the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. That momentous, earth-shattering event took place on August 24th, around 1pm. What better time than to celebrate my second Roman-inspired novel? I’ve got some cool things to share with you around that 🙂
Brandon Sanderson course on Creative Writing
In my continual quest to improve my writing craft, I watched the recorded Brandon Sanderson’ course on Creative Writing. I seriously recommend it to anyone writing novels, especially SciFi / Fantasy. Below are my thoughts about how to make the best use of it.
Action Choreography for Novels
This post arose out of my review of Six of Crows. I complained that many action sequences were problematic. I didn’t provide examples, to avoid spoilers and in fairness to Bardugo, but I think this subject deserves a full post. There were a few scenes in the novel, more than a passing oversight, where the […]
FELIX THE FOX MYSTERIES 