It is with trembling hands that I type: the first draft of book 9, "War Master's Gate" (1), is finished. I'm not going to lie to you, it's been a rough ride. I'm slick with blood up to the elbows, and my normal protests that the story unfolds of its own momentum, with minimal fiddling from me, […]
Apologies for the gap in posting, which is entirely because I'm working on the edits for Air War whilst also trying to get the last few chapters of War Master's Gate down, and is not at all to do with buying Skyrim.
But not on this site — and not kinden stories. I'm proud to announce some new writing that's turning up here and there in the next few months. You may recall my story The Dissipation Club that was published in the collection "Dead but Dreaming 2" — I also submitted a story for a similar collection from Miskatonic […]
OK, I lie. But Javert in the future, anyway. Just been to see In Time and it's a very well done piece of proper SF with some involving action sequences and a tight cast of good actors. It's one of those Big Concept pieces of SF (1), and the basic idea (that in the future time is currency […]
Thieves are back. Possibly they never went away but were just being sneaky. They're a staple of fantasy fiction that goes back to its most influential roots (1), and recently there's been a grand resurgence of books specifically showcasing thief leads. (1) And I'm not qualified to go into the whole mythic archetype businss but, suffice to say, […]
Thieves later, films now. Or: not film. This is just something that I've started noticing, and it's hard to ignore. There's a lot of fuss at the moment about computer games eating into the profits of the film industry — just the same fuss, as MovieBob has pointed out in his Studio System set of articles, as […]
Yes, yes, after hearing Adam Christopher wax lyrical about the importance of regular updates, I swore I'd get at least one entry a week in, and lo! I have missed it. However, there's a good reason. I was all set to do a spot about the return of thieves in fantasy, using Scott Lynch, Douglas Hulick and David Tallerman as examples […]
Keen-eyed readers may have noticed that Heirs of the Blade brings in a number of characters previously seen in the short stories on this site. This is obviously because of my immense skill in foreshadowing and plotting ahead and not at all because several of those characters just wouldn't leave me alone until they got a serious […]
Firstly, thank you to everyone who turned up to the signings at Reading and London. Secondly, I have reached a point in book 9 where I am faced with a phenomenally complicated skirmish between about a dozen named and distinct characters, and below, as an insight into the writer's mind, is my visual aid to help me keep track of it all: […]
Another post! What do I think this is, Twitter? Anyway, the signing mills are grinding somewhat faster these days so this is really an upd Hmm. Just as well this isn't twitter. Can't be brief to save my life (1). Anyway, an update of the last one — so grand Heirs of the Blade tour is now: Friday […]
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