Writing A Successful Query Letter
Jeremy Szal
If you’ve heard about query letters, no doubt you’ve heard how annoying, infuriatingly difficult, and soul-sucking they are to write. And every word of that is true. Writing my query…
Writing
Worlds Within Worlds – Part One: Writing a Good Game into a Good Book
T. Eric Bakutis
Humanity has played games for as long as we’ve been able to make up rules and keep score. As we’ve developed as a species, we’ve created thousands of games, and…
Is This Normal Around Here?
Aaron Miles
So you get home to your enchanted castle, hand your coat to the golem butler who waits by the door, tut sadly at Markus; the caretaker who’s trying to fill…
Exploring Vvardenfell: How Morrowind Created an Immersive Secondary World
Christopher Mahon
Back in 2012, I was sitting with a group of fantasy writers at the PNWA conference in Seattle. Everyone had begun rolling off their favorite authors, and soon there were…
The Writer’s Plague
Joshua Robertson
If you are a booklover who didn’t die before 1997, I would wager you have difficulty finding a decent story among the piles of…muck. In the past twenty years, authors—henceforth…
Self-Published Fantasy: How the SPFBO is Revitalising SFF
Laura M. Hughes
With the exciting kick-off of the THIRD Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (#SPFBO) already underway, I thought I’d share some thoughts about the complexities of self-publishing and how Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO initiative…
Plot Twists That Defy Genre Expectations
Nicola Alter
Most of us love a good plot twist. We’re always trying to predict where a narrative is headed, but we’re usually thrilled when it takes an unexpected turn, surprises us,…
Sieges and Siegecraft – Part Two: Defenders
Shore up the defences, man the walls and get those supplies inside! Last time, we looked at siegecraft from the attackers’ side; this time, we’re on the defensive. There are…
Books Do Not Sell Without Covers
The secret to book selling is not so secret anymore. The answer lies in the unspoken pact between an author and reader, which agrees a great cover equals excellent writing.…
Worlds Within Worlds – Part One: Creating Texts for Secondary Worlds
The stories of H. P. Lovecraft are filled with references to all kinds of bizarre, ancient books, some fictional, some real: Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, Trithemius’ Poligraphia, Giambattista…
Sieges and Siegecraft – Part One: Attackers
Throughout the bloody pages of innumerable fantasy books there are countless examples of the siege in fiction. From epic wars that last for years to brutal assaults that are swift…
Scrivener for iOS
Adrian Faulkner
Picture this. You’re sitting on your own in the doctor’s surgery and they are running 30 minutes late. Or there’s been some signalling failure and your train home is at…
