The second book in Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion Sequence, Phoenix in Obsidian, isn’t as good as its predecessor, but still adds to the mythology of the Eternal Champion. This is particularly true with the reemergence of the black sword Stormbringer. Without a doubt, it was the best part of this novel. The story picks up…
To thank readers who followed the blog’s move to my new website, I’m offering everyone who joins my Reader List a FREE ebook of Mava’s Echo: A Short Story of Celtic Myth and Magic. Originally published in Mindflights in 2010, Mava’s Echo is a work of historical fantasy and happens to be the first short…
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today I’m re-posting an article about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began my research for Enoch’s Device. The novel tells the story of two Irish monks who try to prevent the apocalypse at the end…
I’ve been operating Fresh-Scraped Vellum for almost seven years now, and I think it’s time for a change. The ship is packed and ready to go. Since 2013, I’ve owned a self-hosted website at authorjosephfinley.com. My intent then was to move the blog to that site, but I backed off under the belief it would…
This past Saturday I started reading Breaker of Bones, the second novel in David Penny’s Thomas Berrington series. By Sunday, I had devoured the book. It was that good. Breaker of Bones is a gripping medieval mystery that, at times, places its hero in extreme peril at the hands of a truly diabolical villain. I…
As anyone following the blog this year knows, I’m experimenting with writing more short fiction. I haven’t given up on novels by any means, but short fiction will allow me to produce more content at a quicker pace. To this end, I’m also reading more short stories, and the most recent ones brought me back…
This past week I found myself stuck on a short story I’ve been trying to craft, and then I learned the news that Ursula K. Le Guin had died. So I stopped writing, and started reading. I’ve not read as much of Le Guin’s works as I had hoped to at one time, but I…
One of my goals for 2018 is to explore more vintage fantasy, so I’m kicking off the New Year with a review of The Eternal Champion, one of the lesser known novels from British author Michael Moorcock. Michael Moorcock is one of the godfathers of fantasy fiction. He found fame in the 1960s as part…
I was away from the blog for a long time in 2017. In fact, I wrote the fewest posts since 2011 – when I began this blog in the middle of the year! There’s a reason for the paucity of posts, but I resolve this year to do better. What was the reason, you ask?…
I’ve been away from the blog for several weeks trying hard to finish the beta draft of the sequel to Enoch’s Device. In the meantime, however, I caught the premiere episode of Knightfall on History Channel, and wanted to share a few thoughts. I was completely unaware of this new series until I saw an…
As I do each year, I’m re-publishing my post on the very first Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Growing up, I never paid much attention to the origin of Thanksgiving. Other than what I may have learned in elementary school, all I recall knowing was that it was a feast between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans sometime after the Mayflower landed…