I’ve been travelling this week for work, and I’m way behind on blog posts. So for this week, I’m updating one of my first posts on puzzle-like plots.This month on the SFWA Blog author Terry Bisson offers 60 Rules for Short SF and Fantasy. I found Rule #3 particularly interesting: “The SF reader is a gamer…
I have learned a thing or two about gambling this past month. The first lesson is: don’t make a wager with your spouse unless you know with certainty that you can win (seriously, this should be a maxim in life). The second is: don’t bet on the film version of a worldwide fantasy classic if you’re limiting…
My new novel, Enoch’s Device, is now available on Amazon! I have long awaited this day, and I’m grateful to be able to share it with you now. Nearly a thousand years after the birth of Christ, when all Europe fears that the world will soon end, an Irish monk, Brother Ciarán, discovers an ominous warning…
I can finally reveal the cover art for my new novel, Enoch’s Device! The artwork was done by Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics, who was great to work with. The back-cover blurb follows this image of the book’s cover. Nearly a thousand years after the birth of Christ, when all Europe fears that the world will…
The other night, my wife and I made a friendly wager, perhaps a foolish one on my part. She has long been a fan of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series and predicted, rather confidently, that the new Hobbit film would never beat out the latest Twilight movie at the box office. I told her she was…
I recently re-read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit for the first time in probably ten years. Once I got past the older and awkward narrative viewpoint (in Tolkien’s defense, the omniscient point-of-view was in vogue back in 1937, especially for what was considered a children’s book), I was reminded of how rich and wonderful the story…
The Wayward Herald looks forward to the post-NaNoWriMo month of December and revival within the blogosphere on the topics of writing, publishing, and, or course, historical and fantasy fiction. But the end of November 2012 also marks the end to one of the great fantasy book review blog sites around: Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review. Sailing to…
This week I finished reading Devil’s Lair by David Wisehart, a historical fantasy novel that’s part grail quest, and part return to Dante’s Inferno. It’s an engaging read, and my full review follows this image of the book’s cover. Part Grail Quest, Part Return to Dante’s Inferno. The premise of Devil’s Lair is that…
The other day I was looking at the top shelf of my bookshelf and realized it contains a number of beautiful hardcover books, but they’re not necessarily my favorite novels (due, in part, to the fact that I keep my Bernard Cornwell novels together, and every book I own of The Warlord Chronicles are all…
This week, I’m featuring my first ever guest post, a great article by Sci-Fi Bloggers about Patrick Rothfuss’ fantasy series, The Kingkiller Chronicles. Sci-Fi Bloggers is an online magazine covering all things science fiction and fantasy: movies, TV, books, video games, comics and more. It’s well worth reading! The fantasy genre has a hard time fitting in with most…
I have long been a fan of Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat! as an excellent resource on storytelling, and plot in particular. This week, in preparation for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), author Bethany Myers posted an article titled Plot Like A Pro, a creative piece applying Snyder’s 15 elements of story structure to Harry…