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Monthly Short Story Winner: Writing In A Subgenre You Don’t Like
We chose this topic to achieve two things: First, to acquaint entrants with something new, and second, to help entrants identify what they normally don’t like about their chosen subgenre. We hoped this would force them to write something different, rejuvenating the genre for them. And we are happy to say, the experiment was a […]
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: Weapons and Warfare
YouTube is an app, a website, and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are, there’s probably at least one channel out there for you. Still, managing to dig out the channels that cater to your own SFF needs can […]
The Lost Puzzler by Eyal Kless – Cover Reveal
There aren’t a huge amount of fantasy/science fiction hybrids and probably for good reason; it’s a very hard balance to strike. If the reader feels for even a moment that the fantasy elements are there for the sake of being there (i.e. the science fiction elements should have resulted in the civilisation moving on – […]
Temporal Anomalies: Timekeeping in Fantasy
Humans are OCD about time. We obsess over birthdays and anniversaries and are ruled by the work week. We live for the weekend and look forward to holidays with either joy or dread, depending on which relatives are coming over. We count the seconds until midnight on New Year’s, and we count the billions of […]
Crafting A Fall: Turning Heroes to the Dark Side
Who doesn’t love to see a character go bad? A man pushed too far pushing back? A loyal but ambitious servant helping themselves for a change? A noble hero broken down into the blackest villain? To watch a character fall into darkness is a fascinating journey, seeing a character’s values crumble and twist, watching their […]
A Fantasy Geek’s Guide to YouTube: RPG Let’s Plays Part Two – Honourable Mentions
YouTube is an app, a website and a cultural phenomenon. It’s also a vast and barely-explored wilderness full of content that ranges from dynamic to dire. Whatever your interests are, there’s probably at least one channel out there for you. Still, managing to dig out the channels that cater to your own SFF needs can […]
Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off #4: Cover Competition
As ever, with the SPFBO, well, for the past two or three years, there is, at the start, a little cover competition. (And clearly a few overactive commas!) This year, through a process of alchemy, magic, and bribery we, the judges, have decided on our top three covers from the 30 books which Mark issued […]
4th Annual Self-Publishing Fantasy Blog-Off – An Introduction
Hello, to all the followers of the SPFBO – Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off – the competition which began with an idle thought in the shadowed recesses of Mark Lawrence’s mind and is now in its fourth year. Some of the previous winners and finalists have been picked up by traditional publishing houses and some authors […]
Black City Dragon by Richard A. Knaak – Cover Reveal
Today Fantasy-Faction would like to welcome Richard A Knaak to the site so that he can show off the cover for his new book, due out November 13, 2018. I’ve already reviewed the first two books for Fantasy-Faction and enjoyed them both thoroughly. Without me waffling any further, I’ll hand over to Richard. – – […]
Small Press, Big Stories: Detox In Letters by Cheryl Low – Cover Reveal and Excerpt!
When I spoke to Sarena at World Weaver Press last year we talked about Cheryl Low’s Vanity in Dust, which I reckoned was pitched like Moorcock’s End of Time characters in a more urban fantasy setting. That sounded more than fascinating enough to get added to the TBR mountain, and now it’s time to reveal […]
Creating a Magic System
The naming of a thing gives you power over it. Sorcery is the will and the word. Cast fireball now and you won’t be able to again until tomorrow and have finished your revision. Magic systems exist in scores of fantasy novels. Diverse in their rules, varying in complexity, they instruct us in how the […]
Great Fantasy Films From Yesteryear
Before I begin, as I wrote this title I thought, “How did the 1970s become yesteryear?” I have to keep reminding myself that there are adults out there—many of them friends—who were born two decades after my childhood years. So yes, Amanda, your own lifetime includes yesteryears and bygone eras. But let’s get to it. […]
