I get asked about worldbuilding a lot, and now that I’m starting a new book, LEGION, it’s probably a good time to talk about what’s working for me and what’s not. Shorter blurb for this one: LEGION is a stand alone space opera about two feuding families battling for control of a legion of worldships […]
Re-imagining the Legion Read More »
Remember your favorite Sword and Sorcery novel? Disappointed when you went back, ten or fifteen years after you read it, and realized the writing kind of sucked and it was pretty sexist and racist? Did you wonder, then, why it was nobody was creating less crappy S&S these days? Well, maybe you didn’t. But I
Monster Fights & Mayhem: Thoughts on Throne of the Crescent Moon Read More »
I spent last weekend off the grid at a cabin in Hocking Hills. Packing up four adults, two dogs, and a 2-year-old may not have been the best idea we ever had, but it worked out. Before I came out here to Ohio, the whole “cabin in the woods” horror movie cliché thing was foreign
No Refund for Bugs Read More »
So you may remember that I’m finishing up this book, RAPTURE. It’s the final book in the Bel Dame Apocrypha, about Nyx and her mad gang of magicians, mercenaries, and shapeshifters. It’s got bugs and beheadings. It’s also due to my publisher on April 30th. Learning how to balance book marketing/promo/public presence with actual writing
All Quiet on the Apocalyptic Front Read More »
I’ve been thinking a lot about women and power. J. and I went to see John Carter last week, but this isn’t really a rant about John Carter, which has its own issues. What particularly struck me was when J. pointed out that he was surprised to see so many women background characters in the
..and you need to decide if you’re OK with that. I was going through my Youtube videos this week and tabulating views and such. I did several different versions of the GOD’S WAR trailer in an effort to reach different types of readers. For the most part, I think those succeeded. But if you look
Sometimes you’re going to piss people off… Read More »
I’m continuously tinkering with my draft of RAPTURE right now, banging my head against some chapters set in Ras Tieg, which is a country that readers of the Bel Dame Apocrypha haven’t really seen before. It’s no surprise, then, that I haven’t seen it either. No, really. I’ve never been to Ras Teig either. I’m
The Dirty Little Secret to “Imaginative” Worldbuilding Read More »
Some folks might know that I’m a Jillian Michaels fan. I mean, how can you not love somebody who kicks people’s asses all day, screams at them to suck it up, and then provides a thoughtful psych evaluation on them after she’s beaten them raw? I was working out six or seven weeks ago and
The Unreasonable Weight of Being Read More »
I’ve reached the point in RAPTURE where I’m excising a bunch of stuff I really liked. I mean, it’s not all vital to the plot or the story or anything, which is why I’m cutting it, but man – it’s stuff I like. See, when I’m thinking about a book I’ll often write little snippets
Murdering my Darlings Read More »
I read an old proverb once that went, “We’re both queens. So who will hang out the laundry?” I think this is an important point that a lot of seemingly imaginative fiction fails to take into account when creating societies. I was on a panel about women in combat at Epic Confusion when Scott Lynch
Genderblindered: “We’re both queens. So who will hang out the laundry?” Read More »