From Short Form To Long Form
Overlord
I recently heard that Paul Meloy, one of the genre’s finest short story writers, was releasing a novel through Solaris Books. After so many years writing successful short stories and…
Guest Blog
Guest Blog by Ryan Graudin: Creating A Sense of Danger
Ryan Graudin
The setting of my YA novel THE WALLED CITY is based on a real place called the Kowloon Walled City, a neighborhood that existed in 1980s Hong Kong. It was…
Keeping the Little Things Undead
David Towsey
We are all familiar with ‘zombies’, right? Senseless, decaying and yet animated corpses that eat juicy live brains’ – as seen in AMC’s The Walking Dead. Well, that’s certainly a…
Traditional Publishing, Self-Publishing and The Pro Writer
Gail Z. Martin
Once upon a time, not long ago, there was ‘real’ publishing and vanity publishing. ‘Real’ publishing paid the author, and authors paid the vanity publisher. The lines were clear. Few…
Dear Grimdark… Guest Post by Sam Sykes
Sam Sykes
As most of you know, Sam Sykes has a new book out this week, The City Stained Red. We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on a copy and…
Writing In Someone Else’s World
Richard A. Knaak
I began my career writing in someone else’s world, but I gained that opportunity by utilizing my own work. TSR (then the publisher of Dragonlance) was not publishing independent novels,…
Spotlight on Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets – Guest Post by David Thomas Moore
David Thomas Moore
So, hey. I’m David Thomas Moore, commissioning editor at that there Abaddon Books and editor of Abaddon’s first ever anthology, Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets. And your Marc has…
Alternative History’s Distorted Mirror
Aidan Harte
If the discussion panel on Alternative History (AH) at this year’s Octocon was an exercise in navel gazing, I can only say that the view proved illuminating. Like every other…
Combat in Fantasy – Part Two: Top Ten Tips for Wearing Armour
Danie Ware
Armour. Often the subject of heavily debated book covers. Rule of thumb? The heavier it is, the more protection it offers, but the more it slows you down. You need…
Snake-Sticks and Cheap Tricks: Magic versus Miracle
Brian Staveley
I think one could be forgiven for confusing magic and miracle. If presented with a list of remarkable achievements – walking on water, splitting the moon in half, turning sticks…
Writing Combat In Fantasy – Part One: Top Ten Tips
Writing combat is easy. Writing good combat is harder. Below are ten points–some of them tips, some of them common mistakes–to make sure your fighters are doing/using/hitting what they should…
Exclusive Message for Fantasy-Faction users from Scott Lynch
So, we’ve heard the news that Scott Lynch’s latest novel is out this year (whoo!), but now we’ve managed to track Scott down, drag him to a keyboard and force…