Amazon seems to be on the verge of doing something really clever with its new Kindle Worlds program. It looks as if it has found a genuinely new way of developing, creating and marketing tie-in fiction, and also a method of making fan fiction profitable, not only for Amazon, but for the fans and the creators of the worlds those fans write in. It’s early days yet, of course, and we have not really seen any of the final product but what it appears to be is a system similar to Kindle Direct Publishing which will allow fans to upload their stories and create ebooks set in the worlds of those creators who have agreed to participate in the program. (At the moment there are Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and the Vampire Diaries. Apparently … [Read more...]
Back in the Saddle
Once again weeks have passed without a blog post. I can only blame a particularly nasty flu, compounded by travelling while sick. It put me flat on my back for a couple of weeks and I only really started feeling vaguely normal again this week. But enough snivelling, it’s time to thank Father Nurgle for his gifts and move on. I recently started carrying my Windows laptop into work. There were a number of reasons for this. The trackpad on my MacBook Air has gone on the blink. (I have the ungodly power to ruin trackpads on Apple machines after a year or two. Maybe it’s a mutant ability to sense their weakness and destroy them or perhaps the Machine God picks on me when Nurgle does not—that would make an unpleasant tag team.) I needed … [Read more...]
And The Winner Is…
I have once again been struck down by Nurgle who has visited upon me yet another of his plagues. Overwhelmed by wheezing, sniffling and feverishness I decided to let the Writing Fantasy Heroes contest run another day. I have risen from my sickbed and with the aid of the D&D random die roller, chosen a winner. All of the entries were excellent and I'd like to thank everybody who took part. And now, without further ado, I fumble with the envelope while the orchestra performs a drum roll, and then I reveal that the winner is Damon Richard. Congratulations, sir! … [Read more...]
Writing Fantasy Heroes: Tyrion
It's Writing Fantasy Heroes week here so I thought I would chip in with my two cents worth about one of fantasy heroes I have worked on recently. I’m going to use Tyrion, one of the two main characters in my ongoing High Elf trilogy, as an example. This process of developing Tyrion was a little different from creating a character from scratch, since Tyrion already exists as part of the Warhammer universe. What I’ll be talking about is how I put flesh on his bones and hopefully turned him into a well-rounded and complex character as well as a believable hero. In epic fantasy, the word hero obviously has two meanings. There is the one that we apply universally, an individual who either possesses extraordinary courage or performs … [Read more...]
Writing Fantasy Heroes
Today I am pleased to have a guest post by Jason M Waltz, the publisher of Writing Fantasy Heroes and many other fine works via his company Rogue Blades Entertainment. Jason and I have crossed paths in numerous sword and sorcery forums and and his knowledge of and his sincere love for the genre have always impressed me. I am really happy to have him here talking about his latest project, a book with a stellar lineup of contributors which is certainly worth the attention of the writers among you as well as anyone who is simply interested in how the fantasy genre is written. There will even be a chance to win a copy of the book itself. Anyway, without further ado I'll hand you over to Jason... Howdy all! I want to begin by … [Read more...]
If You Can Push Save On Your Word-Processor You Can Create An Ebook
Some of you may remember me claiming some time ago that pretty soon you would be able to create an ebook by pushing the save button on your word-processor. Little did I know that it was close to possible even as I was writing that. Of course, it depends on what word-processor you use. It would probably be too much to hope that Microsoft would make creating an ebook possible from within Word any time soon. Apple does allow you to create EPUB documents from Pages but to use that you need a Mac. Scrivener makes it easy to create both Kindle files and EPUB files but in order to get your book edited, the chances are your going to have to send it to the editor in a more conventional format and then reimport it into Scrivener which is a lot of … [Read more...]
Nice Review of Stealer of Flesh
There's a very nice review of Stealer of Flesh here by someone who clearly understood what I was attempting. It's attached to a short essay about the structure of fantasy novels which is worth your consideration as well. … [Read more...]
Kormak Omnibus Released
So that’s the first Kormak Omnibus released. It comprises of pretty much everything that has been written so far; the first three novels, the short story Guardian of the Dawn, all my author’s notes for the series and a lovely parchment-style map by Chazz Kellner. I confess this is an experiment with a new format more than anything else. A lot of indie writers have reported having success with omnibus editions and the various Gotrek and Felix and Space Wolf collections Black Library have put out have always been my biggest sellers. The value proposition for the reader is obvious. I am aiming at a roughly three for the cost of two price point and throwing in the rest of the stuff as extras. If you’ve been putting off buying the … [Read more...]
Elric Among the Nazis
Last year Gollancz announced it was going to be making all of Michael Moorcock's genre work available both in print and in ebook form. It was exciting news for me. Moorcock was my gateway drug to genre fantasy more than 40 years ago. I own most of his stuff in paperback but the books are scattered hither and yon about the world and quite frankly you can't beat ebooks for convenience, particularly when you're a long term expat like me. Recently the first books in the new Michael Moorcock Library rolled off the digital presses (or whatever) and I was delighted to note a completely new (to me) cycle of Elric tales called the Moonbeam Roads. Turns out they were not quite new-- Daughter of Dreams looks like it's a retitled version of the The … [Read more...]
For the Age of Wonders Fans Among You
There's a very nice article about the new Age of Wonders game here. I am so looking forward to this game -- a mashup of the old Age of Wonders turn-based grand strategy fantasy gaming and Total War style combat sounds awesome. … [Read more...]
New Cover For Guardian of the Dawn
As you can probably tell, I have been sprucing up the Kormak ebooks recently. Here is the lovely cover that the talented Clarissa Yeo over at bookcoversale.com did for the short story Guardian of the Dawn. If you're interested, you can read the whole story for free here. The Author's Notes are here. … [Read more...]
Welcome Back Game of Thrones
I'm sure I wasn't the only one sitting glued to the box by the return of Tyrion Lannister, Bron, John Snow, Danerys et al last night. I am sure of it because my wife and son were sitting right there with me. Which in itself is an unusual thing these days-- normally our group television experience centres around watching a couple of episodes from a DVD box set like The Wire or Big Bang Theory. Watching a live (you know what I mean-- it sounds better than non-time-shifted) broadcast at the same time as a whole lot of other people – I honestly can't remember when I last did that.It might have been the last World Cup and probably not even then. For any sort of drama—I really can't remember but it was most likely back in the 80s. OK-- my … [Read more...]
New Kormak Covers
Here are the new covers for the first three books in the Kormak series. I think we can all agree they are a gigantic improvement on the ones I designed myself using Powerpoint and stock art. They were created by Clarissa Yeo at bookcoversale.com. I highly recommend Clarissa if you're in the market for a cover for your print or ebook. She is fast, talented, patient and very pleasant to work with as well as reasonably priced. … [Read more...]
A Map Of Kormak’s World
So finally the Kingdoms of the Sun have what all serious/series fantasy worlds seem to need-- a map. This beautiful one was done by Chazz Kellner using Campaign Cartographer 3. (Thanks Chazz!) It's an enormous improvement on the vague sketches and lists of names that I produced when I first started writing the stories. The distances are accurate and I now have a much clearer idea where everything is. It's been a fascinating process watching bits of background from my published books, my notes and my half-completed short stories take shape. I'll be adding this map to the latest version of the ebooks. Hopefully, there will be an update for those of you who have already bought them. Of course, there are a few words of caution. Like all … [Read more...]
Standard Bearer, Kuala Lumpur
In keeping with what is fast becoming a proud tradition of this blog, here are some pictures from the signing I did at the Standard Bearer, Kuala Lumpur a month or two ago. As ever there are some establishing shots of KL taken on my phone's camera, then pictures taken by other folks who were kind enough to send them along. This was a most excellent signing and I would like to thank Wolf and Zen and Dzirhan and Norman and Jason and Jar Jar as well as those people whose names I have unfortunately forgotten for showing up and listening to me rant on the subject of writing, games and anything else that entered my mind. I'd particularly like to thank Wolf for taking me to see the Thaipusam Chariot depart for the Batu Caves (third picture … [Read more...]
