Category: fantasy

• December 11, 2023

  Need a Christmas or Holiday Gift for a teen? I have a great option . . .

  Is that teen a fan of Harry Potter or The Hunger Games? If so, they might well LOVE “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope.” But don’t take my word for it. My nephew said it reminded him of Harry Potter. Reviews on Amazon are great and compare it to The Hunger Games (which I…
• December 1, 2023

  Combining two characters

  Now that book two is with the editor, I’m going through book three, and I’ve decided for the first time to more or less combine two characters. I’ve deleted a character before (sorry, Hal), and I thought at first that that was what I’d be doing here. Nope. I’ve ended up combining two characters instead,…
• November 22, 2023

  I just realized one of my characters is a lot like Cera from “The Land Before Time”

  I loved The Land Before Time as a kid, and I particularly loved Cera–the triceratops character. Yellow was always my favorite color, and not only is Cera golden in hue–I’ll be honest, that’s probably why I originally liked her–but she’s colorful in character. It struck me out of the blue this morning that one of…
• November 17, 2023

  Why I title my chapters

  There are two, pretty quick reasons why I title my chapters. First, I write fantasy, more or less young adult, and for that subgenre of fantasy, lots of writers title their chapters. Secondly, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling titled their chapters. They are responsible for my love of fantasy literature and for showing me how deep,…
• October 31, 2023

  Tuesday Tunes: “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne

  This song was written for and featured in the film version of Christopher Paolini’s “Eragon.” I never saw the movie. I read the book, and liked the story, but I’ll be honest–I thought it was so poorly written that I couldn’t bring myself to continue the series. Despite all that, I have ALWAYS loved this…
• October 25, 2023

  My villain is . . . right?

  I now have two reviews that explicitly mention my villain–certainly my favorite of any of my villains–Zalski Forzythe. He’s the sorcerer who’s killed the royal family of Herezoth and taken over. He’s witty, intelligent, courageous, and . . . intense. He’s also RIGHT, in the sense that he has a deep understanding of the kingdom…
• October 16, 2023

  On first lines

  Before I send book two to my editor, I have three things to do: It doesn’t help that I have a very brief prologue now as well as the start of chapter one. So, basically two first lines. First lines are rough. You want them to be catchy without feeling gimmicky. You want them to…
• October 14, 2023

  The key to a hard magic system

  I LOVE a good hard magic system–one with explicitly outlines rules about magic, what working magic requires, and who can do it. The Harry Potter books are probably the most explicitly detailed hard magic system that a VAST number of people would be familiar with. The magic system in my own novels is more hard…
• October 13, 2023

  What makes a soft magic system work

  A soft magic system is one in which the mechanics of magic and how it works are not explained. It’s a bit intuitive to say that a soft magic system works best when magic is not truly a main focus of the story. But that’s indeed the case. “The Lord of the Rings” is the…
• October 11, 2023

  How much world building is worth it?

  As a writer of fantasy, this is an important question to ask. The answer will vary from series to series and writer to writer. The answer, I think, largely depends upon what your focus is. Tolkien wanted to create a large, lasting mythology. As a result, his entire corpus is world building in a very…