Tag: character

Things I want to learn in 2015

I was going to follow up my retrospective 2014 post with another one, but instead I want to look ahead at the things I hope to learn in 2015. Of course, I’m sure that many of the things I’ll learn are things that I couldn’t have foreseen, but it helps to have some direction to… Continue reading Things I want to learn in 2015

What readers want

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what science fiction and fantasy readers want in the books they read. I’m in the middle of writing and publishing a series of novellas and short novels, so it’s definitely on my mind. After publishing twenty books and completing another novella series, I think I have a pretty… Continue reading What readers want

Why I couldn’t finish Gone with the Wind

For the past month or so, I’ve been on a Civil War kick. I watched the movie Gettysburg to celebrate July 4th, read Gods and Generals, wrote a short story about a time traveler at Gettysburg, and have been listening to a lot of Civil War music as I write. One of the books I… Continue reading Why I couldn’t finish Gone with the Wind

Stray by Andrea K. Höst

So I picked up this book on the Kindle Store shortly before boarding the California Zephyr for a cross-country train trip. For those of you not familiar with Amtrak, the California Zephyr runs from Emeryville to Chicago and is one of the most picturesque train routes in the United States, with some of the best… Continue reading Stray by Andrea K. Höst

Ghost King by David Gemmell

Another review of a David Gemmell book?  Yes, because I’m just that much of a fanboy. With the Drenai series finished, I decided to sink my teeth into the Stones of Power series.  This series confuses me, because I’ve read The Jerusalem Man, which was retroactively put in as book three, but that’s a post-apocalyptic… Continue reading Ghost King by David Gemmell

Trope Tuesday: Foolish sibling, responsible sibling

Whenever you’ve got two characters who interact with each other a lot, chances are that one is a foil of the other.  There are a lot of reasons for this, but the big reason is that it helps to highlight certain character traits by providing contrast.  Because the contrast is the important thing, the relationship… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Foolish sibling, responsible sibling

Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin

I was thinking today about George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and the fact that I’ve more or less given up on the series after reading the first book.  A lot of my friends are rabid-at-the-mouth crazy about it, both the books and the TV miniseries, but I’m just not all that into it.… Continue reading Why I don’t like George R.R. Martin

Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

Want a fast and easy way to show that your characters are smart?  Not bookish, necessarily, or nerdy, or even the designated smart guy in the five-man band, but intellectually adept no matter what else their role in the story?  Well, you could indicate that through inordinate loquaciousness, but too much of that tends to… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Smart People Play Chess

Why I love writing novellas

For the first half of this year, almost every project I’ve worked on (with the exception of an unfinished short novel) has been a novella.  It’s not a form I was familiar with when I first started writing, but I’ve come to enjoy it immensely, and look forward to writing much more in the future.… Continue reading Why I love writing novellas