Yes, I'm still doing this. 24 to go, bitches. Then I'll read my own book last, and declare, without any hint of bias, that it was clearly the best. You know, because. Well that took a long time. No knock on the quality of the book, I’ve just withered as a reader, and now find …
Category: Reviews
Reading my SPFBO Cohort #3 & #4
Two more interesting books in my anonymous SPFBO 8 read every page review series. #3 This struck me as a book I would have wanted to write when I was in my teens, except in my teens I would have been utterly incapable of doing so! There are lots of references to epic past events …
Taking Stock
Sorry for the lack of blogs, I’ve been deep in the editorial jungle, hacking away with the machete of no remorse. Oh wait, this is the developmental edit – I’ve been adding more than subtracting, as is usual for me! Part of that is recognizing where I the writer take my own knowledge of the …
Why I Write Fantasy: The Three Fours #4: Clearly I Have a Type
So while writing about Highlander, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and The Crow, I couldn’t help but notice the common elements that the movies shared. In no particular order. 1) A narrated opening. All three start with someone speaking, telling you a story. Yes, apparently I’m five, and still like to be tucked up in bed and …
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We’ll talk about this later…
But for now I'd like to say I'm "Today's Featured Indie Book Review" on Kirkus. Find it here. I'm pleased with what they have to say. Bottom left of the page. Check it out. EDIT: now that my day in the sun has passed, you can check out the review directly here. And if you …
Why I Write Fantasy: The Three Fours #2: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Oh yeah. The music, the costumes, the saturated colours, the visual style that played with realism and then deliriously ignored it to tell its story in its own defiant way, and managed to sweep me up in it. I watched this movie four times in a rather dilapidated cinema in Dundee, complete with decayed but …
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The Writing Life: Juggling Workload, the Dizzying Kaleidoscope
So the New Year is in, and it’s time to get on with hitting those goals. What are mine? In writing it is to draft, edit, and publish The Killer and The Dead by the end of October. That’s a tough, but doable ask. I stand in awe of folks who boldly declare they will …
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The Writing Life: A Podcast, and Distraction versus Discipline (The Last Jedi Edition)
So, for any of you missed it, here is the podcast of my interview with Jerry Fabyanic talking about my book, The Thief and The Demon. I had a great time, and would once again like to thank Jerry, and KYGT-FM, the Goat radio station. I had a great time, and hope to return to …
The Writing Life: Maintaining Focus, New Goals
It has been over a month since The Thief and The Demon’s release. A month to reflect on how much work has been done, and realize how much more remains to be done. There is a lot to learn and to do online, social media can be an absorbing maze with a lot of new …
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Why I Write Fantasy: The Travel Begins at Home Edition
All writing, it seems to me, begins in your own head. Sometimes it will be written as a strong spontaneous reaction to outside stimulus – protest songs, polemical essays, critical feuds, a satirical impulse to start telling a particular story in order to hit a particular target, but for me, the story starts as a …
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Roderick T. Macdonald 